Schalke U23 0-0 Koln U23
26 April 2013
Jahnstadion - Bottrop
Regional League West
Are you sure you are ready?
In the aftermath of semi final ECL wins for BVB and Bayern, there has been alot of noise from England about needing to copy the 'German Model'. Fine, I have no issue with that, but just a word of caution. When copying a model, you can't just take the bits you like and ignore the bits you don't. And that leads us to the Jahnstadion athletics track in Bottrop (home to VFB Bottrop 1900) on a cold spring Friday afternoon. For it was here (2pm kick off) that the under 23 teams for Schalke and Koln played out a Regional League West bore draw. Regional League West is not an U23 league, it is the fourth tier of Germand Football.
A number of U23 sides (often you will see suffix 'II' instead) play in the league system. Two (Stuttgart and Dortmund) are in the thrid tier (which is a national league), and there are 7 in Regional League West alone, mixed in with famous sides such as Rot Weiss Essen and Oberhausen. The squads are fixed, rules are tight (minimum number of tiers between Full and U23 sides can result in U23 teams being refused promotion or enforced relegation dependent on how the full side does) and crowds are normally small (no surprise that only Dortmund II have anything resembling decent crowds in the North West).
Most ground share with a local side, or play on a training pitch next to the main stadium and rarely play in the main stadium themselves and there appears to be a conscious effort to see these side as their own separate entity. There is no attempt to kick U23 games off at a different time to full sides, they have their own fixtures, and, to be honest, when scores of BMG II are flashed up at Borussia Park, they result in little more than a murmour from the home fans. But these sides are seen as an important part of the development of players, allowing the parent club to have far greater control over players than perhaps they would if they used the loan system.
In the ultra-traditionalist world of English football, are we sure we are ready for such a revolution?
A number of U23 sides (often you will see suffix 'II' instead) play in the league system. Two (Stuttgart and Dortmund) are in the thrid tier (which is a national league), and there are 7 in Regional League West alone, mixed in with famous sides such as Rot Weiss Essen and Oberhausen. The squads are fixed, rules are tight (minimum number of tiers between Full and U23 sides can result in U23 teams being refused promotion or enforced relegation dependent on how the full side does) and crowds are normally small (no surprise that only Dortmund II have anything resembling decent crowds in the North West).
Most ground share with a local side, or play on a training pitch next to the main stadium and rarely play in the main stadium themselves and there appears to be a conscious effort to see these side as their own separate entity. There is no attempt to kick U23 games off at a different time to full sides, they have their own fixtures, and, to be honest, when scores of BMG II are flashed up at Borussia Park, they result in little more than a murmour from the home fans. But these sides are seen as an important part of the development of players, allowing the parent club to have far greater control over players than perhaps they would if they used the loan system.
In the ultra-traditionalist world of English football, are we sure we are ready for such a revolution?