Rage Online

Kernow Yellow wrote: Could there be more to this than meets the eye? Maybe Lenegan insisted on support for this before agreeing the sale of his shares?

Nah. Eales had to buy Lenegan's shares in July anyway, so the deal just went through a little earlier than originally planned.

That said, the club's statement is really poor, particularly with Eales saying he's against the proposal but was outvoted by the other directors. That sort of thing should stay in the boardroom and any public statement should be a united front.

Peterborough voted in favour:

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/spor ... -1-7428441

As did Exeter:

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/E ... story.html

..and Southend

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/blues/ ... phy_plans/

It gets worse:

http://www.eurosport.com/football/fans- ... tory.shtml

Premier League teams will be able to field U23 teams with 4 overage players allowed.
Penalty shoot-outs will take place if there is a draw in the group stage games.
Extra time will be brought in for the knock out stages if 'commercially' advantageous.

The JPT has been very unpopular for years, unless your team reaches the area final stage.

Those who moan about the competition can't really complain about changes to it if they don't want to see the competition in the first place.

There was a short discussion on Facebook about the new version of the competition. My view is that I have no problem in bringing in Premier League under 21s, provided the whole competition is made into an under 21s Cup. That would have positive outcomes for all sides, in that it would give competitive game time to younger players, and it would give an opportunity to those who wanted to, to see future stars of the game.

Whether it would be commercially successful would be debatable, but it would be better than the present fiasco.

On Eales not agreeing with the OUFC board decision, I am glad that we have a Chairman and majority shareholder who is prepared to work on a democratic board basis and not throw his weight around forcing decisions on those who don't agree. That is also good for potential fan membership of the board as it means fans would have a proper voice. I also think it is healthy to have more openness on board decisions, but where Eales did get it wrong was in announcing only his vote, which kinda makes him appear to be seeking fan glory. Had the votes of all the board members been published, that would have been better and would still have served Eales purpose in a slightly less egotistical way.

Thanks for the pointer to the thread.

http://www.oufc.co.uk/news/article/2016 ... 70893.aspx

Group stages are an EPL B team, plus either 2 L1 1 L2 or 1 L1 2L2 teams, regionalised. With the EPL B team getting one home game at their main ground.

The round dates from the third group match onwards are all after FA Cup weekend up until the Trophy Final, so as unpopular as this competition is already, fans will be expected to buy tickets to both the FA Cup and the Trophy in the same week (assuming we progress past the trophy group stage / FA Cup 1st round).

Also interesting that the EPL B teams don't get to keep all of their revenue share in the competition, it goes into a fund to be shared out equally between all L1 and L2 clubs.

I do genuinely believe that this is the 'foot in the door' the Premier League needs to start the process to get B Teams into the League.

Although it is not helpful to OUFC, the only way to show the League that we will not stand for such nonsense is to boycott this tournament or, at the very least, the B Team games.

Hopefully, this should not be too difficult to organise as not many people turn up for this tournament unless it's Sw**don or the later rounds anyway!



Worth looking at:

http://www.againstleague3.co.uk/

theox wrote:Although it is not helpful to OUFC, the only way to show the League that we will not stand for such nonsense is to boycott this tournament or, at the very least, the B Team games.

Hopefully, this should not be too difficult to organise as not many people turn up for this tournament

So how will anyone know if we're boycotting or not?

But I completely agree - I hope that a really minimal number of people turn up to any game against one of these invited 'academy teams.

They should charge the Premiersh!te clubs half a million quid each to enter or fine 'em a million quid if they decline to put a team in and split the proceeds equally between the 72 no matter how far they progress. I still won't go to any of the games though (unless it's the final at Wembley against a member of the 72!)

http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2016/07/w ... petitions/

Well said.

It's quite sneaky that they started off at the AGM saying "The 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."

And then it has changed to "inviting 16 clubs with Cat 1 Academies" and the starting line-up is "Invited Clubs – 6 of the starting 11 to be U21 (as at June 30)."

So it's changed from playing academy sides, to inviting certain teams with an academy, and then playing six U-21s.

I would have thought that with the number of age groups the Cat1 academies run, they should be more than capable of putting together a team + subs from their U18s and U21s.

Hog wrote:They should charge the Premiersh!te clubs half a million quid each to enter or fine 'em a million quid if they decline to put a team in and split the proceeds equally between the 72 no matter how far they progress. I still won't go to any of the games though (unless it's the final at Wembley against a member of the 72!)

I've just realised of course that only 48 proper teams compete! But the same entry fee should apply!

So it's Slumdon, Chelsea B and Exeter we've been handed in the "draw", which didn't seem to be broadcast or streamed anywhere. Has anyone heard of an offical OUFC fans boycott or comment from OxVox yet?

Oxvox have previously said that they oppose B Teams but it is up to individual fans if they want to boycott.

The regionalised draw is laughable for some teams. Cambridge and Middlesbrough in the same group. WBA and Gillingham. to name just a couple of the many odd match-ups.

This has become even more of a joke competition than it was as JPT.

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=5907

Well worth a read. As is:

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/feature/ ... ision.html