FA chairman Greg Dyke’s proposed plan to help boost English football by increasing the level of English players in the Premier League, will do nothing but tear apart the football league.
Dyke’s proposed plan is to create a new tier in English
football between League Two and the Conference. This tier will be named ‘League
Three’ and will be made up of 10 Premier League B teams and 10 Conference
sides. B teams would be able to be promoted up until League One but will be
barred from domestic cup competitions. Most of these B teams would have 20
players from the squad qualifying for the home grown rule and 19 would be under
21.
The whole idea of this extremely controversial idea is to
increase the ability level of youngsters who are unable to play first team
football in the Premier League, by getting them game time in competitive Football
League matches. The first obvious problem is this is exactly what the loan
system does. Young English players who find themselves out of the picture in
the Premier League, sign for Football League clubs helping them to get game
time and competitive football. The most recent example of this working is
Chelsea’s Patrick Bamford who scored nearly 30 goals playing on loan at MK Dons
and Derby this season. With this system clearly working for many years, why fix
it if it isn’t broken?
The main issue with this proposal is the damage it will have
on the Football League. First of all, Conference sides will find it much harder
to play in the Football League, which is extremely unfair on clubs with limited
resources whose only dream is to play in the top 4 leagues. And with this
introduction of B teams in ‘League 3’, Dyke clearly has not thought about the
consequences this could lead to in the coming years. Potentially, in 3 or 4
years time League One could be made up of these 10 B teams who could all finish
in the top 10 and because they are not allowed to be promoted to the
Championship, we could find ourselves in the situation where clubs all the way
down to 16th would be getting promoted and be in the play-off picture. That in
itself is a reason why this ludicrous idea will surely never work and do
nothing but destroy the heart and fabric of the English game.
With these squads being made up of mostly under 21 players,
these players are going to find it hard to develop their game. 21 years olds
are not really going to learn much playing with each other, which is why the
old reserve league system and the loan system are perfect ways in which young
English players can learn and improve their skills. The reserve leagues where
more experienced players who find themselves on the fringes of the first team
would be playing reserve football, along with the youngsters meaning they are
able to learn from playing alongside quality, older players. The B league is
just a reserve League anyway, but put into the Football League system.
The loan system is a perfect way for youngsters to play in
the Football League without this frankly stupid idea from a man who clearly
does not know what he is doing.
