togo

In Germany all the bigger clubs have a reserve team in the lower leagues and if I remember right cannot get into the top two leagues so can only go as high as the top regional league or liga III as it is now as I think the German league pyramid system has recently been revamped with 3 top leagues and then the regional structure below that.

A lot of the lower regional teams in Germany are semi-professional as in Scotland and their system works well. It works both ways as it allows the large clubs to field young players or squad fringe players and allows the smaller clubs to get extra revenue from the visits of bigger clubs.

For example in Germany Weder Bremen's 2nd team is just called Weder Bremen II and they have a squad which is announced at the start of the season just like any other club. Some clubs like Bremen also have a 3rd team that plays in the regional leagues. As I remember there are quite specific rules for those involved with those teams.

In addition these teams do not play in the Pokal Cup (Scottish Cup equivalent).

If we were to have a fixed number of top level teams wishing to enter reserve teams (i.e Celtic II) then the lower leagues could be restructured accordingly possibly on a regional basis that may also help the finances of the lower league clubs with lower travelling costs when they are in the lower leagues. It is definitely an avenue that should be explored further.

Those reserve teams are a real problem to the most german clubs having to play against them. They don't bring fans (less incomings and atmosphere), their line up is way too often unpredictable, which leads to competitive distortion, when one game is played with their original squad, but another with convalescent Bundesliga players. I remember a match of Eintracht Braunschweig visiting Werder Bremen II mounting up with a number of six Bundesliga Players - two of them having played for national squads before. Werder won 4-2. One week later Werder II had to face VfB Luebeck away, and without any Bundesliga players they lost 0-3. Braunschweig and Luebeck were rivals for promotion to 2. Bundesliga... Those issues are no exception. It happens almost every match day.