Hampden chief Ian Maxwell has pleaded with clubs to sacrifice their own self interest and rubber stamp his B team plan for the good of the national game.
Maxwell’s controversial proposal to create a new Conference League at the fifth tier of the SPFL – which would include colts teams from the Premiership – will go to the vote tomorrow at the SFA’s AGM. And the chief executive is convinced the blueprint will help our top clubs fast-track talented young players into the Scotland set-up. Maxwell’s strategy has attracted fierce criticism from a host of minnows who fear the new league might block their route into the SPFL.
But he is adamant that the game in this country is crying out for radical change – and has urged club chiefs to be brave enough to back it. Maxwell said: “I would love it to be carried because it will have a really positive impact. But people will make their own decisions. People will vote whichever way they think is best for them. We can’t just implement things that we think are right. It’s a democracy.
“But we’re looking at it purely from a player development perspective. There is evidence from Croatia, France, Germany and Spain who have got B teams – I think seven of the top 10 nations in Europe have got B teams within their domestic structures.
“Croatia are often flung up as an example. How can a country with a smaller population perform so well when we can’t? What are they doing that we’re not?
“They’ve got B teams. I’m not saying if we implement B teams in a Conference League we’re going to qualify for every World Cup to come. But we know we have a problem and this is a potential solution to try to fix it.
“We need to come up with something that works in Scotland because there is no one size fits all. Scottish culture means that we have to think about something that’s slightly different from countries that just think having B teams will never work.
“We’re of the view that there is some evidence which says that it does work. Should we try it and see? Because what we’ve got is broken and there are clear stats to prove it. We need to try to address that and improve.
“I get that everybody has a view on what the pyramid should look like. Everybody looks at everything that happens in Scottish football through their ‘how-does-it-affect-me?’ glasses. That’s the reality.
“We’re trying to do the best thing for the national team because that’s got such a big impact on the game in this country. Our national team coaches are already seeing a significant improvement in the standard of those guys who have been playing in a B team against the ones who haven’t.”
Maxwell believes the stats prove Scottish football is producing top talent at a young age but says their progress starts to fall off a cliff as they near their twenties. He explained: “Our Under-17s were over in Hungary after qualifying again for the Euros finals and we have done that consistently at that age. At 19s, we get to the elite round but don’t get through to the finals consistently.
“At 21s, the performances have deteriorated over a period of time. We’re now a Pot D team and we’re finishing third, fourth or fifth and haven’t been anywhere close to an Under-21s finals in a while.
“So that highlights there is a problem with the pathway. People will say, ‘Aye but it’s only the clubs at the top of the pyramid who can afford B team football’. They’re right. It is only the clubs at the top who can afford it.
“But we need to look at the ones further down and say, ‘How do we make sure that the loan options available to them are as good as they can be? What else can we do that solves the problem for as many clubs as possible?’."
