Richard Scudamore hails start of Under-21 Premier League

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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.24.1.1/15995?ns=guardian&pageName=Richard+Scudamore+hails+start+of+Under-21+Premier+League%3AArticle%3A1789682&ch=Football&c3=GU.co.uk&c4=Premier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport&c5=Premier+League&c6=Jamie+Jackson&c7=12-Aug-18&c8=1789682&c9=Article&c10=News&c11=Football&c13=&c25=&c30=content&c42=Sport&h2=GU%2FSport%2FFootball%2FPremier+League" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">• League is to bridge gap between youth and senior football<br />• The vote to go ahead with League was unanimous</p><p>The new Under-21 Premier League began on Friday evening with Richard Scudamore stating that the competition is "to create an experience for players" to bridge the gap between youth and senior football.</p><p>Scudamore, the chief executive of the Premier League, said: "We'd like to be able to almost start a nursery league on a different basis so, if people are there genuinely looking to support and clap and cheer positive play – whether that happens to be for your team or someone else – that would be good. So there is an element of an opportunity for this under-21 league to run on [not] quite the same basis as the first team.</p><p>"Yet at the same time [we are] trying to create an experience for players that is a little nearer [to senior football] because sometimes for a player the first time they walk on to a pitch at the first-team stadium is when they get off the subs bench."</p><p>Asked if the vote on the league – which was implemented as part of the overall EPP package – had been unanimous, Scudamore said: "Yeah. There are elements of this whole plan that people have got some issues with. I don't think there's a club out there that doesn't have issues with some of it. But as Jez Moxey, Tony Scholes and Ivan Gazidis [respective chief executives of Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City and Arsenal] who were the big voices round the table on this topic, said: 'There are bits of this we don't like but we are not going to vote it down on a single issue element because the overall scheme of things is much more important.'"</p><p>The league's format consists of three pools – National Group One, Two and Three – in which a minimum of two fixtures are played at a club's home stadium. The top three teams from Group One, which has eight sides, and the top two from Two and Three (seven apiece) qualify for the Elite Group, with the other clubs progressing to Qualification Group Tier One or Qualification Group Tier Two depending on their final position.</p><p>The teams then play home and away with the top three teams from the Elite Group qualifying for the knockout semi-finals, with the fourth side taken from a play-off from the other two pools. The opening matches featured West Ham United beating Reading 3-1 and Chelsea being held to a goalless draw by Manchester City.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague">Premier League</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jamiejackson">Jamie Jackson</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" /><img width='1' height='1' src='http://guardian.co.uk.feedsportal.com/c/34708/f/639039/s/227daf71/mf.gif' border='0'/><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/139263289586/u/49/f/639039/c/34708/s/227daf71/a2.htm"><img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/139263289586/u/49/f/639039/c/34708/s/227daf71/a2.img" border="0"/></a><img width="1" height="1" src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/139263289586/u/49/f/639039/c/34708/s/227daf71/a2t.img" border="0"/>
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