Vale make feelings crystal clear about changes to game
PORT Vale have made it clear they don’t want to be competing against Premier League B teams in the Football League. The debate about top-flight sides entering academy or reserve sides in the lower divisions has been revived this week following comments from Manchester City’s chief executive.
Ferran Soriano said: “One of the challenges is the EFL (is) a business that is not sustainable enough.
“There are other problems; the challenges of developing players in England where B teams are not allowed, we have a development gap of boys that are 17 or 18, they don’t find the right place to develop and, for example, they are taken from us by the German teams, who try to sell them back to us for a price which is 10 times what they paid.
“This is mad, right? This is something we needed to solve and now maybe the crisis will give us the opportunity and will nudge us to get together and solve these issues.”
EFL clubs are appealing for financial help from the government or Premier League while fans are not allowed into games. So Soriano’s comments have raised fears that introducing B teams into the lower divisions could be the price to pay.
But Vale owner Carol Shanahan gave that short shrift when she was interviewed on Sky Sports this week.
She said: “He’s right that this is a good opportunity for the pyramid to help each other but that isn’t the way we need help.
“The clubs I am talking about are in Leagues One and Two, which seem to be the forgotten part of the elite arm of the football family.
“We are completely different from the Championship, who get a lot of money through parachute payments.
“I can see why there could be some reticence from the Premier League to help [Championship clubs] because they yo-yo back and forwards and take each other’s places.
“It’s completely different down in League One and League Two, where we don’t get money
coming down at that same sort of rate.
“We don’t get media money, all our money comes through the gate. So by the time you take the fans away, you don’t have the income coming in.
“But the answer certainly isn’t to have ‘B’ teams, it’s to support the current structure as it is.”
Vale’s assistant manager Dave Kevan also addressed the topic at the club’s press conference on Friday.
He said allowing B teams into League One or Two would ‘make a mockery’ of the system and damage football at this level.
He said: “The fabric of the Football League and the pyramid system is what football is all about in this country. To dismantle that or lose that would be an absolute travesty.
“You look at the opportunities that clubs like ourselves give these young players to get them on the road to a career.
“Also, we have got a community here and Port Vale Football club is the heartbeat of the community really. For that to be just cast aside would be a disgrace to be quite honest.”
Top-flight clubs have B teams in other countries, including Spain, but they are not allowed to be promoted beyond a certain level. The prospect of B teams in this country has been fiercely opposed by supporters who argue their clubs, their rivalries and their traditions, should count for more than being a means of development for top flight reserve sides.
Kevan added: “It makes a mockery of the whole league system. We have a group of professionals there that go out every weekend and fight for their living. We are trying to get a promotion as every other club in our league are. To take something away from that would be a crying shame.”