The Premier League would benefit from allowing clubs to have B teams, according to Ferran Soriano.
The CEO of the City Football Group, which overseas operations for clubs around the world including Manchester City, New York City FC and Melbourne City FC, believes English teams would improve if clubs were able to give young players experience in a second team, much like they do in leagues across Europe.
“We call it the development gap,” said Soriano, speaking on a panel discussion about the economic impact of football clubs at the 13thannual Dubai International Sports Conference. “The one thing that they do very well in Europe but not so well in England is B teams, where you can have young players playing for clubs before they are ready for the first team.
“Taking young players to the first team has advantages in that if you have a consistent method of playing football, they already know how to play the style if they are home-grown players. It’s something Barcelona does very well.
“There’s also a financial incentive with bringing players into the first team from having them as a youngster in that you can recover your investment if you develop a teenager into a first-team player.”
Soriano was addressing a packed audience, which included former Real Madrid and England head coach Fabio Capello, at Madinat Jumeirah ahead of the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai.
Soriano, a former vice-president of Barcelona, also spoke of the importance of buying players purely for footballing reasons, insisting clubs like Manchester City bring in personnel for their talent on the pitch over shirt sales.
Panel talk: Soriano speaking at the Dubai International Sports Conference
“We [Manchester City] never ever buy a player for their commercial value,” he said. “If we have good players and they play beautiful football we will benefit commercially. If we try and buy a player to bring the club money, it’s like taking a shortcut and we will fail.
“I think it’s a myth that people are now supporting players instead of clubs. There are a few exceptions like David Beckham, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo who can take large amounts of fans with them when they move clubs but I can mention thousands more players where the rules do not apply.”
