The Scottish FA have introduced a big plan to improve youth football across Scotland and it will affect Celtic.
The Celtic B team’s Lowland League participation will continue into next season as the Parkhead club looks to develop their youth players in a competitive environment.
Whether this approach is the correct one or not has been up for debate for a number of years but it is clear the club are keen for the Celtic B team to continue to participate.
Brendan Rodgers is doing what he can to progress youth from the Celtic Academy and last season saw the Hoops boss offer first team debuts to the likes of young talents Sean McArdle and Jude Bonnar.
However, it appears that the SFA have a grand plan put in place to improve youth development across Scotland and it will directly affect Celtic.
SFA CEO Ian Maxwell lays out youth development blueprint, will Celtic fans like it
SFA CEO Ian Maxwell has been quite vocal about issues surrounding Scottish football this summer and here, he turns his attention on how to develop youth across Scotland.
The national association boss has delivered a blueprint for the Challenge Cup and the new ‘Cooperation System’ which come into effect from the beginning of next season.
Maxwell told The Scottish Football Podcast, “Yeah, so the cooperation agreement will come in from the start of next season.
“I know there have been a lot of discussions between Premiership and Championship clubs and clubs further down the pyramid about what those arrangements, what those agreements, which clubs are going to partner up with which are going to look like.
“And those will be confirmed before the start of the campaign. There’s also been a change in the Challenge Cup, which is going to see B teams playing at least six games.
“They’re going to a more European style group stage, a league phase, rather, if you see what I mean, rather than the traditional knockout matches.
“So I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of that, because there’ll be a number of B teams that have only played half a dozen games over the five or six years that they’ve been involved in that competition.
“And if they can start to play six games minimum on an annual basis, that obviously gets more players. And we need to look at what’s next. Andy’s always looking at best practice across Europe. What are other countries doing? Would that translate into Scotland? How do we look at other opportunities to get our best young players playing as often as possible?
“That always needs to be done in conjunction with the clubs. The clubs have got a responsibility to play them as well.”
What the SFA’s plan to develop youth football really means for Celtic
Let’s start off with the plan for the Challenge Cup. Celtic B, along with the 11 other Scottish Premiership clubs, all participate in the tournament which has now been renamed as the KDM Evolution Cup.
Celtic have never won it, but with the new European style being introduced next season, the young Hoops will be exposed to another six extra competitive games which will hopefully help give them vital tournament experience they can take into the first-team.
As for the ‘Cooperation Agreement’ the Glasgow Times reports that Celtic are in talks with Queen’s Park to create a link up between the two clubs next season.
What that means is that Celtic can enter an agreement with a club from each of the lower divisions in the Scottish Leagues but not two in the same division.
Celtic can then send a maximum of three players at any one time to any of the lower league clubs at any point during the season, even outside the transfer window.
The current loan system will still function as normal. So it seems that the new legislation being put in place sounds good in theory, but Celtic fans will need to wait to see if the grand plan will work in practice.
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