Bring back the reserve league - Karim Zito

Former Black Stars player and experienced trainer, Abdul Karim Zito is worried over the absence of the reserve league in the country.

The coach who is credited for developing young talents believes, the absence of the reserve league is affection smooth transition of players to the senior side.

He, however, admitted that, running the reserve league come with several financial challenges and burden on clubs.

The 1982 AFCON winning player, who is now a coach of Dream FC, youth side, believes the collapsed reserve league played the role of a feeder club to most of the top flight teams across the country during its functional seasons and must be reinstated.

The reserve league was abolished at the start of the 2014/15 season in place of a U-17 National League which never came to fruition.

The ex Asante Kotoko trainer lamented on the sudden demise of the feeder league as a hindrance to the cyclical transition of the home based players and the telepathy it adds to the team.

The experienced trainer believes players from this breeder league could be harnessed and allowed to join the exodus train to provide some financial assistance to their parent clubs.

He said, “Any club with a sense of planning and direction will miss the under 20 league. The reserve league develops players to beef up the senior side and sell some to provide financial support to the clubs. The players produced can be sold to the top clubs or to European”.

Abdul Karim Zito is the current youth coach of Premier league newbies Dreams FC after a successful career with the national team in the early eighties. The GFA/PLB left out the U20 league at the start of the 2014/15 FCPPL season.