CRAIG MULHOLLAND has revealed that Rangers are still hopeful of a league reconstruction format being implemented that would allow for an Ibrox B team to be introduced into the lower leagues.
The head of the youth academy at the Light Blues has spent the summer brainstorming with sporting director Ross Wilson to try and devise a solution to allow reserve sides into the Scottish football pyramid.
Mulholland believes the addition of B teams from the bottom tier would not only benefit Rangers, but the Scottish game as a whole.
And with the likes of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain all following this format, the 50-year-old is convinced it is about time Scotland followed suit.
Speaking to Rangers TV he explained: “It was quite widely reported that Rangers produced a paper, which was at the time when league reconstruction was topical.
“One of the big things in it for us, we were quite open about that, was a B team. We think that is fundamental to our players from academy to first team.
“It was reported wrongly that it had been voted on and dismissed, that was never the case it never went forward for a vote.
“Stewart Robertson, Ross Wilson, myself and Andrew Dixon have been working our way around all 42 clubs on Zoom calls explaining the concept behind the paper.
“That has been a great exercise, it has been a long exercise, but it has been a great exercise because we built relationships with Rangers and all these other clubs.
“It has allowed us to ascertain some ideas or thoughts that we might not have had that we can build into the paper with a view of taking it forward to season 2021/22.”
Mulholland drew upon Croatia as a recent and prime example of a B team setup resulting in major successes for the national team.
He continued: “The B team concept is fundamental to what we are trying to do here, but we also think fundamental to the development of the national game in Scotland.
“So if we take Croatia as an example, which is a very similar country to Scotland in terms of population base, they had 67 per cent of their players who reached the World Cup final had come through B teams in their country.
“Only from Hajduk Split, Dinamo Zagreb and Osijek, so not loads of B teams but it was a critical part for the bigger clubs to get players from their academies to the first teams.
“If you look at the top twelve leagues in Europe, eight of the top twelve leagues are now operating with B teams.
“We are not looking at a concept that has not worked elsewhere, that we are trying to recreate. It is something that we know is successful.”
On how the addition of reserve teams to Scotland’s leagues could benefit smaller clubs in the country, Mulholland added: “Most importantly it is not just to have a B team in the paper, there is a menu of options.
“We live in a country where we have clubs with different revenue bases, different objectives and I think probably what we have tried in the past is a one size fits all for all clubs and that will never work.
“What we are saying to clubs is be a bit entrepreneurial with the way we develop talent and actually choose from a menu.
“So there are things like strategic partnerships, greater loans, there will be B teams, there are a whole range of things and then what clubs can then do is say ‘what best fits our model but ultimately then benefits young Scottish players’.
“For Rangers it has been a big piece of work for us and something we are passionately behind and we will continue to push because in order to get the success of the work we have done over the last five years, we need to make sure we get the transition bit right to the first team.”
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