FA Chairman Admits Premier League B-Side Plan Won't Go Forward

The English Football Association's ambitious plan to introduce B-sides for Premier League clubs will not come to pass, according to chairman Greg Dyke.

Sky Sports broke the news on Friday:

Dyke has been tasked by the FA to improve the current conditions of English football, with a focus on homegrown talent. One of his ideas was to introduce a new league for 10 Premier League B-teams and 10 Football Conference sides.

But the suggestion immediately met a wave of criticism, according to BBC Sport. Football League executive Shaun Harvey knew the clubs weren't interested, saying: " It's fair to say there is no appetite among clubs for the use of B teams or Strategic Loan Partnerships in the football pyramid."

The FA released a statement on Friday detailing Dyke's plans for the future, and it included no mention of the proposed league. Sky Sports' Lyall Thomas saw it as a sign the FA had given up on the controversial plans:

Instead, it now appears the FA will focus on infrastructure and coaching, and Minister of Sport Helen Grant shared her enthusiasm for the plans in the FA's statement:

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I welcome The FA’s plans to strengthen the game at the grassroots through improved facilities and coaching. This will build on the successful partnership between the government and football’s £102m Premier League and The FA Facilities Fund.

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The FA will build 150 new football hubs across 30 English cities and invest £230 million in more than 600 3G pitches, designed to be playable in all conditions, according to The Guardian's Owen Gibson.

Funding is still an issue, per Gibson, and the FA will start by testing the new facilities with a pilot project in Sheffield.

A second point of emphasis will be coaching. England currently has less than 10,000 B-license holders and just 205 UEFA-pro license holders, according to Gibson, which is far less than some of the top nations in international football boast, like Germany and Spain.  The FA would also like to increase the number of minority coaches, per the FA's report:

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Set and deliver a target to significantly increase – above the levels of Football’s Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Plan – the number of qualified coaches from BAME backgrounds and others who are under-represented, including female coaches.

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A new organisation tasked with the training and development of coaches was Dyke's second big revelation on Friday, and combined with the new football hubs, he hopes English football will soon undergo a transformation for the better:

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This is a fairly radical change in coaching, with the way that it is run. And if we can meet these targets and find the money to do the football hubs in the cities, I think we will transform football and the way it is played in those cities.

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Both innovations follow the pattern set by some of the most successful nations of the past decade (Spain and Germany), but neither of those nations have a division specifically designed for B-teams.

Instead, B-teams play in the lower divisions and follow the same structure for promotion and relegation as other teams do, with rules in place to prevent those teams from ever reaching the Bundesliga or La Liga level.

A similar structure could still be an option for the current Premier League sides, although it appears that for now, the idea of B-teams will have to make way for other priorities.

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