Has anyone read it? I've just had a glance and some of the conclusions they've come to seem so far from practical that it's untrue...although some points are pertinent. They've eventually realised that there's not enough English players playing in the top leagues in Europe, including the Premier League, and something needs to be done about it. However once again they've decided that only Premier League clubs are able to nurture talent...because they have more resources. Their plan to improve this is to introduce B teams into the football pyramid up to League 1, and to introduce a new League 3. It's not hard to see that the top of League 1 is going to dominated by Chelsea B, Arsenal B etc...Ignoring the fact that they'll kill lower league professional football, can they not see that the over-use of the loan system means that teams like Chelsea/Arsenal/Man Utd can just hoover up any promising talent on daft wages, before loaning them out to us with an over-inflated ego, a fat bank balance and lack of any real world experience? That pushes up the wage demands of average goal-scoring strikers for teams like us, whilst all of the promising talent sits on their arse in reserve teams. Also, by these big clubs taking on all of the genuine talent they're actually producing clones with no genuine USP. If they were allowed to develop some personality in the lower leagues they might actually have an ounce of mental resilience by the time they reach the top. Players like Ian Wright don't get produced in academies, but how much do England need someone like him now? For English football to improve I think we need to do a few things: 1. Ban the loan system, or severely restrict it - mainly to discourage Premier League clubs from taking gambles on players who've barely played a professional game and inflated the wages for the rest of the teams in the country. 2. Improve facilities at grassroots level by actually giving well-run clubs genuine cash and support to build and maintain their OWN facilities. 3. Set a salary cap for footballers who haven't played over 50 professional games. This will encourage players to filter down the pyramid and actually learn their trade before making the jump into a big club with no prospects of game time.
I don't necessarily agree that B teams should be introduced into the football league, although I don't think you'd necessarily have the top 4 premier league sides dominating the lower leagues should this happen. Look at Barcelona and Real Madrid's 'B' teams - never dominated the second tier (the highest league they can go to) and have moved between the 2nd and 4th tiers over the years. For example say Chelsea had a B team in League 2 - they might have had Demba Ba up front for a load of games, but half the team would still be made up of kids who don't necessarily have bright futures although they would get more exposure and the good ones would get noticed. A team like Man City could be a worry as they probably have 3 starting XI's that could do well in the Premier League and letting their reserves loose in the football league could be a bit of a farce. I suppose they could make it so B Teams could only field players up to a certain age with a limit on the number of non-British players. They'd also have to start a long way down the pyramid, wouldn't be fair on the teams who have risen up to the conference from nowhere with a chance to get into the FL, or on traditional league teams like Stockport who are fighting to get back. It won't happen anyway, don't worry.
What they're trying to do is increase the number of English players while not ruining the big clubs' cosy party whereby they're allowed to employ anyone who looks like they're going to be half a player ten years down the line and hold them in a squad of 50 or 60 whilst buying big money foreigners to play in their first team matches. The upshot of this protection of the Premier League is that the lower league clubs (including us now!) are getting trampled all over. As if this weren't insulting enough, they say "As is the case with the introduction of all radical proposals, we anticipate there will be some who will instinctively consider them too far-reaching or too difficult to deliver", effectively cutting off debate by telling anyone who doesn't agree with them that they just don't understand it, or are stuck in the dark ages. The English football league is far better supported than its continental equivalents - at least in part this has to be because it's filled with real clubs with real history who are supported by real fans. I don't want my team to be playing against a bunch of kids every week, because the well-helled clubs two divisions up want to keep all the best talent for themselves. It's insulting to the fans and it's insulting to our players. The only thing worse than it would be to end up as a feeder club to some mid table Premiership side, standing or falling on the strength of their kids rather than a team of players employed by and (hopefully) invested in Barnsley. They talk about "a significant financial settlement" - bribery, essentially. Whatever they offer will be too high a price to pay for the loss of self-respect (and, when you think about it, probably gate receipts) that this would cause. Just imagine having to beat Sunderland 'B' on the last day of the season to grab that last playoff place, when they're not even allowed to be promoted. Imagine the 7th, 8th and 12th best teams in the league getting promoted because the top six places in League 1 look identical to the top six in the Premiership with a bunch of 'B's after them. What a load of nonsense. tl;dr: They can **** right off. Bunch of tossers.
What's the point? If all the 'B' teams end up going as high as they can it will just become a Premier Reserve League - why not just have one of them if there isn't one now. Also, how will it benefit the National team. Are English players from Chelsea, Man City etc really going to develop playing against teams like Fleetwood and York?
That all seems perfectly sane. The problem certainly isn't Premiership teams, it's all the lower league teams full of foreign players.
There is a premier reserve league *now*. Its called the professional development league and most top clubs having U21 teams playing in it - including us.
Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct Basically the Prem teams want B teams to utilise the obscene numbers of players in their squads, and to ensure no oiks from below crash their party. The sooner the Premierhip collapses the better.
