Football League Draws Up Plan For Premier League 'B' Teams

The Football League "is to present an alternative proposal" to FA Chair Greg Dyke’s "controversial League Three plan that would incorporate Premier League B teams in an expanded Johnstone’s Paint Trophy to include a group stage," according to Henry Winter of the London TELEGRAPH. Dyke "attends the Football League’s summer meeting in Faro next week when he will discuss his own commission’s plan" to create a League Three with Premier League B teams and Conference clubs. The idea is for 16 B teams from clubs with Category One academies "to join the 48 League Two and League One clubs in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on a trial basis for the next two seasons." The League’s proposal includes the stipulation that B teams "would have to play at their club’s home stadium with gate receipts going into a central pot to be divided by the 48 lower-league clubs" (TELEGRAPH, 5/27).