Colts in league 2

[MyJo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37289353

While im not against this idea i think it needs to be an option for all of the bigger clubs in scotland and would be best introduced alongside a complete restructure of the scottish leagues. Have 3 top leagues of 16 teams and allow colt teams to play in the third tier and highland/lowland leagues with restrictions on what players can be in the teams (under-21 and eligible to play for scotland with a few wildcard exceptions allowed for overage and non-scottish players).

Unsurprisingly its another example of the SFA and SPFL bending over backwards to accomodate the wishes of the old firm and coming up with a hodgepodge solution that causes more harm than good rather than implementing real changes for the benefit of everyone on the back of what is actually a decent idea.

[steakbake]

Looks like they are trying to prepare for entry to a fabled UK league.

[BH Hibs]

Why does it only have to be Celtic and Rangers Colt teams. As usual everything has to be done to suit these two. They can shove their UK league up the arse as well. Why not improve our league by actually listening to what their customers i.e us the fans actually want starting with a sixteen team league.

[offshorehibby]

Saw Celtics John Kennedy on the TV about this yesterday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37289353

Neil Doncaster also get his tuppence worth in as well. I wonder if this early stages of them throwing it into the public domain to gauge peoples thoughts.

[BroxburnHibee]

Colts is a good idea IMO but Hibs should do it too.

[rossevenil]

Why not just bring back the Reserve league that shouldn`t have been scrapped in the first place,,,,it demeans our lower leagues even further having to play against "b" teams for their chance to get promotion surely?
The reserves provides as much experience against old heads as any Colts teams surely? Remember a mate I worked with was on trial at East Fife and played a reserve game for them and was handed a lesson from 1 Dougie Bell,again just
pandering to the ugly sisters for my money.

[JDHibs]

I personally think its a good idea. Works well in Spain.

Means youngsters are playing competitive games more, more experience so can only help with youth development. I can see why "smaller" teams in the lower divisions may be against it.

Said for a while that the top 2 leagues should be bigger. This would aid that if some of the top league team put in a "B" team. Such as Celtic, Rangers, Hibs, Hearts Aberdeen and St Johnstone.

Make the top league 16 teams and the championship a 12 team.

[Baldy Foghorn]

Seems to be catering for two colt teams only.....Strange

[MyJo]

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I personally think its a good idea. Works well in Spain.

Means youngsters are playing competitive games more, more experience so can only help with youth development. I can see why "smaller" teams in the lower divisions may be against it.

Said for a while that the top 2 leagues should be bigger. This would aid that if some of the top league team put in a "B" team. Such as Celtic, Rangers, Hibs, Hearts Aberdeen and St Johnstone.

Make the top league 16 teams and the championship a 12 team.

3 leagues of 16 playing a 30 game season with restructured League & Challenge cups having group stages giving every team a guaranteed 6 games per season before moving onto knockout rounds

[lucky]

Playing boys against men will not improve our game. The Irn Bru cup has proved that this season. The major flaw in these proposals is that it's only for the Old Firm.

[.Sean.]

Funny how it's only Celtic and Rangers who'll benefit and for this reason I hope the likes of Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen help kick it into touch.

[Waxy]

No i dont think colt teams will work the way our set up in Scotland is. Happy with the way the pyramid system has started and putting colt sides in will ruin it. All to please the old firm. Heres a better idea, why dont Rantic go take a jump elsewhere.

[jodjam]

And yet the Rangers could barely fill up a subs bench last season

[Big_Franck]

I'm not hugely for or against the idea of having B teams playing in the lower leagues. It'd need to be for ALL premiership teams or for none of them though. None of this weegie team only p1sh.

[Tamhere1875]

Is that not why we have a development league to bring on younger players?

[GordonHFC]

I am sick and tired of the SFA and SPFL jumping to attention when Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum start shouting. They were not interested when supporters overwhelmingly voted for a bigger top league but when these two start shouting they jump to attention.

Celtc and The Rangers have never had the interest of scottish football at heart and are only interested in what benefits themselves. Constantly bumping their gums about wanting to leave in my opinion brings our game into disrepute but nothing is done about it. Singing religeously bigotted songs week in, week out and yet again nothing is done about it, but if anyone else steps slightly out of line they get crucified.

One in all in or forget it.

[offshorehibby]

If this is only meant for the infirm then the other clubs need to kick it to touch and the SPFL/SFA get to ----.

[DTS]

I think it should be an option for every team in the premiership or any team that feels they can afford it as it is in Germany Spain etc. Ridiculous to only offer it to the old firm

[MWHIBBIES]

Celtic colts were awful on Saturday, will take more than a season in league 2 to make those players good.

[Lago]

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Seems to be catering for two colt teams only.....Strange

Of course designed to purely help the OF, nothing else.

[WhileTheChief..]

There is nothing in that article to suggest it's only for the Old Firm teams.

In fact, if you read it, Doncaster clearly states that if it's up for discussion it has to involve every club.

That would include us.

[Wilson]

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Playing boys against men will not improve our game. The Irn Bru cup has proved that this season. The major flaw in these proposals is that it's only for the Old Firm.

From what I have read it is only the Old Firm that have shown any interest in having colt teams in the league.

Reaction to having u20 teams in the challenge cup has been positive. I think it is too early to say anything has been proven with that experiment.

As has been said though playing youngsters WITH experienced players may be more beneficial than playing boys against men. Sounds like they want to revamp our system of loaning young players to lower league clubs in that case. Make it more appealing / possible for lower league clubs to field more of our young players.

