New managers (Players of Football Manager) or those who haven't played since the FM 06 campaign are most likely to come across the introduction of Parent and Feeder clubs. These basically help you no matter who you are from Arsenal to Welling..

Parent Clubs - These are the clubs that are 'higher' than your current club so for example, Arsenal could be a Parent Club to Bristol Rovers etc.

Parent clubs help alot as if you are a lower league manager you will get paid an annual fee for having them as your parent club which helps your bank balance come the end of the season, Also most of the time the option to send their players on loan to your club will be used so when the time comes to it they could send you a player (they will pay their wages whilst they are on loan to you). Also if you make a loan bid for a Parent Club's player it is more likely to be accepted and the players are more likely to agree to come. A lot of the time it will also tell you that you will host a friendly match between the two and keep all the gate receipts which comes in handy if your club need some money.

Feeder Clubs - These are the clubs that are 'lower' than your current club so for example, Bristol Rovers could be a Feeder Club for Arsenal etc.

You may think "Surely its the same but just in reverse?" you are wrong. Yes you do have to pay out an annual fee, (which isn't alot mainly around 30k) Yes you can loan out your players to these teams and yes you will probably play the team in a friendly where they keep the gate receipts BUT there are alot more positive things to gain from feeder clubs. To start.. Your club will gain ALL of the scouting knowledge from the country that your Feeder Club is in, so if your Feeder Club is in Japan, then you will get there scouting knowledge helping you to find new players. Another good thing about having a Feeder Club in somewhere like Japan you will get money from merchandising in that country (Think of it as David Beckham, he's played for Man Ud, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy etc.. but he also has his huge fan base in Japan and makes his club ALOT of shirt sales from around the world, that is basically what your team is doing, using the helpless foreign countries in the game to buy lots of products with the name of your team on it). Last but not least, (depending on what country your Feeder Club is in) when you sign a player that hasn't got a work permit and isn't being given one by the league then you can still sign him AND give him to the Feeder Club so that he can gain European citizenship or until he gets the work permit he needs.. this is a good thing when signing future stars from none European countries..

In a quick summary what i have written explains Parent/Feeder Clubs, but you will only learn from experience, so get playing.