Changes coming with the organisation of U-21 football?

[AZ Gull]

Apparently the Premier League are meeting today to discuss the organisation of U-21 football - Premier League to discuss bold new youth development proposals

(I don't know if the non-Premier League Category One clubs, including Albion, are involved in these discussions).

The Premier League will on Wednesday discuss bold new proposals to develop young players in a more competitive Under-21s league with up to three divisions involving promotion and relegation - although there are disagreements over which clubs would have to drop down.

The 20 shareholders in the Premier League will also look at proposals to introduce 16 of their Under-21s teams into the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, currently contested by the members of League One and League Two, in return for a payment to those 48 clubs’ youth development programmes.

There is a strong push by the clubs to create a more competitive development programme for their young players and a “Premier League II”, for Under-21s teams, with more senior first team professionals involved, is at the top of the agenda.

The participation of Premier League Under-21s in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy is unpopular with fans but is being sold to the Football League as a good way of earning extra money.

The two or three division system for Under-21s sides has run into opposition over who would play in the top league. There are currently 24 clubs with the highest academy rating – category one – 17 of which are in the senior Premier League. Those category one clubs do not want to play games against lower-tier category two academies.

Currently, the Under-21s Professional Development League has two divisions of 12 clubs each, comprising all 24 category one club academies, with a two-down, two-up relegation-promotion system.

Under the new proposals, including relegation and promotion, the clubs believe that they could replicate something closer to the competitive environment that players would experience in the first team.

The Premier League clubs believe that the overhaul of academy development the Elite Player Performance Plan that they implemented in 2011, using the solidarity payments as leverage with the Football League clubs, is starting to bear fruit.

However, they are concerned that there is not enough competitive action for players between the ages of 18 and 21 who have not made the first team.

Some clubs favour strategic partnerships in which they loan out their best players to lower league sides in England and across Europe.

The plan on Wednesday is to formulate a new system which raises the profile of Premier League II, potentially with televised games played in stadiums that raise the stakes for young players and prepare them for first team football.

There are also proposals to allow clubs to field more than three senior outfield players in their Under-21s teams from next season, with the current limit capped at three. Any proposals would have to be finalised before the start of the next season, most likely at the Premier League AGM in June.

 

[AZ Gull]

It seems that the U-21 Professional Development League in 2016-17 will now become an U-23 competition to be known as Premier League 2 - Fans hit back at plans to introduce Premier League sides in EFL Trophy

... The Press Association has seen a letter from Harvey to League One and Two clubs that said: "The PL development league (to be known as Premier League 2) will from next season operated as an U23 league rather than U21s. On this basis, we will adopt this eligibility criteria for the EFL Trophy. Their criteria also includes the ability to include three overage players and a goalkeeper in their team."

 

[Taybha]

So 75% of lower league football fans who do not want this have been ignored so to keep the teams in the premireship happy ? Kinel .Please tell me i have read this incorrectly and its a bad dream .

 

[narly101]

Joke - I ****ing hate the power that the EPL has. "Ooh lets ride roughshod over those poor EFL teams, who no-one knows or supports".