The Scottish Lowland Football League confirmed last night that B-teams will remain in the league for at least the next two seasons, if they want to…
The statement issued by Scottish Lowland Football League Board last night reads as follows:
The Scottish Lowland Football League can confirm that the majority of our members have voted in favour of continuing with B Teams for at least the next 2 seasons.
Following a process which began in October, a democratic vote was held in line with our rules at a General Meeting tonight.
The Board would like to thank all our members for their contributions to the discussions in recent weeks.
A majority of clubs in the league agreed that their inclusion should continue moving forward. This means that Celtic B will stay in the Lowland League, as well as Hearts B. Rangers B had a team last season but made the decision to take them out for the current season and beyond after controversial plans for a new fifth-tier Conference League, that would include B-team, Highland, and Lowland League clubs, fell through.
Fans are divided on the decision to allow B-teams in the league, with replies to the statement on Twitter saying things like “those who voted for this should be ashamed of themselves” and “clubs who voted for are just cowards”.
Clubs are also divided, with Albion Rovers slamming the decision in an official club statement.
It reads: “This was a chance for the Lowland League to regain its sporting integrity within the pyramid, ensuring the fifth-tier next year and beyond would be made up of clubs who have earned their places on merit and are all competing on a similar field and for the same purpose – to win promotion to the SPFL.
“Instead we and our fellow member clubs are now once again at odds with the majority of our supporters who have no or little interest in watching their club play competitive fixtures against B teams.”
A personal opinion from myself as a Celtic Star writer…
I don’t agree with this decision. I think that a rework of the B-team should come sooner rather than later, as it is clearly not providing a path to the first team like it pretends to do.
The development at this club is not great, but it’s not too late to fix the problem. We can start with the league itself. A lot of the clubs are made up of part-time footballers and players who have already played at a much higher level. Are our young players really being challenged enough to develop as quickly as we would like them to? On the surface, it may appear so, as we’re sitting 10th, but is it really as beneficial to the youngsters as it seems? I suppose an in-depth analysis by club officials is the only way to figure that out.
This is the one time I’ll give something to the other side of the city, but they put it perfectly: “As matters now stand, there is no suitable, governing body-led development structure for players between 18-21 in Scotland.”
This is worryingly accurate, and discussions need to be had, as things clearly are not working for everyone.
Jessica Elliott
League Statement: Future of B Teams. https://t.co/T7bagrbbhG
— The Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League (@OfficialSLFL) December 18, 2023
🧐 ‘How can the @OfficialSLFL be taken seriously when we haven’t put sporting integrity first ourselves?’
Our board update in full. 🤝#ARFCOKAY 🇲🇰 pic.twitter.com/paPSnI8t6r
— Albion Rovers FC (@albionrovers) December 18, 2023
🚨🍀 𝐁 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐓𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞@OfficialSLFL have confirmed that its club’s have voted to KEEP B teams in the division for at least the next 2 seasons.
This means Celtic will likely continue to enter a side into Scotland’s 5th tier for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 campaigns. pic.twitter.com/jVSlnNa9v7
— Celtic Youth & Loan Updates (@CelticYLUpdates) December 18, 2023
And wasnt it the other mob from accross the city who closed down the reserve league as they couldn’t afford it? There needs to be a complete investigation into whether playing in the Lowland league with no chance of progress is better than arranging friendly matches with development squads from other leagues (epl and european) .. I live in Portugal.. here the B teams of Porto and Benfica both play in the Portuguese second division. There was restructuring done about 10 years or so whereas the B teams of both Porto Benfica plus Sporting, Braga and Vit Guimaraes were put into the second division. The other 3 have either been relegated and are fighting their way back, or in the case of Sporting abandoned in preference to the Portuguese federation run U23 league. We also need to look at the coaches .. are they the best or there because they are “good cellic men” ? The B team should be providing at least 1 player per season to the first team. The fact that this is not happening means that either the talent is not good enough or the coaches are not good enough. As the talent comes in at school level and can be moulded it must be that they are not getting the proper adequate coaching ?