I've some Spanish mates and they are genuinely fascinated by the 'big clubs' and large following in our lower leagues, 20k crowds in the 3rd tier ...they're even impressed by 4k. They're really hellous A Bristol City fan mentioned this guy (as being the most incomplete player he'd seen) on the match thread - if you notice in his wiki pic he's playing a reverse game... please log in to view this image there's no tradition or passion for reserve team footie
Football fans from abroad don't realise how big the football league actually is. It's pretty amazing that we can sell out twice before Christmas or that the Sheffield derby in League 1 can fill Bramall Lane and attract 12,000 more to watch a video-link at Hillsborough. No magic watching reserve teams with no fans. It's an interesting concept, but not one that would be popular with the fans.
Saint Greg I think this suggestion misses the point with regard to what football is actually about in this country. Over the last few months I've seen a number of articles in "WSC" which have all commented on the establishment of teams which reflect local loyalties. One of these articles concerned clubs in Brussels whilst another looked at the situation in Georgia. In both instances, but for different reasons, there seemed to be a degree of "fan dis-orientation" insofar that the teams were a bit artificial and where the league didn't mean so much. The great thing about English and Scottish football is the heritage of the clubs. Fans can identify themselves with teams all of which have their unique personality and culture. Having the Championship filled with the Premiership's second string will be meaningless and would make a mockery of promotion and relegation. If football went down this route, no doubt Man City reserves would be top of the Championsip. I think that the league should not be tinkered with in this fashion other than allowing the better teams in the Blue Square Premiership to get promoted to the fourth teir of the professional game. Anyway, I think that the increasing price of players will eventually lead to Premiership reserve players performing at a lower level by default with youngsters increasingly being sent out on loan. I think this rather obviates following the unwelcome Spanish root.
Saint Greg - my answer to the question is NO. Ian Thurman - thank you for saving my fingers from tippy-tapping an reasoned, sensible explaination!
As said above and the Spanish observations, my Portuguese brother in law who is incredibly passionate (to say the least) cannot accept that the Championship is the fourth most watched league in Europe (behind PL, La Liga and German Bundesliga top division.) When shown the figures even he cannot believe that the Portuguese Top flight is behind the Championship (He is a Sporting fan) however numbers do not lie and both showing these figures plus showing that Sporting do get large crowds for 3 or 4 matches a season the rest of the season they get L2 crowds (3-4k) Indeed when I took him to see a Lincoln v Celtic reserves friendly he was amazed there were 10,000 there. He didn't expect there to be that many at Lincoln if it were the Celtic first team let alone if it were a competitive match. There are a couple of teams in the Portuguese top flight that have grounds of similar size to somewhere like Scarborough's MNcCain stadium (6k ish) You would struggle to find grounds that small in the top 4 divisions of England, indeed I would suggest not too many attendances that low. This answers the question. If Spain had the teams with followings like the L2, BSP etc there would be no reserve teams in the league.
