The FA Premier Reserve League are poised to announced a revamp of the structure of second string football in the coming days. The decision comes after Fulham, Stoke City and Birmingham City opted to join Tottenham Hotspur in pulling out Reserve league football.
Huge debates over the current setup, including lack of games, inadequate scheduling and the the North/South divide have seen Neil Banfield and coaches alike frustrated. A number of clubs have long been considering their participation in the Premier Reserve League, but these new rules and regulations are designed to build on the success of the revamp of the Premier Academy League League, bringing in a group style system.
Although the exact setup has not been confirmed, the speculation is that there will be three groups, A-C. Each side will play the other teams in their group twice, home and away, and every other team once, meaning a total of 19 games. The winners of Group A would then face the winners of Group B for the right to meet the Group C winners for the national title. The group lineup is expected to be as below:
Group A: Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Wigan Athletic.
Group B: Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Everton, Liverpool, Sunderland.
Group C: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
This exciting new revamp adds consistency, challenges and more competition to players and coaches but murmurs of discontent that the Premier Reserve League have not gone far enough are already being heard. The ideal format would see a full league formed, but with the funding and club commitments absent, this new revamp appears to be a happy medium.
Further information is expected in the coming days.
Still think the FA should look at what the spanish sides do and field ‘B’ teams in the lower leagues but ensuring they can not compete in domestic cups or be in the same league as the 1st XI.
Obviously they’d have to start at the bottom and share a ground with someone (Barnet?)
The big sides will have an advantage as we have 15 or so a year out on loan. Just stick them all in one side at go from there.
As our reserves are virtually teens anyway I couldn’t see them getting much further than league 1 but at least they’d have solid competitive football week in week out and have something to play for
In some other countries (Spain, Sweden, Germany) the reserve teams play in the league system. In Germany the reserve team is forbidden to play above the 3rd division, in Spain the reserve team is not allowed to gain promotion to the same league as the first team, in Sweden it is non-regulated and the reserve team of Hammarby will compete with them in the same division next year!
Anyway, why is there not such a system at work in England? It seems to me that the youngsters and reserve team players would be able to gain that invaluable experience of week-in-and-out-games without going on loan. Thus they would be able to remain within the clubs training regime, the energy of loaning players could be spent on other things and so on.
It devalues the lower leagues. Which is not only unfair, but stupid since the lower leagues of England are probably the most passionately followed anywhere in the world.
Having reserves in the league system doesn’t guarantee anything anyway. Who was the last player from Real Madrid Cantella to make it? Plus France and Italy don’t have these systems and they churn out quality youngsters all the time.
It’s an interesting idea, but the difference is that there are already 5 leagues for England, whereas there are pretty much just 3 WITH reserves in Spain. If you add reserve teams to the English mix, you’d literally have 10 leagues in England, which is just ridiculous. Plus, it would take revenue away from the lower clubs, which could threaten their existence, which would be a real shame as, as AndyE says, those clubs are some of the most passionately followed in the world.
do the same than in spain.arsenal reserves would win the championship ! hahahaha
that would be quite funny !
The funny thing is that for example in germany they don’t like that reserves teams are in the higher leagues and the most people want an own reserves league in Germany xD
I’d love the same system as Spain as it provides more competition and allows reserve teams to withstand a larger squad whilst still giving everyone decent game time. It would also be perfect for Arsenal :)
Very well worded article. Looking forward to more.
This sounds like a good idea because of the added structure. That really seemed to be a probblem these past few years. Matches would be cancelled or re-scheduled or sometimes were left unplayed because of weather or pitch conditions or whatever. Now there will be a definitive schedule for everyone to follow. It’s too bad there can’t be even more matches, but this is an improvement upon the last set-up for sure.
I don’t get it. How much are the reserve playing right now? How many games in total? 19 seems still a bit too low.
It’s not much of a revamp… reserves like Arsenal only play about 15 games per season. The revamp of the reserves only increases it to 20. Hardly anything. At the very least though, its a start and would hope that it would be further revamped in the near future.
That’s 20 max surely. If you don’t win your group you just play 12 games? Or am i misreading.
lack of games….its a matter of choice. premier league teams play every week, the only solution is to have these reserve teams playing just before the first team. e.g if Arsenal vs Liverpool starts at 3pm, let the reserves start at 12:30.that will provide entertainment for fans and games for players. fans will start coming in early and they will watch more football,therefore more value for your money(expensive tickets).at the same time,if fans come in early,the cafeteria will open early and start making more money than now. we can evn have under 17,then the reserves and then the senior team.tell me if anyone is a loser in this scenerio.
I like that idea, but one issue is the pitch. A full 90-minute game would probaly tear up the pitch before the first team game.
Obviously though they COULD make a full 20 team 38 match reserve league, but the clubs have to all get together and sort out something. As it stands it seems like a bit of shambles, which is ridiculous considering how far England lags behind other nations in home grown talent
It is even more of a shambles to have teams like spurs not even fielding reserve sides!!
This is ridiculous.
The system isn’t great as it is but would be better off with everyone competing.
I like the idea about reserve and ist team on matchday, but why not play the reserve match after. That way the unused subs for the first team can get a run out.
Or here is an interesting one how about us putting a reserve team in the spanish leagues? we could ground share with someone out there. Or we have been hearing for years how the glasgow clubs will one day join the prem so why not an english team in one of the scottish leagues or even the welsh?
The reserve side could play directly AFTER the 1st teams as they won’t be tearing up the pitch for the 1st team. This would help them get used to some of the atmosphere of the stadiums. Also it could partially alleviate the problem of getting out of the Stadium after the game, with some fans leaving, some staying to watch the kids.
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