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Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 9:20 am
by Hog
Hands up anyone on here who will endorse this sort of nonsense ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36503204

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:32 am
by slappy

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:45 am
by Jimski
Nope, not going near it while this subservience to Premier League clubs distorts the competition - hope it ends up as an all U21 final, just to expose it for the bollocks it is.

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:49 am
by Jimski
And any idea how Oxford voted on this? I think they should make it public (perhaps it is already, but I can't find it.)

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 11:01 am
by Kairdiff Exile
According to this (and subsequent tweets), the dissenters were AFC Wimbledon, Accrington, Hartlepool, Luton, Portsmouth and Port Vale. Sounds as though our club, shamefully, supported the plans.

As has been said above, if it's two B Teams who get to the final, it'll show the whole thing up. No-one really makes any money in the tournament until the last few games, and will they get 60,000 at Wembley next year to watch two Premier League B Teams? Will they fuck.

A good campaign against the plans is being orchestrated on Twitter; follow @AgainstLeague3 and the #BTeamBoycott hashtag for more (apparently the Premiershi* clubs and the Football League are desperately trying to avoid the "B Team" name being used, which is even more reason to use it - if the emporer has no clothes, we should say so).

#AgainstModernFootball

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 11:14 am
by Jimski
And Peterborough, it seems, from reading through the thread. Which agrees with the 7 clubs voted against.

Very disappointed. Wonder if we can get an answer from the club as to why they supported this nonsense.

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 3:42 pm
by Radley Rambler
Jimski wrote:And Peterborough, it seems, from reading through the thread. Which agrees with the 7 clubs voted against.

Very disappointed. Wonder if we can get an answer from the club as to why they supported this nonsense.
Well I'm actually quite glad we didn't win this now. Never been a fan of the competition, the only JPT games I've ever attended were the two wins over the Scummers and that'll continue to be the only ones that I go to.

Of course, this rule change will give us the chance to play our Academy Team in the competition in 2 years time 8)

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 3:59 pm
by Dr Bob
The always-excellent twohundredpercent website has an article here about it:
http://twohundredpercent.net/football-l ... l-b-teams/

They also had an article three months ago warning of this plan:
http://twohundredpercent.net/pl-land-gr ... nt-trophy/

Disgusting.

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 6:41 pm
by Kernow Yellow
Apparently we voted in favour. Very, very disappointed by this.

There's supposed to be a statement on the club website about it but I keep getting a 'page not found' message. Reconsidering the content of the statement maybe? Anyone seen the text of it?

Meanwhile there's a petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/the-head-of-th ... -proposals

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 6:56 pm
by Jimski
Here's the statement from the site. Interesting that Eales was personally opposed to the B team idea.

"Club statement following EFL AGM
Following the EFL AGM 2016, Oxford United would like to clarify its stance on a number of proposals.

The League have agreed to pilot a new format for the EFL Trophy. A one season trial for season 2016/17 will include 64 teams made up of EFL League One and Two clubs, plus an additional 16 category 1 Premier League academy/under-21 sides.

Along with the majority of other clubs, the Oxford United Board voted to support this proposal strictly for one season only, having taken the wider deep concerns for the future of the competition into consideration.

The Oxford United Board’s vote was tight and while Chairman Darryl Eales was against the proposal, overall it was decided to support the League’s appeal to explore ways to secure the cup’s future and Darryl respected the overall vote.

After taking 34,000 fans to Wembley for the final this year the club is a big supporter of the competition and greatly appreciates its value. However, the discussion at the EFL Conference confirmed the competition is in serious need of innovation to survive. Numerous clubs voiced genuine concerns the competition would fold if it does not improve quickly, as the prize money and TV interest is low, and many clubs struggle to break-even from EFL Trophy matches. A number of clubs even stated they would withdraw from the competition if it was not boosted.

It was decided to support the decision to work on seeking to find bold ways to save the competition, which currently does not have a sponsor, but made it clear this was on the basis of the proposal being a one season trial period and if it does not work it will not be renewed. The prize money will now be double for next season.

