League should try to save rare species
THE Sumatran Rhino is one of the most endangered species in the world. Poached to the brink of extinction for its horns and blood, fewer than 100 are believed to remain in the wild.
So, too, is the Javan Rhino, whose skin is widely believed to cure everything from leprosy to snake bites. Naturally, both are the subject of intensive conservation efforts.
Imagine, though, that in saving the Sumatran Rhino, we actively and deliberately sabotaged the chances of his Javan cousin. Cut off funding, nicked his habitat, ate his grass. Sorry pal, but Indonesia just ain’t big enough for the both of us.
Would that be acceptable? Of course not. It’s as unethical for a conservationist to prioritise the survival of one species over another as it is for a sporting body to give preferential treatment to two teams in the same competition.
Yet, in chucking a £15,000 fine at Luton for fielding their fledglings in the Checkatrade Trophy, that is exactly what the EFL have done.
Under new rules, League One and Two sides must start with five players who started the league fixture before or after the Trophy game, or the five players who have started most games that season. Luton boss Nathan Jones, however, chose to blood the club’s kids and was fined £5,000 per game for doing so.
He wasn’t alone either. Portsmouth, Fleetwood and Bradford were among 12 clubs hammered for a total of £60,000.
Did they breach regulations? Absolutely. But consider, for a moment, the breathtaking double standards at play here.
When the EFL invited Premier League and Championship U-21 sides to enter their ailing competition, the explicit aim was to give young British players experience of competitive football.
Like the poor rhinos, they are a species that has dwindled drastically, driven to destruction by terrified topflight managers and their success-obsessed owners.
The EFL have attempted to arrest this miserable neglect and, in principle, deserve respect. The practice, however, is deeply flawed.
Clearly, the insistence on fielding five first-teamers is rooted in the idea that academy kids will learn a lot more on a pitch filled with grizzled lowerleague pros. Advocates of the old reserve league certainly attest to the benefits of hard knocks.
Implication
Unfortunately, it has produced a situation where Premier League clubs are actively encouraged to field their kids while Luton are punished for fielding theirs.
“The EFL is effectively saying that promoting young talent is only acceptable if they’re with an EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) Category One club,” said Hatters chairman Gary Sweet. “They are depriving their own member clubs’ young players of access to first-team football.”
However noble the aim, that simply isn’t fair. What’s more, the implication is that kids from League One and Two aren’t worth bothering about.
Tell that to Dele Alli, who scored only his second goal for MK Dons in a Trophy victory over Northampton, aged just 17. Had that fixture been played today, the England midfielder might not have stepped on the pitch.
Tell it to Frankie Musonda and Jack Senior, just two of the Luton teenagers who made a mockery of the rules by defeating West Brom 2-0 in October. Most unfair of all is the burden placed on struggling sides. Premier League sides play 38 league matches, enter the FA Cup in round three and have more players than the Longines Symphonette. A club like Morecambe, meanwhile, play 46 league matches, enter the FA Cup in round one and are currently scraping by with 16 full-time pros, plus loanees. Are we really saying that they should be forced to put more miles in tired legs just because Premier League clubs are shirking their responsibilities? Having set the rules, the EFL had little choice but to enforce them. However, the iniquity of the situation is now embarrassingly apparent. Restoring fairness to the Checkatrade Trophy next season is essential. Otherwise it is the competition that will become extinct.