Stamford Bridge boss shows complete lack of respect to ‘lower leagues’.
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The Football League has rejected Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas’ suggestion that top Premier League clubs be allowed to field reserve sides in the Championship.
Villas-Boas said the move would help young players make the step up to Premier League football.
But League chief Andy Williamson said Football League clubs should not become feeder sides to the Premier League.
“The suggestion is frankly offensive,” Williamson said.
“Our clubs are constituted as sovereign entities which represent their town or city with pride, rather than being a subsidiary of another club in another part of the country,” he continued.
“These are senior professional football matches that matter – they are not just platforms for developing other clubs’ players.”
SOURCE: BBC Sport
Couldn’t agree with Mr. Williamson more on this. It’s a fairly arrogant position that Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas has taken on this matter. The idea that the ‘lower leagues’ should be forced to accept B teams is frankly outrageous and just because such a system is in force in some European countries doesn’t excuse the offensive nature of the Portuguese manager’s suggestions.
Villas-Boas’s support of such a proposal is patronizing to say the least and shows a complete lack of respect to the pyramid structure that works very effectively in the English game. In Spain B sides are placed in amongst the league system but are not allowed to progress into the top tier, making a further mockery of the process.
Currently Barcelona and Villarreal have second string line-ups in the Segunda whilst a number of B sides, including Real Madrid’s, take part in the divisions below.
England has the highest level of attendance when it comes to the spectator count outside the top tiers and in fact more people attend ‘lower league’ fixtures in the Championship, League One and League Two than attend Premier League fixtures.
Villas-Boas would do well to remember that the rest of the football league isn’t there simply to serve the Premier League and the suggestion that such a move would help young players make the step up to the English top division is offensive.
The introduction of the loan system is clearly a very useful way to blood young players from the Premier League and has helped to give competitive football of a high level standard to young talents and it’s a system that rules out the need to turn the Football League into some sort of feeder system.