Rule is needed to halt spectre of feeder clubs

Bradford City have been going since 1903; Edin rahic, the chairman, has been with them since 2016. So that’s 115 years plays two: even so, rahic has big plans for his club. He wants to turn them into a rich man’s reserve team.

‘i believe feeder clubs should be allowed,’ he says, ‘so a Premier League club can have a formal relationship with teams lower down the league, and use them to develop younger players.’

So that’s Bradford done, then. the club had a couple of seasons in the Premier League between 1999 and 2001, but feeder clubs could not compete in the same competition as their masters. Bradford’s progress would have a ceiling; their fans could abandon the dream of reaching the top, on their terms, again.

and what of the youth of Bradford, once the club starts importing large groups of teenagers from outside the city? isn’t developing young players exactly what Bradford should do — specifically, young Bradfordians?

rahic is passing through yet if his plans were ever realised he would torch Bradford and its history for the chance of recruitment on the cheap.

indeed, if he talks like this in public, you can bet he says it at football League meetings, too. one day, he might find enough fellow travellers dabbling in club ownership, to get his plans to the vote. rahic is German, part of an investment group with his partner Stefan rupp.

Not everything they do is bad, but it shouldn’t be that English football is left vulnerable to owners who would strip proud, long-established football clubs of their independence. More respect has to be shown for the traditions of lower-league football in this country.

When Bradford were in the Premier League their derby games with Leeds were fearsome occasions. Might they be denied that in future, to better serve a former rival? these are more than just casual opinions. if heeded, they have the power to change the game here, to damage irreparably. feeder clubs are the death of competition and a rule should be passed to take them off the table, permanently.