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What Happens If They Are Promoted Hence Celtic Having 2 Teams In The Spl ???

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I would imagine a similar understanding will take place that allows Barcelona, Real Madrid etc to have reserve teams playing in lower leagues in Spain. The teams are only allowed to get promoted to a certain level where they then remain in that league and the next best team gets promoted.

With the SPL being a seperate entity from the Scottish football league I can't see there being any problem with Celtic Reserves playing in the league but there is no way they could be then allowed entry to the SPL.

I would be all for it.

The OF in the SFL thing could work, but it鈥檇 have to be managed very carefully.
Firstly, no promotion to the SPL 鈥� that鈥檇 just be silly.
Secondly, the 鈥渞eserve鈥� team can鈥檛 just be 鈥渢he players who didn鈥檛 play at the weekend鈥�. Otherwise the team would be much better than most in div 3, div 2, div 1 and a fair chunk of the SPL. It鈥檇 need to be a separate team, with players registered, meaning if they were registered for the reserve side they couldn鈥檛 play for the main side for that season (or maybe til the transfer window).

This, I think, would be consistent with what happens in Spain. So there鈥檇 be no reason to stop it. It鈥檇 certainly add to the interest around the lower divisions. My only concern would be that if these reserve teams are still too good, it鈥檇 effectively end promotion up the divisions 鈥� which would be a disaster for the other lower division clubs.

Too many??? in my last message??????
How did that?? happen?????

If this goes ahead, and the Old Firm do get 'promoted' maybe it could be in the best interests to simply keep them in that tier of Scottish football?

Celtic v Celtics reserves - Celtic Park - Auguest 20th 2016 - sounds a tag ridiculous.

Overall a good idea I think. The young SPL players would get competitive games as would their opponents and crowds would increase. The only losers would be clubs aspiring to get into the SFL (i.e. Cove) They could always create another division!

It's nowt new though, Sunderland reserves were invited into the Scottish League in the late 60s as they couldn't get into the English Central Reserve League but it was blocked by the FA despite arguments that Berwick Rangers being in England had set a precedant.

As a supporter of a lower league club the crowds that Celtic reserves will bring will benefit all teams and allow them to produce better players for themselves and the national team

We do have this system in Norway, the reserve teams cannot be promoted to the division under the first team. If a reserve team finishes top of the table, the closest placed "normal team gets promoted.

It works quite well, although it has its pros and cons.

The positives are that younger players in the reserve teams get to play competetive matches against often better players, and alongside the more experienced players in their own team.
As Chris points out it's also great for the smaller teams to get up against "bigger" teams a few times a season, even though the difference in quality doesen't need to be that big.

The problems arise when the big teams start to field very uneven reserve squads. An example of this is from team I play for- Kjapp IL in the Norwegian third division.
The last times we have played the reserves of Notodden FK (first division) they have fielded everything from pure U19 squads who tend to get beaten throrougly to almost a normal starting XI for the first team.

This unserious attitude by some of the bigger teams make the team performances wary greatly, and does not make the league very stable.

I think the only way this would be fair is if the two old firm clubs were to announce their A and B team squads and treat them like two different entities. As Monty mentioned above, first team players could be given a run around on 3rd division teams on international weekends.
I think that it could be encouraged but care would need to be taken to ensure that non-league teams are able to grow. As a dagenham fan i've seen first hand how well non-league teams can grow and survive so i'd like to see something done to encourage their growth too. Maybe expanding the SFL by a couple more teams?

I want to stray away from the OF fielding second teams as no details have been announced. What I found curious this week was that Berwick-Annan was the only SFL fixture played. Forfar have only notched up 19 games, five fewer now than Berwick. Why didn't Forfar have a match? Is it the responsibility of the SFL or the clubs to re-arrange postponed fixtures?

As a Celtic fan, I'm all for it. I had a season ticket for years but gave it up due to the steep prices and often flat atmosphere, outside of Old-Firm matches and Europe. I thought about following a local team like Pollock but my heart was never really in it. I'm sure a lot of fans who feel the same would turn out at 5 pounds a head to see the reserves in a decent competitive match (and still follow the big team on the telly).

I think I'm right in saying that Barcelona B can draw crowds of up to 5, 000. Even a fraction of that would be a huge boost to the finances of lower league teams.

Of course, there's bound to be drawbacks (eg. perhaps no team in their division would be promoted by actually finishing first and the competition would lose respect) but with finances so poor it must be worth a try?

Good article, great comments.

If this was to happen, no reserve team could play in the same division as their first team counterpart, as there would be a clear conflict of interest. For example, if Celtic A played Celtic B and needed 3 points to secure the league title, I'm fairly sure Celtic A would win without too many problems!

Another concern might be if the reserve teams were stuck in the thrid division. Then wouldn't there be more incentive for teams in division 2 to get relegated in order to get that big game 4 times a year?

As far as Scottish lower division football is concerned this would be potentially great news. If several teams express an interest in putting reserve sides in to the SFL then it could pave the way for a handful of ambitious clubs (Cove etc.) to gain entry also.

By extending each of Divisions 1,2 & 3 to 12 teams 6 spots would be created. For arguments sake if the Old Firm and the two Edinburgh clubs enter their B sides then that still leaves two spots for the sides who were pipped by Annan Athletic at the last time of asking.

On a personal level I would hope that certain English clubs don't try and cite this as precedent though. The English lower leagues are vibrant enough and the poopulation large enough to support a much deeper league system than Scotland. What is good for the gooses is not neccessarily good for the gander.

How will this affect the cup competitions?

Could we end up with the scenario of Celtic v Celtic B in the Scottish Cup or League Cup semi-final?

i believe the idea is to follow the model set by barcelona and real madrid. Where the reserve or B team plays in the spannish equivilant of division 3, they may not enter domestic cup competitions, and are not eligible for promotion or relagation. I am all for this as it means the old firm clubs can never meet there respective reserve teams in direct competition. The attendance figures would take a boost from the excitement generated. However, the stumbling point may be on how often the OF can call upon their reserve players. For example, Lee Mculloch, currently out injured at rangers, and always seems to be involved in Walters first team plans (in whatever capacity), upon his return from injury he would surely spend some time in divison 3 with the b team before being recalled into the premier

Let's say it happens, the third division is expanded to 12 teams, let's say Cove, for arguments sake, join them. the third division now has the same crazy set up as the SPL where you could only be playing Celtic B at home once in a season ... you are also playing 3 games less in total (happy to take 3 weeks pay less Chris?) so you need almost 2000 fans at your Celtic B game just to bring in the same gate receipts as you would have without them. You maybe get that the first year, due to the novelty factor, but year in year out, no chance

Imagine Mancheter United come out and say there going to place their reserves in the SPL, Celtic will make more money because of the appeal of Uniteds 2nd string, plus, even if Man U win the league, you don鈥檛 have to worry, you'll still get the European place ... but you'll never win another league again!!

14- I don't think that would be a problem. No club would want to get relegated just to play the reserves of one of the big clubs. Not only would they play in a poorer league, they would also loose quite an amount of money. My team would for sure want to get promoted rather than play the reserves of Notodden FK, as I've mentioned above.