Rangers

English Football League won't admit Celtic, Rangers or Premier League B teams

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:37 p.m. ET

Ryan Rosenblatt

The English Football League, which governs the second, third and fourth divisions in the country's sport, decided that they will not allow Premier League B teams into their competitions or any non-English clubs. That rules out Celtic and Rangers.

The EFL board met to debate adding another division, but limiting each competition to 20 teams. So instead of three divisions that have a total of 72 teams, as is the case now, they would have four divisions with a total of 80 teams. A decision was not made on that, with the board deciding to wait until a vote next summer, but they did rule out any foreign or B teams.

Neither Celtic nor Rangers, or any other foreign clubs, applied or even asked to be included in the Football League, so it's not as if anyone was rejected. Still, this rules out the possibility of the two Scottish clubs joining the English pyramid, as has been bandied about for years.

Premier League clubs have expressed interested in adding B teams to the pyramid. They believe it would provide better competition for their reserves and young players, which wouldn't just strengthen them, but would also help England produce better young talent. Other countries, including Spain and Germany, allow B teams to play in lower leagues, but England has resisted that so far, at least for now.

If the Football League decides to expand to four divisions and 20 teams each, the eight new teams will almost certainly come from the current fifth-tier National League, with those eight teams joining the newly created League Three fifth division.

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