This won't be a particularly groundbreaking thread, but it didn't quite fit into any of the Academy/TV/General Football topics we have already so here we go...
The Football League have announced their
EFL Futures campaign, which is meant to promote young English talent across its divisions
Basically the idea is to 'reward' sides in the Football League who give opportunities to younger players, although with only £750,000 announced per season I'm not sure exactly what clubs could potentially earn per player
In terms of TV, starting with the 10 in 10 this Friday (Brighton vs Leeds, obviously), players eligible for
EFL Futures (English and U21) will have the letter
(F) circled in red next to their name whenever it's on screen, highlighting the young players for any viewers
The problem for us is that the players must be under the age of 21, which rules out Jake Cooper, George Evans, and John Swift (all aged 21 and English with 80 Reading appearances between them), and it means that Tennai Watson (aged 19, 2 league appearances) is the only player who has featured for us this season who fits the criteria
Despite this, John Swift was used to promote the initiative by the EFL at the launch yesterday, conducting a Q&A session and appearing in their promo video, despite technically being ineligible for the whole thing
https://twitter.com/EFL/status/806877055153487872The Daily Mail reports that 8 Football League clubs have failed to start an English (or Welsh if you're Cardiff & Newport) player under the age of 21 this season, although if they did their research they'd find that we haven't either (unless they're counting the EFL Cup, but unsurprisingly this whole thing isn't very clear)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... eason.htmlObviously the initiative is completely contradictory, given just last month League 1 & 2 clubs were fined a total of £60,000 for playing youngsters in the EFL Trophy (that competition designed to promote young English talent), now it seems you will get rewarded for playing understrength sides....
So yes, the big questions are...
Will this save the national team?
Will Reading struggle due to a lack of specifically U21 English talent?
Will Portsmouth earn enough to recuperate their fine for picking a understrength team of youngsters vs Reading U21s?
and
Is anyone actually bothered?