B teams in English lower leagues?

Heard it on the radio today and it has yet to be reported. Originally the idea was from Mourinho, and has now been backed from Wenger.

Not sure that I have ever liked the idea. Is employed in Spain and France of course, where I always find it a bit of a dissrespect to the smaller teams ie: playing at training grounds without proper supporters etc.

A bit disrespectful also that Mourinho used the phrase "A Chelsea teams should be PLACED in the Championshop as it would be good for the Chelsea lesser players and the rest of the Championship players" A bit arrogant without respect for lesser teams I feel? So an extra teams should be relegated to make way for his B team? Anyway, enough Mourinho bashing.

I think it would be hard to work. I mean, where would you start the B teams.... how far down the football league ladder would you go?

Yeah, the Football League chairman or something made some angry comments about this today...he wasn't happy at all and basically said the same things about them being forced to relegate a team into the conference to make way for Chelsea's reserves.

IMO this won't ever happen, you can see the merit in the idea and where Mourinho is coming from, but the rest of the league won't agree.

Have B teams always been evident in Spain and France? Or were they put in after the original leagues were created? Interesting to see how they were fed into the systems?

Yeah even I don't know that tbh.

I am sure LSR will he seems to have a never ending knowledge of Spanish football! I'll see if I can find something through Marca etc....

Hmmm, I just looked in Marca's Archivo for the 2002-2003 season, and there were no B teams there.

Certainly know that the B teams go back as far as 1990ish. Castilla were still in the segunda then. I don't think England could pull it off. It would have been easier in Spain as they are used to the LFP's shit secisions etc. Plus, the English league system is more complex.

Great idea in theroy, how you implent it is a different matter all together. One thing is for certain however, there would need to be a chance to the pyramid system for it to ever work.

The big issue is obviously TV money. The English league has collective rights and money is split between clubs. There's no way that Chelsea's B team, for example, will also be allowed to get some money while whoever they replace doesn't get anything. In Spain the money issue works itself out because clubs negotiate TV rights deals individually.

I complete oppose this idea, The Championship is only so strong because we dont have 'b' teams. Big clubs like Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland etc all contribute to making our lower leagues the contest they are.

Festive Genius wrote:I complete oppose this idea, The Championship is only so strong because we dont have 'b' teams. Big clubs like Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland etc all contribute to making our lower leagues the contest they are.

agreed...even further down the leagues you find teams like Nottingham Forest,Millwall and Bradford!

I think the Chelsea 'B' team would do very well in the Championship, as the players who would play in this team would either be the youngsters (Kalou, Diarra etc), and the players, who until now, have not really performed (Wright-Phillips for example).

I think there were always B teams in Spain but they were known by different names - Atletico Aviacion (Atl. Madrid), Fabril (Depor), Gran Pena (Celta) and Castilla (Real). I think it would be a good idea but the way the English leagues are it wouldn't work properly.

Quick Summary
Primera
Segunda - 3 Up 4 Down
Segunda B - 4 Groups consisting of teams from all over Spain (4 teams from each group play-off against each other)
Tercera - 18 groups of 20 from the same region i.e Cataluna, Galicia, Madrid. Most of the B teams are in here alongside the small teams such as Badajoz

don't like that idea. all very well for chelsea/arsenal, but who gets kicked out of the league to let them in? and imagine the complete lack of atmosphere in the games, there's not exactly going to be passionate fans of the chelsea b team.

can they not just send players out on loan if they ain't going to play them?

Well no, obviously it is impossible to genereate support for a B team. It will be a slight improvement on reserve atmospheres I suppose.

Real Madrid Castilla tend to get around 3,000 to most of their games. Malaga B always used to get a reasonable when in the segunda, with an average of around 5,000.

I think due to larger attendances in general in the Championship, it would be possible to get around 10,000 avaerages for English B teams. Plus, there is the benefit of larger away followings.

I really think reserve football in this country has bceome very poor of late though. The explusion of all Championship reserve teams has been unfortunate for Norwich. We got as many as 4 - 6,000 to watch the bigger reserve teams last season. Now we get 1,000 to watch the likes of Stevenage.

I suppose the B team would be stronger than Chelsea reserves, which is actually fairly weak. Charlton and Arsenal tend to have the most impressive reserve teams from what I have seen.

NC-XmAs-TrEe-RiQuElMe wrote:The explusion of all Championship reserve teams has been unfortunate for Norwich.

what's this about? i know nothing about reserve leagues, to be honest.

debalthazar wrote:

NC-XmAs-TrEe-RiQuElMe wrote:The explusion of all Championship reserve teams has been unfortunate for Norwich.

what's this about? i know nothing about reserve leagues, to be honest.

Most English teams have a reserve team. They play in their own seperate league.

This season the Premiership reserve league is made up of north and south with 10 teams in each. And formally had 15 including some Championship teams. Promotion was gained to the league when the first team was promoted whilst relegation was the three bottom teams that who's first team were not playing in the Premiersip.

Without Championship sides, its now alot less complecated.