[GreenPJ]

Why not just have all premiership teams partner with 1 or 2 lower league clubs and loan them coaches and players, this way the smaller teams can keep their identity and their local fan base whilst getting access to better players and coaches who will also know how the owner club wants to play. They could even do it on a draft system basis so the worst clubs can partner with the stronger SPL teams and its reviewed every 3 years. More likelihood of the young players then getting a game rather than go out and sit on someone else's bench.

[Golden Bear]

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Why not just bring back the Reserve league that shouldn`t have been scrapped in the first place,,,,it demeans our lower leagues even further having to play against "b" teams for their chance to get promotion surely?
The reserves provides as much experience against old heads as any Colts teams surely? Remember a mate I worked with was on trial at East Fife and played a reserve game for them and was handed a lesson from 1 Dougie Bell,again just
pandering to the ugly sisters for my money.

Well said. The loss of the Reserve League saw the start of the slippery slope for Scottish football and again, the Old Firm were instrumental in bringing about its demise.

[ancient hibee]

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Seems to be catering for two colt teams only.....Strange

Needless to say it doesn't say that-quite the opposite but I think it's only right that facts should never get in the way of a good rant.

[jgl07]

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Playing boys against men will not improve our game. The Irn Bru cup has proved that this season. The major flaw in these proposals is that it's only for the Old Firm.

Where does it say that it is only for the old firm?

It was proposed by Celtic. Neil Doncaster said their should be a conversation. Nothing else. If it happens it will have to be open to all clubs

I think it is a daft idea anyway. The abject failure of the Premier League Youth teams in the Challenge Cup demonstrated that. It will make everything far too messy as presumably the Junior teams will be capped at how far they can be promoted.

In France their are three national professional leagues: Ligue 1 (20 teams), Ligue 2 (20 teams), and National (18 teams). (These are Levels 1 to 3).

Below that is the CFA amateur league. This is in 4 regional groups of 16 teams. Then their is the CFA2 in 8 regional groups of 14 teams. (These are Level 4 to 5).

Then come the Regional Leagues (Level 6 to 10) and the District Leagues (Level 11 to 16).

The reserve teams for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 sides are usually at CFA or CFA2 (level 4 and 5) and are not promoted above CFA level.

Hibs used to have a team in the East of Scotland League recently, if I recall correctly. Why don't Celtic apply for the South of Scotland League and work their way up through the Lowland League if they wanted? Although maybe they would be capped below that level.

[northstandhibby]

I think going by what Doncaster was saying talks have been advanced as per Old/New Firm entering the English Leagues. The Colts will be to retain their presence in the Scottish Leagues. It is as simple as that. The Colts will be for the Old/New Firm fans to have a team to support who won't go or can't go to English League away games. That's the sad truth. If they do join the English set up then for me they should not have any presence in the Scottish League set up.








GGTTH

[lyonhibs]

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Needless to say it doesn't say that-quite the opposite but I think it's only right that facts should never get in the way of a good rant.

I was wondering if I was going crazy. Absolutely nowhere in that article does it say this would only be an option open to just Rantic. Whether other teams decide to put a Colts team forward or not is another matter however.

[GordonHFC]

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Where does it say that it is only for the old firm?

It was proposed by Celtic. Neil Doncaster said their should be a conversation. Nothing else. If it happens it will have to be open to all clubs

I think it is a daft idea anyway. The abject failure of the Premier League Youth teams in the Challenge Cup demonstrated that. It will make everything far too messy as presumably the Junior teams will be capped at how far they can be promoted.

In France their are three national professional leagues: Ligue 1 (20 teams), Ligue 2 (20 teams), and National (18 teams). (These are Levels 1 to 3).

Below that is the CFA amateur league. This is in 4 regional groups of 16 teams. Then their is the CFA2 in 8 regional groups of 14 teams. (These are Level 4 to 5).

Then come the Regional Leagues (Level 6 to 10) and the District Leagues (Level 11 to 16).

The reserve teams for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 sides are usually at CFA or CFA2 (level 4 and 5) and are not promoted above CFA level.

Hibs used to have a team in the East of Scotland League recently, if I recall correctly. Why don't Celtic apply for the South of Scotland League and work their way up through the Lowland League if they wanted? Although maybe they would be capped below that level.

It depends on what report you are reading on this. The report in the Scottish Sun states the following:

"Neil Doncaster has confirmed Celtic and Rangers Colts could be thrust into League Two - if other SPFL clubs back the move. Exclusively revealed yesterday the Old Firm want to enter teams into league two from as early as next season. Chief Exec Doncaster would have no objection to them doing so, provided it receives the backing of rivals in the 42-club set-up."

This doesn't intimate that the rest of us are being considered.

[Gallowayhibs]

Totally against this idea, fans of the lower league clubs shouldn't have these colts sides inflicted upon them, be that the OF's youth or the rest of the leagues. Fans of those clubs go along to watch competitive senior football in a proper league setting, not to watch reserve sides or youth teams. There's no evidence fans of clubs like Montrose or Elgin want to have their league diluted in such a fashion and they have as much right to watch proper, competitive football as fans of clubs like ours. There's also nothing to suggest this scheme if implemented would actually help develop youngsters as is being claimed. It would make much more sense to bring back a reserve league where a mix of youngsters and fringe players from the senior squads could get match fitness and experience. Just watching our game against Turriff it's clear we have some pretty decent players not getting a game that would benefit from a regular run out against similar players from the other larger clubs, and the youngsters would get more out of playing in such a set up than by getting pumped by Berwick Rangers and the like every week.

Dead against it, so signed this:

https://www.change.org/p/scottish-pr...ed-to-the-spfl