B Team Boycott

Best of luck lads, sorry I can't be there. Utm

The good folks at COD Almighty have written a piece today explaining things far far better than I ever could have done.

Please take a moment or 2 to have a read through and follow up by donating to two fantastic causes.

http://codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=7246

We will also be taking long life food donations on the night, so if you are attending then please do bring any spare tins, pasta etc that you have.

Quoted from Biggles99999

The good folks at COD Almighty have written a piece today explaining things far far better than I ever could have done.

Please take a moment or 2 to have a read through and follow up by donating to two fantastic causes.

http://codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=7246

We will also be taking long life food donations on the night, so if you are attending then please do bring any spare tins, pasta etc that you have.

Great read that!

Have the Mariners Trust offered any assistance this year like they did last time?

We haven’t heard anything as of yet Pizzza, but of course there is still time!

👍

If you want to watch Town v Scunny on Tuesday and you feel people might recognise you under the brown paper bag you can always pay a tenner and watch it on ifollow

I’m due to be on Radio Humberside SportsTalk in around 15 minutes talking about the boycott if you can listen in!

Completely back the boycott. But the club did vote against the format this time around so credit to them for that. It's a shame as it's the only cup competition we can realistically win, Wayne Burnett gave me one of the greatest moments of my life in 1998. It's sad I can't attend these games.

Quoted from fishboyUTM

Completely back the boycott. But the club did vote against the format this time around so credit to them for that. It's a shame as it's the only cup competition we can realistically win, Wayne Burnett gave me one of the greatest moments of my life in 1998. It's sad I can't attend these games.

Don't worry if we get to the quarters or semis all thoughts of a boycott will magically disappear

Quoted from WHYWONTYOULETMESIGNUP

Cmon then who are these down voting every post? Speak up and let us know why you want B teams in our league

Firstly I should say that I have never red crossed any posts, secondly, whatever this competition’s history/name I have only ever attended two matches those being the respective town finals v Bournemouth and MK Dons so my opinion will not be affecting my enthusiasm to attend matches in this cup in the future.

However, I personally do not envisage any way that the involvement of U23 players will ultimately lead to B teams being admitted into the EFL. The pyramid system in this country is well established and for B teams to gain access would require current clubs to vote allowing their access, a bit like turkeys voting for Christmas and will not happen IMO.

On a personal level I think it allows younger players at the “larger” clubs an opportunity to play competitive football against seasoned professionals and allows any fans who want to attend to see possible stars of the future e.g. Hudson Odoi played against Lincoln. So ambivalent to their involvement maybe naively on my part but just can’t see the current structure changing.

The real danger to clubs at our level is the financial one a la Bury, Macclesfield et al and I can foresee the Premiership big wigs looking to introduce a policy whereby they can “adopt” “smaller” clubs by using them to play their younger players for a significant financial injection. Personally I am not a massive fan of how many loan players teams are already allowed to have whereby half your team may be borrowed players which makes any success a bit false IMO and that “successful side” will most likely all be disbanded the following season.

There you go, summed it up perfectly in the last paragraph - the problem for clubs at our level is financial, and what this competition is doing is repackaging a moral decision as a financial one and forcing clubs to do accept it.

It’s no coincidence that the Premier League doubled the size of the prize pot between the first and second votes - from £50k per Prem club to £100k per Prem club. Or 1/5th of what Man Utd pay Sanchez each week. It’s also no coincidence that the Football League offered to underwrite all losses for clubs, and not even announce it - Marley happened to let that one slip at the infamous Fans’ Forum, perhaps he should take more of his own advice.

So now you’ve got clubs in a position where they can’t afford to have any kind of pride or morals or long-term perspective. Macclesfield nearly went bust over £800k last year. If you’re on the board at Macc, would you sooner let the club go bust or play a few games against a Stoke youth team without the prospect of losing money? No brainier surely, but long term you’re making a rod for your own back.

It gets said every single time this argument comes up, but who are these brave football club owners who are going to turn down the Premier League shilling when they decide they want B Teams in the league? Fenty himself has said he would welcome it, and only voted against the proposals this time around because they had supposedly been misled IIRC. There’s a lot of talk about needing only 8 boards to vote against it - do we have 8 names yet? After 4 years? Nope.

And if you think the Prem wouldn’t do such a thing, look at EPPP which is what got us here in the first place. They blackmailed football league clubs into allowing them to hoard youth teams and never pay more than £250k for a top prospect by threatening to stop “solidarity payments”. So now where clubs like ours could’ve survived by selling a John Oster or Ryan Bennett for £1m+ every few years, you’re now stuck having to accept £250k or risk a tribunal so your first team regular can sit on the bench at Watford or play for Chelsea’s youth team in this competition.

So people are free to do what they want, as they always have been if you’re reading this, Wraith, but you’re naive if you think it’ll stop here and there’s no bigger plan, especially with the moneymen so keen on the idea.