But what will happen to this league if this plan is implemented? The BBC states that "The B team squads would require 20 out of 25 players to qualify for the home-grown rule and no non-EU players would be allowed. Nineteen players would have to be under 21." ISn't this the same as the development teams? Will this development league contintue without the teams who've created 'B' teams? How will that impact on our development squad if they aren't playing against the better players in that age group? Will the top teams remain in this league and have a 'B' team, meaning they can have an even greater number of young players signed to the club?
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct Indeed. The essential problem is that English players don't get enough game time, and this (in my analysis) is because the big teams hoard players. Because the FA is incapable of stopping (or disinclined to stop) the big teams from hoarding players, they're destroying over a century of tradition and history in order to allow them to carry on doing it in a more efficient way. Love Barnsley, hate football, etc, etc...
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct It started when they changed the rules on Academies and compensation - they can basically take who they want, from where they want for what they want, and now they want more opportunity to create space for even bigger squads. The key is to distribute TV money more fairly, but will never happen
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct Premiership is a gravy train and the FA won't interrupt that in any way to benefit the national side or anything else. Too many people with noses in the trough. Every time a journo uncovers an agent bunging a manager it gets hushed up and seems to go nowhere. Fair play or encouraging domestic talent are nowhere near as important as the hundreds of millions (billions) that are now sloshing around the premier league. Every time a world cup comes round there are two consistent facts: 1) We have a national team who have played less friendly matches and spent less time training together than other nations who seriously aspire to win the competition. 2) We either pick a squad that is carrying injuries OR we can't select our best players because they are injured. Both of these factors are significantly affected by fixture congestion and players having to play champions league, league league cup, and FA Cup football - money money money. Add to this the increased number of foreign players at our top clubs, minus the decrease in British talent capable of playing for top foreign teams, and we're in ever decreasing circles. But for goodness sake, don't interrupt the Premiership cash machine. It's absolutely obscene, it's detrimental to the performance of the national team, it has undermined grass roots football and local lower league support. Ultimately the hyper inflation on wages and transfer fees has to end. I remember when Linekar was at Barca he was worth about one or two million. I remember an issue of Shoot magazine which said that Diego Maradona and Ruud Gullit were worth ten million (around 1988) - I thought it was ridiculous and hysterical. What would these players change hands for now?l So the backdraft is enough to ruin clubs like Barnsley. Bottom line, the FA don't give a ****.
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct They are saying these premiership b teams can't get promoted. What if the A team gets relegated or are the going to change the rules to try to prevent this ?
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct If these proposals get through...sorry, when these proposals get through, because when have we known the big clubs not to get their way, it is the beginning of the end of the football league. Simple as that. We'll eventually end up with 32 'super clubs' across 2 Premier League divisions and a part-time league. It's about time that proper football fans voted with their feet and stopped attending games featuring these Premiership giants. Certainly if the B teams enter the league we need to boycott their games. It won't change things, as gate money is nothing to the big clubs, but it might just embarrass them on the world stage and show them to be the pathetic money grabbing tw@ts that they are. My generation used to hope that our team might one day reach the first division or win the cup. The new generation of football fan instead simply pray for a rich arab to buy their club. When teams fail, like Man United have this season, we don't hear of the disappointment at not winning anything, but instead hear how much money it has cost them. Makes me want to turn my back on the sport. And over the coming years many people will. But as long as the big 6 or 7 clubs can keep expanding who cares eh? We've just been relegated and many of us are happy about it, because of the financial lopsidedness of the Championship and because we don't like the implications of what you need to do to be successful there. Tells you everything doesn't it.
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct In Spain and Portugal, the B teams cannot be in the same division as the A teams. So both are relegated if the A team is relegated to the division the B team is in.
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct But these clubs will be "Premiership B teams". That club is no longer up there so should the b team be dismantled?. A few years ago Man City were in the third tier. They are now one of the countrys top sides. Will any other clubs enjoying such success in future years be invited to have a b team? If so will they stick at 10 teams and chuck one out ? If this happens will the club be financially compensated? It just seems to be making the top echelons of football more of a closed shop than it is at present.
Re: Didn't consult with the FSF or Supporter's Direct I really hate the English FA and modern club football sometimes. It's so sad that beyond the polished image and the shining stars of the Premier League, there's a rotten core that is slowly killing the game. Unless the top clubs in Europe bugger off and start their own Super Duper Mega Champions League and/or they introduce some kind of a salary cap, I think that English football is f*cked for good. For as long as English football is in such a **** state, and the English FA comes up with such **** ideas, I truly hope that England will never win anything. Sorry guys. P.S. England and the English FA aren't the only ones to blame of course, but because English football is the only that I really care about (together with Finnish football of course) it's hard for me to accept crap like this.
Just heard about it on radio 1, am I right in hearing that all teams outside of the premier league are to be banned from using players outside the EU? Where does that leave players already playing outside the premier league who are from outside the EU, such as Oguchi Onyewu who plays for Wednesday? I don't think they've fully thought of the implications of the things they're trying to stipulate. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
