FEEDER teams have been mentioned a lot over the years in Scottish football and it’s something that I’m in favour of. In Scotland, the traditional polarised view of our national game into ‘the Old Firm’ and ‘the rest’ meant that the subject was often treated as a symbol of the Glasgow giants adopting a colonial approach towards the lower divisions.

Since then, the huge changes to Scottish football over the past decade mean that this should no longer be the case. Every club in Scotland is now a selling club and youth development should be key for all as a result. Rangers, Hearts and Hibs are all Championship clubs … but the Edinburgh sides, plus Dundee United and Aberdeen, are in a more financially stable situation than the Govan side and could probably support B teams.

In the midst of all this, Dundee United are being linked with a move to buy Australian A-League side, Newcastle Jets. This is where I draw the line however. I’m in favour of feeder teams but not of feeder clubs.

Feeder teams are something unusual to us in Scotland but across Europe they’re part of the norm. I’ve mentioned Ryan Gauld frequently in this column and he has, of course, been mainly turning out for Sporting Lisbon’s B team in the lower Portuguese leagues.

B teams are also part of the footballing landscape in Spain and even in a country of comparable size to Scotland – Slovakia. Flicking through a sports paper there I discovered that the top four clubs in the country all have B sides playing in the second tier (the second tier is divided into two regionalised divisions, East and West).

Young players have the benefit of being able to keep developing with the team-mates they’ve grown up with and working with coaches putting across the philosophy of the club they’re aiming to make the grade with. All this while being exposed to the competitive edge of league football.

So what’s the difference between this and the partnership potential of Dundee United buying another club? The difference lies in serving the interests of the fans involved. The aims, hopes and interests of an ‘A’ team and a ‘B’ team are aligned because they’re part of the same club. The aims of two different clubs? They’re not going to be aligned. They have different fanbases chasing different achievements.

Of course, there’s another current example with a few thousand less miles in between. Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United and interest in Rangers has come in for scrutiny from the SFA recently. Two huge clubs with large and passionate fanbases but operating within very different circumstances.

In the case of Ashley ever being adjudged by UEFA to have control of Rangers, only one club would be eligible for European competition. In the medium- to long-term, the aim would surely be to have both competing at that level – so how can that work? One has to become subservient to the other and that cannot be right.

Of course, it may be that my view of owning more than one club has been jaundiced by the others that I’ve seen do it over the years. Robert Maxwell and Vladimir Romanov are hardly figures that I’d like to see used as role models within the game.

I’d be happy to see Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd B teams in the lower leagues. What I don’t want to see are other clubs being turned into B teams in disguise.

Agree or disagree with what Teddy has written? You can tweet him @RossTeddyCraig or online via his website, ascottishwriter.com FEEDER teams have been mentioned a lot over the years in Scottish football and it’s something that I’m in favour of. In Scotland, the traditional polarised view of our national game into ‘the Old Firm’ and ‘the rest’ meant that the subject was often treated as a symbol of the Glasgow giants adopting a colonial approach towards the lower divisions.

Since then, the huge changes to Scottish football over the past decade mean that this should no longer be the case. Every club in Scotland is now a selling club and youth development should be key for all as a result. Rangers, Hearts and Hibs are all Championship clubs … but the Edinburgh sides, plus Dundee United and Aberdeen, are in a more financially stable situation than the Govan side and could probably support B teams.

In the midst of all this, Dundee United are being linked with a move to buy Australian A-League side, Newcastle Jets. This is where I draw the line however. I’m in favour of feeder teams but not of feeder clubs.

Feeder teams are something unusual to us in Scotland but across Europe they’re part of the norm. I’ve mentioned Ryan Gauld frequently in this column and he has, of course, been mainly turning out for Sporting Lisbon’s B team in the lower Portuguese leagues.

B teams are also part of the footballing landscape in Spain and even in a country of comparable size to Scotland – Slovakia. Flicking through a sports paper there I discovered that the top four clubs in the country all have B sides playing in the second tier (the second tier is divided into two regionalised divisions, East and West).

Young players have the benefit of being able to keep developing with the team-mates they’ve grown up with and working with coaches putting across the philosophy of the club they’re aiming to make the grade with. All this while being exposed to the competitive edge of league football.

So what’s the difference between this and the partnership potential of Dundee United buying another club? The difference lies in serving the interests of the fans involved. The aims, hopes and interests of an ‘A’ team and a ‘B’ team are aligned because they’re part of the same club. The aims of two different clubs? They’re not going to be aligned. They have different fanbases chasing different achievements.

Of course, there’s another current example with a few thousand less miles in between. Mike Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United and interest in Rangers has come in for scrutiny from the SFA recently. Two huge clubs with large and passionate fanbases but operating within very different circumstances.

In the case of Ashley ever being adjudged by UEFA to have control of Rangers, only one club would be eligible for European competition. In the medium- to long-term, the aim would surely be to have both competing at that level – so how can that work? One has to become subservient to the other and that cannot be right.

Of course, it may be that my view of owning more than one club has been jaundiced by the others that I’ve seen do it over the years. Robert Maxwell and Vladimir Romanov are hardly figures that I’d like to see used as role models within the game.

I’d be happy to see Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd B teams in the lower leagues. What I don’t want to see are other clubs being turned into B teams in disguise.

Agree or disagree with what Teddy has written? You can tweet him @RossTeddyCraig or online via his website, ascottishwriter.com