Harry,

I sent a long and involved reply and it hasn't turned up so apologies in advance if there is any duplication.

The main complaints appear to be that TeamBath put out a league team that are subsidised by the tax payers because they have no supporters and wouldn't survive otherwise.

As far as I understand it, they have quite a lot of money coming in from other income streams e.g. the commercial department through TeamBath merhcandise (rather than University Of Bath)

Secondly, people take umbrage as far the players being paid to play and train full-time so having an advantage over other teams in the league while doing spurious "Sports Science" degrees and whatnot.

Obviously, this is an accusation that could be levelled at most college basketball/baseball/gridiron players in American universities and I really do not know the ins andouts of how many players end up with the degrees.

I do not that the guy that organised my FA coaching course through TeamBath is an ex-TeamBath player so some of them must be doing something. I also deal with a couple of other ex-TeamBath players for certain issues and current players help out with lads on the match-days that I have mentioned

As far as the full-time playing and training goes, it doesn't seem to be doing them much good as they do seem to play the long ball game.

TeamBath coaches are all supposed to be coaching our teams but, as far as I know, I am the only one with a full-time coach and she is ex-TeamBath Ladies. This, however, may be as much down to the other managers' "I know what I am doing" attitudes as anything with the players.

A lot of criticism came from TeamBath fielding Andy Tilson ex-QPR, Bristol Rovers etc and obviously not a student but he was signed as player/coach and is now full-time coach. His situation is similar to Brian Parkin who is also ex-Rovers and is a coach there. Make of that what you will.

THere has been some criticism for TeamBath or, at least, their players playing in university and BUSA games which has come form the University element. I don't know about this but I do know there is a seperate University Of Bath team.

The situation closest to Franchise is actually TeamBath Ladies who, until this season, were Bristol City Ladies but City cut ties with them and they were on the verge of dissolving but TeamBath took them over, folded their Ladies team and took Bristol City's position two leagues higher.

Again, make of that what you will but there would have been no Bristol City Ladies team if this hadn't happened.

As I say, from a supporters point of view, I can see the criticisms but from a parent and coach's point of view, I have had very good dealings with them and am impressed with the TeamBath approach to a lot of sports and a lot of kids, specifically, are doing a lot of sports through TeamBath.

AS far as Bath City are concerned, they get a good income from the groundshare, I assume, use of TEamBath's excellent training facilities and, when they are in the same league, a pretty much guaranteed six points every season as well