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Barcelona 2nd team are in fact in the Seconda Division which is our Championship level. Worse than that they are in the playoff positions !!! Of course they will not be allowed promotion as two teams from the same club can not compete in the same division. But you can see how distorting this is for other teams. Real Madrid also have a team in the Seconda Division but look likely to be relegated which will mean that the Real Madrid 3rd team that play in the regionalised 3rd division will also be relegated again under the Rule of not having two teams in the same Division . There are also something like 15 other teams with second teams in the 3rd tier of Spanish football so is no wonder no one watches 3rd tier in Spain is is so belittled by this stupid 2nd team system.
I really do think if this is forced upon us by that pillock Dyke and bum chums then football be be finished for us.

Would i be more interested in watching Torquay v Man Utd B than Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday night in November. Yes and I bet a larger population of Torbay than currently do, would as well.

but Numpte, it is far more likely that MU B would be playing Spurs B & Torquay will have ceased to exist; think how much money the parent clubs can pour into their B sides, compared with how little we have...........

Read the report. Its coming.....and the relatively small population that objects and watches lower league football wont make a jot of difference. Dont get me wrong, i'm a torquay boy and a fan, also a grassroots coach and see that a step change needs to occur. I like watching the premier league but dislike watching only 2 or 3 english players performing.

I'd like to think those in charge of our clubs would fight to save the Football League and proud histories spanning over a century. Equally, tens of thousands of football fans will surely be able to muster enough of a protest to stop this plan coming into fruition.

We can all see money is the principal motivation behind this, and capping the number of foreign players is the logical alternative the FA simply refuses to acknowledge. It's clear the Premier League brand would suffer without top imports, but a quick glance at any Premier League and Championship squad list would show how mediocre some signings from abroad are.

That said, I'm sure the combined intellect of committee members Danny Mills and Rio Ferdinand will see English club and international football flourish to unprecedented levels...

It will be interesting to see how the 10 Conference sides are selected. Will it merely be on finishing position, so it could be Braintree Town? Or will it be the top 10 'biggest clubs' of which we would surely be one.

I think playing the reserve team of Liverpool/Manchester United would attract more fans to Plainmoor than playing Southport but it is the integrity of the competition that is being undermined by this move. The uproar when Milton Keynes essentially cheated the system by suddenly acquiring a football league team, rather than working their way up the pyramid. This is essentially what these ten sides would be doing.

The Football League has heritage and history of football teams representing towns and cities up and down the country, with the smallest team in the land, having a pathway (albeit unlikely) from the park to the Premiership, should they manage it. To just plonk 10 teams in the midst of this just goes against our sporting instincts.

The fluidity of the league system will become farcical with relegation/promotion/play-offs becoming nonsensical if teams cannot get promoted or are forced to be relegated. Games against the B teams will be rendered meaningless should they get to within a division of the parent club and they can't get promoted.

I am not convinced this will make the slightest bit of difference to the development of English players anyway. Isn't playing at League 1 or 2 what happens anyway, when they are sent out on loan?

It just seems like one of those mad ideas, like banning away fans, enlarging goals etc, that occasionally come along, and then die a death. Part of me cannot see it happening anyway.

numpte wrote:Read the report. Its coming.....and the relatively small population that objects and watches lower league football wont make a jot of difference. Dont get me wrong, i'm a torquay boy and a fan, also a grassroots coach and see that a step change needs to occur. I like watching the premier league but dislike watching only 2 or 3 english players performing.

This is not the solution to it. A simple solution would just be restrict the amount of foreign players in the prem, e.g. have a higher minimum limit of English players in the starting Xi/match day squad.

"Relatively small population that objects"

I guarantee you a large proportion of the population of football fans will object.

