HAMILTON manager John Rankin has welcomed ambitious SFA plans to create “cooperation clubs” in Scottish football – but argued that expanding the Championship to 16 teams could increase the number of promising youngsters who make a successful step up into the senior game.
A working party comprising members of the SFA professional game board and the SPFL competitions working group is currently assessing the key recommendations contained in the Transition Phase paper that was published back by the governing body back in May.
Co-authors Andy Gould, the SFA chief football officer, and Chris Docherty, the head of elite men’s strategy, would like to see a move towards a system which has helped youth players force their way into the first team at top flight clubs in countries such as Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
They believe that Premiership and Championship clubs should be able to sign agreements with clubs lower down the pyramid system which would see between three and five of their players – who must be eligible to play for Scotland and be under a certain age - to move freely between them outside of the transfer windows.
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Gould and Docherty feel it would allow talented prospects who are only at their clubs to provide injury cover for established first team players or to satisfy UEFA locally trained player quotas in the Champions league, Europa League and Conference League to get regular and invaluable game time at a critical stage in their development.
Former Ross County, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hibernian, Dundee United, Falkirk, Queen of the South and Clyde midfielder Rankin acknowledged the scheme would, if approved by the 42 SPFL member clubs, be hugely beneficial to Scotland’s best kids.
However, the ex-PFA Scotland chairman, who led Hamilton back into the Championship via the end-of-season play-offs back in May, reckons having 12 teams in the Premiership and 10 teams in the Championship, League 1 and League 2 currently makes it difficult for managers to take chances on kids.
He accepts there is no prospect of the top flight being increased in size – but he thinks that expanding the second tier might enable more youngsters to get on the park and savour a taste of competitive action.
“But in the Championship in the past couple of seasons it has been really, really competitive. On the last day in the last couple of seasons you had teams playing to win the title, like when Dundee played Queen’s Park last year, and teams playing to avoid relegation.
“A couple of seasons ago, there were six teams which could qualify for the play-offs, three teams which could win the league and three teams which could go down. Basically, every team bar one had something to play for on the last day of the season.
“It is the same the further down the leagues you go. In League 1 last season on the last day of the season there were three teams which could go down. It is tough for a manager to take a chance on young kids in that environment, when so much is riding on every result.
“If you went with a bigger league then it might not be as competitive, but we could probably bleed more youngsters into it because there is not as much of a threat to the club by playing them. Therefore they get an opportunity. There is no way we can play a team of 16 or 17-year-olds just now.”
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Rankin added: “You can’t change the number of teams in the Premiership, that is not an option. But could we make the Championship a 16 team league?
“It is a very good, competitive league with good players in it at the moment. But we could get more youngsters into it if we increased the number of teams. That would be a double-edged sword because you are taking away some of the competitiveness.
“But there are players coming through who could make the grade if they got a chance. There is a lot of talent there, of course there is. Is it a risk to play kids? It depends on the environment they are going into.”
Rankin took up a position as a youth coach at Hearts when he retired from playing and worked with the best youngsters coming through the ranks at Tynecastle – including current Brentford defender and Scotland internationalist Aaron Hickey.
He feels that one of the reasons more kids don’t make a successful transition from age-group sides to the first team is because many of them are not of a sufficient standard.
“Everyone has got a chance. But there are so many factors in Scotland which stop players fulfilling their talent. I have got a really strong opinion on football and youth development and the way things are going within that. I don’t think it is anything to do with the SFA, it is more of a culture thing in Scotland. But that is maybe for another day.”
