English Football League says clubs reject FA plan for B teams
Fri Jun 6, 2014 6:15pm BST
(Reuters) - The 72 English Football League clubs have rejected a proposal by the Football Association for the B teams of Premier League sides to play in the lower divisions, as is common in other countries, the League's chief executive Shaun Harvey said on Friday.
Yet clubs in League One and League Two, the third and fourth tiers of English professional football, are keen to investigate using artificial pitches.
Speaking after the annual conference of club owners and executives, held this year in Portugal, Harvey said FA chairman Greg Dyke gave a presentation of proposals for clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool to field a B team in a new League Three.
His commission into the future of the England national team had also recommended loan partnerships enabling smaller clubs to be linked more closely to a larger ones, who would lend them players.
"Whilst it's fair to say there is no appetite amongst clubs for the use of B teams or Strategic Loan Partnerships, they did share his overriding concern about the development of young English footballers and supported a number of the report's other recommendations," Harvey said on the Football League website (www.football-league.co.uk).
He added that Leagues One and Two indicated their support 'in principle' for the use of artificial playing surfaces and added: "They have asked the Football League to provide clubs with further analysis of the use of such pitches before formal consideration of the matter later in the year."
(Writing by Steve Tongue; editing by Toby Davis)
