Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt has branded suggestions that Premier League B teams could be introduced into the EFL as 'absolute nonsense'.
Manchester City's chief executive Ferran Soriano has brought up the idea that top flight B teams could play in divisions below the Premier League as part of a restructure.
Soriano believes that the EFL is currently not sustainable, which he feels was the case before the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent financial hardships that clubs have endured as a result.
He told Leaders Week: "One of the challenges is the EFL (is) a business that is not sustainable enough.
"They were discussing ways to improve it, they were discussing salary caps. Now they were sort of nudged, almost pushed, to solve the existing problems because of the crisis. It's a good opportunity for the different elements of the football business to get together and solve these problems.
"There are other problems; the challenges of developing players in England where B teams are not allowed, we have a development gap of boys that are 17 or 18, they don't find the right place to develop and, for example, they are taken from us by the German teams, who try to sell them back to us for a price which is 10 times what they paid.
"This is mad, right? This is something we needed to solve and now maybe the crisis will give us the opportunity and will nudge us to get together and solve these issues."
The idea of Premier League B teams being introduced into the EFL is one that has been floating around for years now, having been first suggested by former FA chairman Greg Dyke in 2014, and Premier League under-21 sides have been playing in the EFL Trophy since 2016.
Bolton boss Evatt has responded to the suggestions and feels the idea is 'absolute nonsense' and would take away a 'fundamental' part of British society and communities.
He said: “It’s easy to say that sat in your ivory tower isn’t it.
"This is a fundamental part of not only Britain as a whole but as our society and communities, football clubs are part of our communities and towns.
"Bolton as a football club has a rich history and it’s one town, one club, one community, it’s that ethos and if you take EFL clubs away and you start developing these rich B teams, you’re going to lose a huge part of what we stand for as people. Working class people.
"This is what this game was brought in to be, we developed the game, we introduced the game and it was for working class people.
"So why should, just because you’re sat in an ivory tower, take that away from the working class man. For me that’s absolute nonsense."
