2016-7: Blackburn B team entered the tin pot competition
2017-8 Blackburn's first team will have to play other B teams.
Joke of a tournament. Destroying lower league football.
Come on, it's nowhere near important enough to be "destroying lower league football." Want to know who destroyed Blackburn? Their owners, and a complete lack of oversight of ownership responsibility by the Premier League and FA. I could even make the case that Blackburn, not particularly huge club (though a historic one) have been artificially inflated for years by the expenditure of wealthy owners, then deficit spending.
The introduction of B teams into English league football. I think it's a huge issue.
2016-7: Blackburn B team entered the tin pot competition
2017-8 Blackburn's first team will have to play other B teams.
Joke of a tournament. Destroying lower league football.
Come on, it's nowhere near important enough to be "destroying lower league football." Want to know who destroyed Blackburn? Their owners, and a complete lack of oversight of ownership responsibility by the Premier League and FA. I could even make the case that Blackburn, not particularly huge club (though a historic one) have been artificially inflated for years by the expenditure of wealthy owners, then deficit spending.
The introduction of B teams into English league football. I think it's a huge issue.
Totally agree. Unless there is a major rethink in the way English football is being run I can see a situation in 10 or 15 years where the premier league uses the football league's as little more than feeder clubs with no chance of progressing
2016-7: Blackburn B team entered the tin pot competition
2017-8 Blackburn's first team will have to play other B teams.
Joke of a tournament. Destroying lower league football.
Come on, it's nowhere near important enough to be "destroying lower league football." Want to know who destroyed Blackburn? Their owners, and a complete lack of oversight of ownership responsibility by the Premier League and FA. I could even make the case that Blackburn, not particularly huge club (though a historic one) have been artificially inflated for years by the expenditure of wealthy owners, then deficit spending.
The introduction of B teams into English league football. I think it's a huge issue.
Totally agree. Unless there is a major rethink in the way English football is being run I can see a situation in 10 or 15 years where the premier league uses the football league's as little more than feeder clubs with no chance of progressing
It's introducing B teams into a competition which few, if any, take all that seriously. This is a very far cry from introducing them into the league structure. Now, is there a risk of that? Potentially. But there was a risk of it before this Mickey Mouse cup and there would still be that risk if they reverted to the old format.
At the end of the day, this will still be ignored by the fans until the later stages, and I can't imagine most of the players will be that thrilled by the prospect of playing an U23 team anyway so will go through the motions to save themselves for more important league matches
Having stolen our best youngsters using their category 1 status, they now need some competitions to play them in and more importantly, they need them to play against at least some 1st team players to evaluate them.
If they stopped stealing them and paid a decent transfer fee to clubs for players they wanted, the money awash in the Premiership would filter down to clubs naturally. They are just scared of losing the next Wayne Rooney, hence the huge academies they all now have and the high jacking of this competition.
Greedy bastards, led by a greedy bastard. I spit on them and this competition.
I do still think they are testing the waters for the introduction of B teams into the pyramid. The fact that they are trying to pass this off as it being a good opportunity for young english players at premier league clubs getting vital experience is laughable.
The thing that worries me is how easily the majority of FL clubs seem to have rolled over when offered a little bit of premier league money (20k per match won).
What if they get football league clubs to vote for the introduction of U23 teams into the pyramid and offer them £1m each per season if they take it. I feel like they will roll over just easily.
Fans need more of a say and I think government regulation might be the only way to achieve that because we're being ignored left, right and centre at the moment.
Says we voted against the change... Does that mean we wanted to keep the competition as it was last season or does it mean we wanted the competition to be changed back to the original format?
there was no option to vote to keep it the same as last season. if we voted against then we either wanted a straight knockout comp or to abolish it altogether
Don't think it should be reserve sides from higer leagues. with the format it would be better to put in the two relegated side from the EFL (Orient and Hartlepool) along with the top 12 sides from National League who didn't go up.
does anyone know when the draw takes place so I can schedule my annual bath for one of those nights?
You don't have to worry about that. After the general election, baths will only be available on a triennial basis. (If Theresa wins because you won't be able to afford water or if Jeremy wins the water companies will be nationalised and all the water workers will be on permanent strike.)
I don't see any problem with having the U23 sides. It's a well established fact that people want to watch the Premiership stars of the future. This is exactly what true fans want to see and they'll flock to it... oh.
The day Charlton's first team lose to Palace or Millwall U23's in a recordable fixture is the day I give up on football forever. I fear that day is moving ever closer.
Charlton Athletic Crawley Town Portsmouth Brighton & Hove Albion Colchester United Gillingham Colchester West Ham United Bristol Rovers Swindon Town Wycombe Wanderers Reading Exeter City Plymouth Argyle Yeovil Town Southampton Cheltenham Town Forest Green Rovers Newport County Swansea AFC Wimbledon Barnet Luton Town Fulham Milton Keynes Dons Oxford United Stevenage Chelsea Cambridge United Northampton Town Peterborough United Tottenham
I think that's how they'll split up the academy teams, in italics
Would make no sense to have a random draw after regonalising the rest of the draw, imagine Swansea in the Gillingham group or West Ham in the Exeter group
Would make no sense to have a random draw after regonalising the rest of the draw, imagine Swansea in the Gillingham group or West Ham in the Exeter group
It's not completely random, the other team in our group will be one of Brighton, Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Tottenham or West Ham.
Would make no sense to have a random draw after regonalising the rest of the draw, imagine Swansea in the Gillingham group or West Ham in the Exeter group
It's not completely random, the other team in our group will be one of Brighton, Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Tottenham or West Ham.
Obviously, I meant that the rest of the draw is heavily regionalised, so it would make more sense to merely allocate each academy team to a group bases on their location. Hence me putting Swansea with Newport, Brighton with Crawley and Southampton with Exeter
Comments
If they stopped stealing them and paid a decent transfer fee to clubs for players they wanted, the money awash in the Premiership would filter down to clubs naturally. They are just scared of losing the next Wayne Rooney, hence the huge academies they all now have and the high jacking of this competition.
Greedy bastards, led by a greedy bastard. I spit on them and this competition.
(Unless we get to Wembly obviously).
The thing that worries me is how easily the majority of FL clubs seem to have rolled over when offered a little bit of premier league money (20k per match won).
What if they get football league clubs to vote for the introduction of U23 teams into the pyramid and offer them £1m each per season if they take it. I feel like they will roll over just easily.
Fans need more of a say and I think government regulation might be the only way to achieve that because we're being ignored left, right and centre at the moment.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40455944
https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/news/2017/july/checkatrade-trophy-blues-to-face-charlton--crawley/
Category 1 club will be out of Brighton, Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Tottenham or West Ham.
But yeah off the top of my head Crawley and Gillingham are our two closest teams but to have Portsmouth???
Colchester United Gillingham Colchester West Ham United
Bristol Rovers Swindon Town Wycombe Wanderers Reading
Exeter City Plymouth Argyle Yeovil Town Southampton
Cheltenham Town Forest Green Rovers Newport County Swansea
AFC Wimbledon Barnet Luton Town Fulham
Milton Keynes Dons Oxford United Stevenage Chelsea
Cambridge United Northampton Town Peterborough United Tottenham
I think that's how they'll split up the academy teams, in italics
Which means what exactly? Are they going to stop fining teams for fielding weakened sides, even if in some cases, that team actually won the game?