We understand that many supporters will be surprised by this and some will disagree, however following careful consideration and discussion, overall the Board decided it was important to support and explore ways to ensure the competition can survive.

To be clear this is not a precursor to ‘B Teams’ entering the league structure and the Oxford United Board would absolutely be against this should it ever be proposed."

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:47 pm
by neilw
"serious need of innovation to survive" ...

If innovation is changing for the benefit of all things premier league, lower league clubs won't survive.

Poor justification from the club. However, I assume and hope we'd take a different stance now that the EFL chairman is no longer on our board.

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 8:42 pm
by Hog
Bit of an own goal by OUFC here and I'm not impressed with the wriggling in the explanation: if you don't like it then why vote yes? An abstention would have been preferable and a no would have been best.

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 9:09 pm
by Kernow Yellow
Hog wrote:Bit of an own goal by OUFC here and I'm not impressed with the wriggling in the explanation: if you don't like it then why vote yes? An abstention would have been preferable and a no would have been best.
Yeah what's all this 'Eales was against it' crap? Is he in charge of the club as owner or isn't he? Surely he makes decisions on behalf of the club. I think he's trying to maintain his good reputation with the fans. Could there be more to this than meets the eye? Maybe Lenegan insisted on support for this before agreeing the sale of his shares?

Anyway, it was a tinpot competition before these changes so I won't lose too much sleep. But I hope there is a serious organised boycott of all matches involving B teams.

FWIW, my idea for rebooting our domestic cup competitions would be to combine the League Cup and JPT, with all Football League clubs entering and maybe a small group stage to increase fixture numbers. Prem clubs would only have to enter the FA Cup, but could come in a round earlier to give more chances of playing smaller clubs and thus more giant-killing opportunities. Dont see why that wouldn't suit all parties (except Prem B teams obviously)...

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:42 am
by Kairdiff Exile
Kernow Yellow wrote:FWIW, my idea for rebooting our domestic cup competitions would be to combine the League Cup and JPT, with all Football League clubs entering and maybe a small group stage to increase fixture numbers. Prem clubs would only have to enter the FA Cup, but could come in a round earlier to give more chances of playing smaller clubs and thus more giant-killing opportunities. Dont see why that wouldn't suit all parties (except Prem B teams obviously)...
Funnily enough, I was having a pub discussion with friends about the challenges around domestic cup competitions, and we basically settled on almost the identical format as you suggested below. One suggestion I quite liked was that in a group stage for the revised League Cup / JPT with, say, 4/5 teams where each side plays each other once, the lowest-ranked club from the previous season gets to choose which games they play at home. They can then decide between money-spinning away ties at 'big' clubs or whether they want to give the competition their best shot by forcing the big guns to come to them.

On the wider issue of what Oxford United fans should do about the revised JPT, I favour a boycott (probably of the competition as a whole, but certainly of the B Team games as a minimum), and I have contacted OxVox to suggest that they co-ordinate one along one of the following lines:

- Fans boycott the games and instead spend the equivalent of their ticket price in the club shop. This prevents the club from suffering financially, but makes it clear that fans oppose the B Team concept and the low attendances serve as a reminder to the Board that they need to listen in future.

- Fans boycott the games and donate the equivalent of the ticket price to a local charity which the club is invited (by OxVox) to nominate. This, arguably, is preferable as it forces the club to recognise that they got this decision wrong, but allows them to repair the damage by helping a local charity.

Any thoughts on those?

Re: Hands up!

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 9:23 am
by theox
Hugely disappointed by Us voting in favour of this and I do not buy the 'explanation' either - "we were opposed but we voted for it anyway to save the competition". Nonsense.

I will be boycotting all games in this competition from now on. If we stand for this B Team nonsense now then who knows what other competitions they will be sneaking into next. I agree with KE's suggestion of making a donation to charity. Perhaps the OUFC Community Trust.

I am completely offended by this assumption that the powers-that-be seem to have that everything is rubbish unless there is some sort of Premiership involvement. I am an Oxford supporter and I want to watch Oxford play proper teams who are followed by proper supporters.