It is a debate that has been long avoided, but the current crisis may force English football to consider whether the moment has come for feeder clubs to become part of the new normal.
Amid suggestions from senior figures in the game that as many as ten Football League clubs will go bust ‘within weeks’, the panic button is set to be hit by clubs outside of the Premier League – and radical solutions may need to be found amid the global Covid-19 pandemic.
With Manchester United legend Gary Neville – who is also the co-owner of League Two side Salford City – leading the calls for England’s mega-rich top clubs to bail out their financially-stricken lower-league rivals, a solution that may now be the only way to plot a route forward.
In a story that has echoes of the debate raging over what happens next for League of Ireland clubs, England’s League One and League Two sides cannot sustain a long-term business model if spectators are not part of their annual revenue stream.
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Even if football is to return at some point this year, paying fans may not be part of the story until a vaccine or therapeutic remedies to the coronavirus are found – and that means dozens of clubs may not be able to justify staging matches until well into 2021.
Yet the prospects of a club like Salford could be changed in an instant if neighbours Manchester United were given permission to invest heavily into their future and were allowed to field what would effectively be their U-23 squad under their name in League Two next season.
Liverpool could snap up Tranmere and look to play their vast array of academy talent in League One, while Arsenal could forge a similar partnership with Barnet, and Tottenham could link themselves to Leyton Orient.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have fielded their rising stars in the third tier of Spanish football, yet the prospect of a similar system being introduced in England has long been met with dissent from lower league clubs, who argue the soul of the game would be erased in an instant.
Traditionalists will argue that the 92-team league structure, that has been in place for generations, cannot be tampered with, yet a scenario that could see 20 lower league teams running into a crippling financial calamity over the next few months must surely shift some opinions.
"I am against B Teams and feeder clubs in lower leagues – but maybe there could be a happy medium," declares Sky Sports analyst Neville.
"Whether you’re a supporter of Rochdale or Manchester United or Liverpool, you’re proud of your club and you’re proud they stand on their own two feet, but we can look at ways to make the relationship between the top and bottom of the game work better.
"I heard it suggested at a meeting a few weeks ago that it would be very helpful if Premier League clubs and Championship clubs could loan players down to League One and League Two for no money.
"The teams doing the loan down would ordinarily charge for this.
"I think if you wanted to relieve the economic pain for the next two or three years, you could potentially soften the economic blow in the lower divisions by not charging.
"Everyone would benefit.
“That’s what I’d say is a half-way house between losing the integrity of the lower-league clubs, but sustaining how things are at this moment in time.”
With so many top-tier clubs boasting academy set-ups that house dozens of talented young players, the loan system has become something of a sideline business that is used to offload the wages of players that may never get near their first team.
All loan deals have a fee attached and Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony, who has become one of the figureheads of the push to get League One action back underway in the weeks since he spoke to the Sunday World at the start of this crisis, supports Neville’s efforts to change the loan system as it stands.
"We are giving players from other clubs game time that will allow them to improve and rise in value and for that privilege, we pay them big money on top," MacAnthony says. “This can’t be right.
"In fact, it’s fundamentally and morally wrong.
"We are developing players for clubs that don’t have space for them in their teams and it is costing us a fortune to do it.
"We went after a couple of Premier League player loans in the summer and we were quoted £5,000 a week for a 52-week loan, when the season is only 40-odd weeks long.
"So we need to stick together and say the maximum wage in League Two is £750-a-week and £1,250 in League One.
"Forget these loan fees as well.
"If the Premier League clubs are paying teenagers £5,000-a-week, they can top up their wages as we give them the stage to improve as players and return to their clubs worth far more than when they arrived."
Former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood is among those who believes the feeder club model could work in England, with his experience of working at Swindon Town allowing him to see the challenges of working in lower league football.
"The reason why other countries bring their young players through so well is because they have feeder clubs,” stated former Blackburn Premier League title-winning captain Sherwood.
"People don’t want to hear this but to accelerate the development of young English players we need to have feeder clubs in League One and League Two.
"There is enough clubs out there who are willing enough to do it for their clubs, who are dying a slow death and haemorrhaging money.
"Young players need to play serious, competitive, football to develop.
"Play for points, play in front of crowds,” added Sherwood.
"Clubs will be willing to open their arms out to Premier League teams and say ‘you can use this club for your young player’ but the FA has to allow it to happen."
At present, Premier League clubs are not allowed to acquire lower league teams and use them as a breeding grounds for their young talent.
An attempt to open a discussion on the issue back in 2013 was thrown out by Football League chairmen. Yet they may think differently now.
All sports need to rapidly adapt to a new world that may force opinions to be shifted like never before.
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