U21 Premier League launched

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timbocahill17

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Premier League confirms U21 fixtures & teams
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/premier-league-confirms-u21-fixtures-and-teams.html



As part of the most comprehensive review of youth development in over a decade, the 2012/13 season will see the start of the first national competition for U21 players.

The new Barclays U21 Premier League has been devised as part of the new system and will help bridge the gap between Academy and First Team.

Taking part in the 2012/13 Barclays U21 Premier League will be the 23 clubs who applied for Category One status as part of the categorisation process of the new youth development system: 17 Premier League and six Championship clubs applied and will therefore take part.

All the teams have been confirmed and the fixtures compiled for the first phase of the competition, which will kick off on Friday, August 17th.

A draw was recently held at the Premier League to determine which clubs will play up to the end of the year in three national groups: these are split into two groups of eight and one of seven clubs.

The groups are:

National Group One
Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Norwich City, Reading, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United

National Group Two
Aston Villa, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, Watford

National Group Three
Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Wolverhampton Wanderers

After this first group stage, the clubs will be placed into three groups based on their performance.

The top three teams from National Group One and Two and the top two sides from National Group Three will qualify for the Elite Group, with the other clubs making it into Qualification Group Tier One or Qualification Group Tier Two depending on their finishing position.

The teams will again play eachother home and away with the top three teams from the Elite Group qualifying for the knockout semi-finals.

The winners of the two Qualification Groups will take part in a play-off to decide who will make up the quartet. The semi-final winners will then contest the final.

The emphasis will be on playing U21 players with each team limited to just three over-age outfield players and one over-age goalkeeper.

Matches will be played over weekends from Friday to Monday and will provide clubs the opportunity for U21 players to be available both for the first team fixtures and the Barclays U21 Premier League.

There is a requirement that at least two Barclays U21 Premier League matches must be at the main ground of each club and the play-offs, semi-finals and final also be played at the main grounds of the home clubs.
 

This competition is a good thing, there will be some TV matches, I hope. But that EPPP is a complete joke. It seems like it only allows big PL clubs to buy lower league players for almost nothing. Premier League will become something like La Liga. Real vs Barca - City vs Chelsea.. Money buys everything..
 
Seems like a good idea to be honest. Anything to bridge the stupidly big gap between academy/rezzie football and PL football.
 


This is far from a glorified reserve league lids, there is a wider context and agenda going down here.

Im not against this idea in principle - but i think the PL are trying to dress this up as a wolf in sheeps clothing.

This is another devleopment in what soon will be a race to the bottom in the PL and its interesting the measures that the PL are taking.

For me this is all down to financial fair play and likely eventually Platinni taking over from Blatter - hes going to have a right go at the "money leagues".

So in Prep for financial fair play the PL have taken these steps:

EPPP basically doing away with rules on being able to recruit players from a geographical catchment area - meaning you can now recruit youngsters straight of the bat from anywhere. If they are already at a lower league club the PL has bullied/threatend the league clubs into agreeing to minimal compensation arrangement for their training of the player.

The intro of the above and the U21 league will now see a race to the bottom for the best young talent in the country, in the lower leagues and likely around the world - this could revolutionise the transfer market with young players being massively valued and going for big fees (in context to what they are now) as spending 35mill on the likes of Aguero will be a thing of the past under FFP.

This isnt a decision that was taken on a whim by the PL clubs its part of a wider systemic agenda and preperation in the way the game is going to be structured - academies are going to swell and the compititon in the market for young players recruitment is going to massive. You will have the likes of Utd, Chelsea, City and Arsenal - bringing young players from all over the world for buttons and loading them into their academy teams.

This is all about, the structural changes in the game over the next few years and the race to the bottom away from established players to youth players to cut huge transfer budgets with FFFP.

This could really marginilise traditional English League football. I expect to see a few Newcos in the lower leagues in the next two years.
 

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