The FA have introduced a new plan for English football. There are other aspects to it, but the main talking point is putting Premier League sides' reserves in what's now League 1. They believe that this emulates the pyramid of other country's systems and would benefit the national side and the game overall. I think that they're full of **** and that it's an elitist move which only benefits those right at the top. Here's a link to the overall proposal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27327502 It's just another move to satisfy the money men and is completely disrespectful to clubs in the lower divisions, some of whom have a ton of history and a great following. Disgraceful stuff, in my opinion.
The idea that having B-teams in the lower leagues boosting the England team is laughable, for the simple reason a lot of teams' developmental squads have various non-English prospects within them, for example... Spurs: Milos Veljkovic (Serbia), Tomislav Gomelt (Croatia), Souleymane Coulibaly (Ivory Coast), Christian Ceballos (Spain), Ruben Lameiras (Portugal), Kenneth McEvoy (Ireland), Giancarlo Gallifuoco (Australia), Lawrence Vigouroux (Chile), Laste Dombaxe (Angola), Bongani Khumalo (South Africa) Arsenal: four Spaniards, two Germans, two Ghanaians, and one each from Macedonia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina Man City: six Ghanaians(!), two French, and one each from Wales, Portigal, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Holland, Slovakia and Norway Chelsea: three Croats, two Scots, two Belgians, two Ghanaians, and one each from Denmark, Tanzania, France, Sweden, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Chile, Mexico, Slovakia, Uruguay and Columbia Man Utd: two Belgians, two Italians, two Welsh, and one each from Scotland and Northern Ireland Liverpool: three Portuguese, two Spaniards, two Germans, two Welsh, and one each from Scotland, Turkey, Australia, Czech Republic, Hungary, USA, Sweden, Bulgaria and Bosnia Fulham: two Swedes, two Germans, two Irish, and one each from Holland, France, Denmark, Finland, Scotland, Belgium, Wales, Israel and Australia Villa: three Irish, and one each from Switzerland, Hungary and Saint Lucia
It is an interesting proposal. They wouldn't be put in League One to begin with though. The proposal suggests a division between the League 2 and the Conference with 10 Premier League B teams and 10 from the Conference taking part. Clearly the proposals are going to annoy the clubs in the lower tiers and rightfully so, but I can see some sense in it if it is done properly. For instance, I can't see the logic of just giving 20 Premier League clubs a B team to run. As without being disrespectful you could have a club like Blackpool being given a B team if they happened to be in the Premier League that particular season. So a team with limited finances, possibly a limited youth set up could be lumbered with a B team. It would be a total waste of time. It would make more sense to 'award' B teams to a limited number of clubs like Southampton who have shown a commitment to bringing through young English players. Football League clubs would probably be far happier to see maybe six B teams sides entering at the lower tiers rather than forcing through 20 B sides.
There is a big swell of support against the idea from non-league fans and the conference are fighting it as well,it's a stupid idea from clueless people,have a reserve team league but keep it separate couple of divisions with promotion and relegation,but no entry to the league,killing non-league teams of one day maybe doing a Wimbledon.if Dyke's idea is taken up,it would kill the dreams as the non-league could'nt,compete,as for helping England,most P/L reserve teams are full of foreign players anyway.Petition against it already signed
Ridiculous idea. The third tier in many countries may be full of part timers or amateurs playing in front of 200 people - and may benefit from more competition/interest, but our third tier regularly has a spattering of fallen giants getting 20,000+ attendances. Southampton were there a couple of years ago, Wolves & Sheff Utd this, ex-European Champions Nottm Forest recently etc etc. Even the smaller clubs get 5-10,000 gates and there are many who have played in the top flight recently (Oldham, Swindon etc). To tinker with this strong pyramid structure in favour of the leading PL clubs again would be out or order.
One interesting comment made by a caller to bbc phone in, was that in England it costs near to £5 grand to become a licensed coach while in Spain it costs near to £500, facts I would need to look up on but as there are a severe lack of licensed coaches in this country compared to other top nations (like Spain) then that should be looked at first, start by creating a better program for people to become qualified coaches at the grass root level and cut down the costs for people as most coaches who train kids do it for a passion and come from lower class backgrounds, and can't afford to be paying their way through expensive courses. Create a national football centre run by people like Hoddle and Keegan, which would be the type of experience to inspire a new generation of exciting talent rather then just coming up with this nonsense about a B Team league, which will only result in the odd player coming through by chance and only increase the numbers of English talent by default, rather then quality over quantity.
"Create a national football centre run by people like Hoddle" Hoddle for head of the Spurs Academy. Let the FA get someone else for their place.
