Aberdeen reject invitation to enter B team in proposed Scottish Conference League
- Published
Rangers and Celtic B teams finished second and third respectively in this season's Lowland League
Aberdeen have rejected the idea of entering a B team into a proposed new Conference League as it would need 55 players costing £400,000 more per year.
The proposed new fifth tier to sit between League 2 and the Highland and Lowland Leagues is due to be voted on at the Scottish FA annual meeting.
All 42 SPFL senior clubs have been invited to express an interest.
But Aberdeen chief executive Alan Burrows says the Premiership club would prefer "to explore other options".
One would be "a strategic partnership with another SPFL club, where expanding some of the loan regulations would be key to ensuring Aberdeen FC continues to be one of the best developers of young talent in the country".
Celtic and Rangers first entered sides into the Lowland League two seasons ago, with Heart of Midlothian following for this campaign.
At present, the Lowland League and Highland League winners meet in a two-leg play-off semi-final before facing the bottom side in the Scottish Professional Football League's League 2, with B teams barred from winning promotion or being relegated.
However, the governing bodies' Pyramid Working Group wants to replace that in 2024-25 with a Conference League that would include B teams along with two clubs from the Highland League and four from the Lowland League.
A number of Highland League clubs and others sitting in the Lowland League and below have criticised the proposal, pointing out that it would automatically relegate those of them who currently have ambitions to climb the pyramid, making their journey to the SPFL longer.
"We spent considerable time assessing the impact on our player development strategy, including the player pathway, and reviewed the cost/benefit of entering a B team in the Conference League," Burrows told Aberdeen's website.
"We also took account of feedback from other stakeholders, supporters and considered the decades long relationships we've had with Junior and Highland League clubs, including clubs who are now established in the SPFL."
Burrows said his board decided that "one size does not fit all" and therefore the Conference League was not suitable for Aberdeen.
"We have young players who need experience at higher levels in the pyramid," he explained. "To accommodate that, and have a full-time B team, we would need to have around 55 full-time players. We estimated additional annual costs of around £400,000.
"We will therefore continue to push our best young talent to our first team as quickly as possible, along with using the loan market to provide player pathway experience, which has been impactful for the club over many years."