The FA an grass roots football.

[Dr Who?]

I am a qualified hertfordshire referee, and today I refereed a County cup 1st round game. I am not sure what the gap between the 2 teams was, but the final score was Melbourn Under 14's 0 St Albans under 14's 20.

 

I just do not understand why in the 1st round and the first lot of games of the new season they would put young lads with such a wide gulf in ability on the same pitch. Why not have the first round where they have the same league level playing each other, just so they can gaina little bit of confidence. What good does this do for the development of our young players and keeping them interested in playing?

 

Yes of course they will have to play the higher teams in the end, but they should have seedings at grass roots football.

 

I found myself trying to delay the restart of the game after each goal, just so they did not score so many. The winning team goalkeeper touched the ball twice in the whole game, so how does it help his game and the defenders around him?

[ChrisPY]

Michael Poke was scouted in a 12-0 defeat.

[70's Mike]

Totally agree with the original poster, as Chairman of a club with 27 teams i sometimes despair at the various mandates from the FA's.

a bid issue at the moment is 9 v 9 up to 13, which is a great idea but surely they should have talked to the councils first on where the pitches were coming from, luckly my club has our own grounds on sole occupancy leases but we were told of one local council who have already said no

[St Columb Saint]

Teams in Cornwall in either the Kernow league or East Cornwall league are only allowed to record 9 - 0 scores, as soon as a team reaches a 9 goal lead the game should become a friendly.

[70's Mike]

Teams in Cornwall in either the Kernow league or East Cornwall league are only allowed to record 9 - 0 scores, as soon as a team reaches a 9 goal lead the game should become a friendly.

 

problem is kids are not stupid and they know what the score is, yes the league table and result is recoreded as 9-0 but

[St Columb Saint]

Two seasons ago the team I coached(under 10's) won 20-0 the score was recorded as 9-0 but the league allowed you to name the scorers, so whoever looked at the names and no of goals could work out the real score

[Give it to Ron]

We had the same problem yesterday with Hants cup as they do it in 2 year gaps

u11 u13 u15 big problem being that between 13-15 there is a massive growth spurt

for many and physical size in one year age can be massive.

We played a Portchester u14 side who were a year younger...some of their players were

just about coming up to the chest of our lot!

We won 15-1 but neither side got anything out of the game really.....apart from the obvious!

[View From The Top]

My nippers league had two good non-league teams junior teams in it last year and his was a brand new team. You can workout the outcome yourself.

 

This year his opening game was against last seasons runners up and losing finalists. A better result that last year but still a heavy defeat.

 

There are 4 brand new teams this season but instead of putting the weak, new and newest teams in one league and the established and good teams in another league to begin with they all have to play each other which totally demoralises the new teams and players when they are getting stuffed.

[Dr Who?]

It just seems crazy. I went into refereeing because the grass roots football was suffering not having enough not club referees, and the youth game was suffering. I do have to say there are far to many games that are so one sided. As a referee it becomes very hard to stay focused on the game, and I would much prefer to have two evenly matched teams.

 

There has to be a way that they can match the teams up better than they do, as out of over 30 games last season only 2 were won by less than one goal.

 

The development of our players is suffering, and I just feel so sorry for the team getting stuffed. I also have to stick 100% to the rules and play the full amount of time, unless I stopped the match after 20 minutes at 0-6 and got the agreement that we play 25 minutes each way. I also had to give a pen for a clear handball.

[View From The Top]

Our league splits after everyone has played everyone once. Then you have a A & B league which gives it a better balance. Even my nippers brand new team won a few games last season once they split but I cannot fathom why they didn't start like that this season to encourage the new and weak teams.

[Frank's cousin]

We seem obsessed with age in dividing players.... which leads to the classic selection of the bigger stronger kids... which at times means the 20-0 when they come up against much smaller boys... would suggest that up until around 14, you could in theory divide the kids based on height or something ? Who knows what teh answer is, but given that on the continent they play on smaller pitches with smaller goals and 7 a side or 9 a side... it might just be a clue as to where we are going wrong? It keeps getting mentioned everytime we get beat by a more technically gifted side in a tournament, yet we never do anything about it...

[St Columb Saint]

Here in Cornwall we play small sided 7v7 for under 7's and 8's (non competative ie no scores recorded) then under 9's and 10's play 7v7 with the scores recorded then the plan is to move towards 9v9 using a 3/4 pitch for under 11's and 12's. Only then moving onto full sized pitch at under 13's.

[70's Mike]

We had the same problem yesterday with Hants cup as they do it in 2 year gaps

u11 u13 u15 big problem being that between 13-15 there is a massive growth spurt

for many and physical size in one year age can be massive.

We played a Portchester u14 side who were a year younger...some of their players were

just about coming up to the chest of our lot!

We won 15-1 but neither side got anything out of the game really.....apart from the obvious!

 

Strange thing is that is only Saturday cup, Sunday has separate competition for each age group

[70's Mike]

Here in Cornwall we play small sided 7v7 for under 7's and 8's (non competative ie no scores recorded) then under 9's and 10's play 7v7 with the scores recorded then the plan is to move towards 9v9 using a 3/4 pitch for under 11's and 12's. Only then moving onto full sized pitch at under 13's.

 

As i said earlier the plan is great but without a major change from the local councils will not work.Why should they convert full size pitches, where they can get £50 plus per game, to smaller youth pitches where they get £25. Who provides the smaller goal sizes etc.

The plan shows blue lines and white lines on the full size pitch, just cannot see councils cooperating

[Wilko]

My junior team was forcibly moved from a strong league to a weaker league and lumped into the second (bottom) division for under-12s. Our final stats for the season were P 22, W 21, D 1, F 217, A 1. The results included a 30-0 and a 31-0, both against the same team. That was in 1996. I'd have thought things would have moved on a bit by now, but maybe they haven't.

[doddisalegend]

My sons just started under 11 tyro the 5 tyro leagues are based on were the managers finished last season in the S&E mini league. So there is some attempt at seeding. The cups are another matter they're a free for all.

 

My son has being playing team football since 7 (in three different teams) and my take on it is while being thrashed week in week out might not be great for kids devolopment. I think the "win at all cost" managers are more of a problem. Kids should be learning to play football the right way, sadly some managers I've witnessed over the last few seasons seem more intrested in winning than teaching kids.

 

It's interesting watching kids who excelled at mini soccer (becuase they were big or fast on a small pitch) looking quite lost playing 11 a side on a full sized pitch with the offside rule Where passing and thinking are more useful than the ability to kick a ball hard and be able to goal hang. As a defender my son is finding it easier this season.