Ok so if the bring in 10 premiership reserve teams and have for arguments sake 2 teams per season being promoted , chances are that for the next 5 years it's unlikely that any of the other ( non premiership b teams ) teams will get anywhere near the next league ... Then what will happen if another group of premiership reserve teams want a piece of this cake ?
You could seriously see those either on the wrong side of this divide or those relegated to this league not getting out of it for a considerable time because of this..

how do people feel about that thought playing in the same league with no possibility of advancement ? What sort I player do you think that would attract ? So the thought of playing Man city / Utd B team starts to pale a lot to me ..

Its clear that although it may start as a 10/10 split, prem teams will pour money into their teams below 'league 3' untill they're all in there, making it impossible for league teams to get out of the conference!

I like the idea of clubs partnering up to create it easier to loan these players giving them playing time but it doesn't have to be at the sacrifice of the football pyramid! Nowhere else in the world do you get crowds into the 1000 into the 4th,5th and 6th tiers!!!

this can't be allowed to happen!

Stupid idea by out of touch administrators.
Will ruin the Football League & pyramid for little if any benefit to England team.
Why not just bring back the Football Combination so reserve teams from Premier League teams can play each other - surely more useful for the players than playing in the 5th division.

I really don't see this as a great idea, but I can' get my head around, exactly, what is being proposed. Any of you good folk, out there, able to explain the concept. Ta :-o :S

The proposal is to introduce a new League sitting between the Conference and League 2 with 10 Conference clubs and ten Premiership Club B teams (their reserves, with a focus on English youth players). These B teams could be promoted up to League 1, but not beyond. This is all about protecting Premiership sides in their bid to keep the cream of English youth but never actually play them in their first teams, as the first team spaces are reserved primarily for foreigners. Dyke is also proposing to ban non EU players from all leagues, except of course the Premiership.

This would be a disaster for clubs like Torquay, and most clubs in League 1, 2 and the Conference.

Dyke allegedly wants to improve prospects for English players. It might be simpler to require Premiership teams to field 6 or 7 English players in each side, but this might break EU rules. What the FA could definitely do is ban non EU players from the Premiership, but they won't of course have that.

This is about greed, nothing else.

Thanks Gullin. That's clear in my head now.

What a truly awful idea this is. I remember the Chelsea youth team, playing in a pre season maybe 5/6 years ago. They ripped TUFC to pieces, so if that is going to be the standard of football in this "New League" then what chance would any of the "Normal" teams have of getting promoted or even competing on a "level" playing field. Surley the better idea is to limit the number of foreign players that the clubs can have in their squad. Bloody premiersip. I'm sick of it.

I was listening to the arguments on Five Live last night. The main problem they seem to want to address is the dwindling numbers of English players in the Premier League. So I am really at a loss to see why we are being punished for the Premier League's lack of national loyalty.
The answer to this 'problem' seems simple to me. The current 'home-grown' rule is not helping, in fact I think it's making matters worse. What they need to do is scrap the home-grown rules and introduce a new rule to say each match-day squad of 18 has to have a minimum number of players eligible to play for England. The could start with three next season and increase it year on year until they have a minimum of 9 English players in the match day squad of 18. Suddenly the Premier League has 50% English players, problem solved!

Apparently Chelsea have had 30 players out on loan this season, so on top of their first team squad and all the players in their youth teams they have another 30 surplus players! How can they not see that this is part of the problem. They need to stop the big clubs hoovering up all the remotely good potential talent from around the world.
As Steve Claridge pointed out (I was agreeing with him for only the 2nd time ever!) Whether Chelsea send players on loan to a League Two club or have them playing for Chelsea B in League Two or Three, they are still not going to be ready for the first team playing in the Premier League and Europe.
These clubs need to concentrate on smaller squads and putting all their efforts in to developing the best of the best. Leave the rest of the potentially good players at their respective lower league clubs, if they are good enough they will soon rise to the top anyway.
I still say that John Bostock could be playing regular Premier League football now, maybe even with an England cap or two had he not left Palace for Spurs, spent five years there on loan at five different clubs only to be released having never made a first team appearance.