Winter ‘no’ to Colt plan for Old Firm
Midfielder slams proposal
East Kilbride midfielder Sean Winter reckons plans to admit Celtic and Rangers Colt teams into League Two will “open up a can of worms”.
The Lowland League champions missed out on promotion to League Two last season after losing the play-off final to Cowdenbeath and are currently top of the table in pursuit of a second crack at reaching the SPFL.
However, a report in our sister title, the Sunday Mail, has revealed there are plans to parachute the Old Firm‘B’teams into the SPFL from as early as next season as part of a two-year trial, expanding League Two from 10 teams to 12.
This could see Colt sides leapfrog Kilby into the senior ranks if the K-Park side again prove unsuccessful in their promotion bid.
Not only that, Colt teams will not be able to be promoted or relegated during the pilot. If they finished top or bottom or in any of the play-off places, the team in the next place down would automatically take that spot.
And Winter has hit out at the plans, insisting it will do nothing to benefit Scottish football as a whole.
He said:“Just because they are Celtic and Rangers doesn’t mean they should be able to throw a team into League Two.
“It doesn’t instil a lot of confidence in the clubs in the Lowland League and the Highland League who are working hard to reach that level.
“East Kilbride FC have put a lot of time and effort to get us into a position where we can get into League Two, so I’m strongly opposed to this.
“It doesn’t bring any benefits to Scottish football as far as I’m concerned.
“If this plan gets accepted then it will open up a can of worms.
“If you are a club who can win the league on the final day of the season and your rivals are playing Celtic Colts, they have got absolutely nothing to play for.
“They could down tools or the coaches try out some new players, while you are playing against a team with something to fight for. That’s not fair.
“I’m a big Celtic fan and I can see how it benefits the club, getting the younger players playing regular football, but as an EK player I can’t understand how it benefits anyone other than Celtic and Rangers.”
For the changes to be implemented it would require the approval of 11 of the 12 Premiership clubs and 23 of the 30 lower league clubs in the SPFL.
Under the proposals Colt teams will guarantee the purchase of at least 250 tickets for each of its away fixtures at £10 per ticket, giving each team a £15,000 cash boost per season.
Kilby gaffer Billy Stark, the former Scotland under-21 boss, was noncommittal on the subject.
The former Scotland under-21 boss said:“There are different ways you can look at it.
“If you sit back and look at it objectively, I can see some merit in it for the good of Scottish football as it would be developing young players.
“I can see why there would be a certain allure of the Old Firm teams coming in because you’d feel there would be an enhanced crowd. And looking at it if you were a club in League Two, I could see how that might be attractive to them.
“I would need to look at it in-depth because it’s a very difficult one.”
Asked what he made of Colt teams being immune from promotion and relegation, he said:“If you are 10th, you have beaten the Colts teams all season, both are below you and you still end up in the play-offs, that does seem unfair.
“But I suppose if you look at the play-off system at the moment, you could argue that is unfair, too.
“Look at what happened with Brechin [in League One last season]. A team who finished fourth and 12 points behind the team in second ended up getting promotion via the play-offs and the team in second [Alloa] missed out.
“As long as everybody knows the rules at the start of the season, everyone knows where they stand.”