Football leagues ban for under-8s

[Alexikokopops]

Football leagues ban for under-8s

The Football Association has banned competitive leagues and cups for boys and girls in the under-8 age group.

The move, which will take effect from next season, means no league tables or results will be published.

The FA said there was too much emphasis on winning leagues, when the need was to improve youngsters' skills.

FA director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking stressed that the under-8s would still be allowed to play competitive matches against each other.

Sir Trevor said: "It's widely accepted that we need to improve the skills and technique of players in this country.

"At the moment we are not at the same level as other countries. In the youngest age groups there's too much emphasis on winning leagues, often to satisfy parents and coaches.

"That's what we're looking to change. We need better, more skilful players coming through."

He added: "Of course, we are not banning children from competing against each other in football.

"Every game played is competitive, but undoubtedly having league tables at this age is not helping their development. It is the league tables being stopped rather than matches."

Long ball

FA director of communications Adrian Bevington told BBC Radio 5 Live that a failure to produce skilful players was a problem in England.

"Kids at a very young age are being encouraged and pressured by coaches and parents just to kick the ball long, lump it forward to try and win a game, to get a result to win a league," he said.

"We're not trying to take the competitiveness out of football matches, but we're trying to ensure that skill and development can be encouraged and harnessed, to move forward."

Children at under-8 level play Mini-Soccer, which has rules similar to football but with smaller pitches and fewer players on each team.

The Scottish Football Association said it encouraged "trophy-free" football for that age group but did not ban competitions.

The Football Association of Wales and the Irish Football Association - which governs the game in Northern Ireland - do not have any official competitive football that young.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7477154.stm

[DB11]

Well the minimum used to be under 7s anyway so only 1 year difference. Plus under 7s was annoying to ref

[Floating Fox]

Well the minimum used to be under 7s anyway so only 1 year difference. Plus under 7s was annoying to ref

Did they pick on you?

[dandannieldanok]

Guaranteed to win us the world cup this.

Did they pick on you?

[davieG]

Unless teams are playing clubs on a random basis I don't see how this works. If the have a regular fixture list then someone somewhere, more likely the team that's winning the most games will create a league table, it's human nature and what's to stop them.

[Corky]

Well the minimum used to be under 7s anyway so only 1 year difference. Plus under 7s was annoying to ref

Did they chase you round the pitch, swearing and snarling, calling you names?

[Daggers]

Used to manage a kids team in Billericay - parents are cnuts. In the end I'd had enough from the crap coming from some of the Dad's, it was my free time I was giving up so I decided to reclaim it.

One night me and the wife were returning to Southend on the train after a big night out in the smoke and this lad lumbers over. Barely able to stand as I was, no one was going to insult the wife or threaten me and get away with it.

Then he asked if I was me, by name.

I was totally thrown. One minute I'm getting ready for some late-night, train-rumble the next a stranger is shaking my hand vigorously and calling all his mates over.

Having been booted out of school for being a total twat he only had one thing in his life and that was playing for Billericay FC - to which he attributed to me for all the encouragement I gave him even though all of the vocal Dads wanted their kids in his place because he was crap back then.

I was really touched.

Anything that removes parents from the equation and puts 'fun' at the forefront of kids' footy is a damn good thing.

[Bryn]

I can understand this. I hear all the time that at that level it's the most developed kids that get played rather than those who clearly have the most natural ability. In other words, throughout the youth levels it's the shitbricks that get in the teams because they're more effective and so they win the league (in a not very stylish way), whereas the lightweight but skilful players get sacked off and by the time they catch up, their abilities are raw). So I'm told anyway.

[Ashley]

Did they pick on you?

[Corky]

Used to manage a kids team in Billericay - parents are cnuts. In the end I'd had enough from the crap coming from some of the Dad's, it was my free time I was giving up so I decided to reclaim it.

One night me and the wife were returning to Southend on the train after a big night out in the smoke and this lad lumbers over. Barely able to stand as I was, no one was going to insult the wife or threaten me and get away with it.

Then he asked if I was me, by name.

I was totally thrown. One minute I'm getting ready for some late-night, train-rumble the next a stranger is shaking my hand vigorously and calling all his mates over.

Having been booted out of school for being a total twat he only had one thing in his life and that was playing for Billericay FC - to which he attributed to me for all the encouragement I gave him even though all of the vocal Dads wanted their kids in his place because he was crap back then.

I was really touched.

Anything that removes parents from the equation and puts 'fun' at the forefront of kids' footy is a damn good thing.

I feel really sorry for the kids in all this. They just want to play football, doesn't matter if it's a league, cup or friendly, they will develop a winning mentality over time, but by playing football, they learn to enjoy it. The parents, as you say, are the problem in all this. They are the reason competitive football has now been stopped for the Under 8's.

Instad of encouraging their children, they are scaring them off. They only have themselves to blame I'm afraid. I've seen kids get verbal lashings for misplacing a pass, or shooting wide. It's disgraceful, and extremely sad.

[Guest]

Competitive football is not the problem. It is expecting youngsters to play on full size pitches, and/or for too long that is the problem. If we remove competitiveness from the game, then we lose something.

[Flynny]

Competitive football is not the problem. It is expecting youngsters to play on full size pitches, and/or for too long that is the problem. If we remove competitiveness from the game, then we lose something.

These kids play on mini-pitches apparantly. Under 8's LEAGUES though? I don't get why it was being done in the first place. Who cares? The balls are up to their knees anyway.

[Lovejoy]

We ain't got a forking clue!

FA: sort it out, we're a joke!

[Tommeh]

Can't understand this, I'm a manager of an under 8's team along with 2 mates. Havn't heard anything and our league is suppost to start in September, surely they'd inform the clubs directly first us!

Gutted if this happens, been playing in tournaments recently and the difference between the teams who were in leagues last season and just training is huge, we got through our group just fine the other week in a tournament the other week then came up against Allexton who had played a competitive season at u/7's, they thumped us 5-0!

Especially with kids attention span these days and some of the behavior, the best things to just get them on the pitch and play, I agree traiaing can help but when you have a squad of 10 it's very hard to get all of them behaving, training and respecting eachother. They always want to get straight into games anyway.

[DB11]

Did they pick on you?

Yeh

Nah They all just chased the ball crazily. If it went off the pitch they didn't care they carried on playing. There was no set formation just like 10 kids chasing a ball. If there was a foul, both kids started crying for ages (one who got 'hurt' and one who made the foul)

Was about impossible

[Sparky]

Used to manage a kids team in Billericay - parents are cnuts. In the end I'd had enough from the crap coming from some of the Dad's, it was my free time I was giving up so I decided to reclaim it.

One night me and the wife were returning to Southend on the train after a big night out in the smoke and this lad lumbers over. Barely able to stand as I was, no one was going to insult the wife or threaten me and get away with it.

Then he asked if I was me, by name.

I was totally thrown. One minute I'm getting ready for some late-night, train-rumble the next a stranger is shaking my hand vigorously and calling all his mates over.

Having been booted out of school for being a total twat he only had one thing in his life and that was playing for Billericay FC - to which he attributed to me for all the encouragement I gave him even though all of the vocal Dads wanted their kids in his place because he was crap back then.

I was really touched.

Anything that removes parents from the equation and puts 'fun' at the forefront of kids' footy is a damn good thing.

I ran Beaumont Town Under 17s and u18s , the kids at that age were fine , if their parents were out of order the lads were old enough to tell them . But the club asked me to do a few coaching clinics for kids 6 -9 , i ran through various skills with the kids then finished with a small sided game . The parents thought it was a world cup final ! Some having a right go at the kids if they hit a miss placed pass or missed a easy chance . I took a parent to 1 side and explained that in my view he was a little out of order as i was hoping the kids would nurture thier talent rather than being abused if they made an error . The guy apologised to me and walked away , 5 minutes later his missus came over and said "dont tell my husband how to look after his kid " I finished the session went back to successfully running my youth side and leaving the kids coaching to somebody with a little more patience than me