The madness that is Junior football...

i go and watch my girlfriends 8 year old play and i saw last week a defender pulling the shirt of an attacker

A joke

i saw a 10 year old spit on another player last year

did the forward go down clutching his face JJ?

No RF its not Jurgen Klinsman

or eboue

Don't know why kids need to be in leagues with referee's & large pitches, I presume the idea is that it teaches them to be competitive or some cr*p like that.

Kids don't need it as they are competitve anyway, whenever I used to play at that age be it in the street, playground or the park we always kept the score and we played to win, not win at all costs sort of thing we just loved football and enjoyed playing.

I think Coaches who teach youngsters skills & technique can only be a good thing... It's the Alex Ferguson wannabe's that are the problem.

those youngsters playing on full size pitches and full size goals...is phucking ludicrous !

why not give them size 11 boots too...so they feel completely useless !

Joey Bartons cell mate. Joined: 15 Jul 08
Replies: 789 29 Sep 10 11:44   


Many things can be said about the problem of modern day football and the way it is played but my biggest gripe is that it all starts with the way young children play the game today..

We have under 8s playing in leagues, surely at that age you should be paying for fun playing with your mates not being told to play right back and stand there and learn to put your hand up and shout offside.

They dont play the offside rule until they play 11 a side.

Think maybe the whole context of rant may have been overlooked, while the the really young age groups play mini-football and are not meant to play in a league format, l think you get the genberal idea of what l meant Scouse..[;)]

I did mate.

But you can have it competitive and breed winners or you can have it like the sh!t American sports days they have in the schools nowaday's were everyone's a winner and it's the taking part that counts.

Which do you prefer?

A cross over of the two would be nice, nothing wrong in winning but its the manner that it happens is lost on many.

Children should be allowed to mature and play and yes lean techniques before being told to play in here or there.

Does beating another team 26-0 which happened in one under 11 league  game in my region at the weekend anything?

The manager was quoted as saying they had players missing and never lost their rag but we are not reading too much into it

Children now as young as eight and nine are being signed by league clubs and not allowed to play for clubs and in some cases not allowed to play school football. Children should be playing and enjoying their football...

Wrong all wrong mate..

Spanish kids are told to play with a smile, keep the ball on the floor, and the goalie has to roll it out when the ball is in his hands.
Dutch kids aren't allowed to head a ball until 14 regardless of how soft the ball is. It's not a technique that they're too fussed with teaching.
English kids get coached wrongly from the start. Humping a team 26 nil achieves sweet fkall. The winning team gain nothing and I would imagine that it wouldn't take too many hammerings before players from the losing team said "I've had enough". What is wrong with a manager saying "OK, we're 8 nil up, now everyone has to play 3 touch"
Unfortunately, too many ****s run kids teams.

a r s e h o l e s

Agree with fact that under 11,s is too early to play on full size pitches.

But don,t agree with not having Leagues.

English kids get coached wrongly from the start. Humping a team 26 nil achieves sweet fkall. The winning team gain nothing and I would imagine that it wouldn't take too many hammerings before players from the losing team said "I've had enough". What is wrong with a manager saying "OK, we're 8 nil up, now everyone has to play 3 touch"


Hit the nail on the head Tifosi. I would imgaine the coach of the side was just so pleased to see his teams goal difference being improved..

We all love the game but l fear until we (England) as country sort out the game from the grass roots level the standard will suffer even more.

They play their 8 a sides with small pitches and goals quite near me. Sometimes I go and watch.

But what I don't understand, is why they still play with a full-size ball. A smaller ball means it won't advantage the bigger lads, and would teach more technique and control to all.

Bizarre.

You have to remember also what the kids want, kids hate playing two touch/three touch football so you are just as likley to have them say ive had enough.

Agree that some of the coaches are awful, but they do it for nothing and they do it for the kids.

The problem with Junior football in this country is the division of wealth, grassroots football has little or no investment from the people who run our game.

Find most coaches do it because they have children in the team..

You make some valid points Villa. Your point about coaches is true - but how many of them have actually been taught how to coach? If, as is prevalent in the UK, they aren't in fact qualified but are doing it because they misguidedly believe they are helping then they are sorely mistaken. Someone who hasn't got a clue is not doing those kids any favours at all.

Agreed Joey, but who would do it otherwise?

Not many l would say Villa, but when you read the comments and look at some of the way the coaches act alone with the parents on the sidelines, maybe that would not be a bad thing either..

*along

I've ssen kids as young as 4 being brought into a Premier League Club, i dont agree with that, but i do think it makes a difference if a kids brought in at 6 and taught the right way, rather than having to wait till 9/10+ so that he can play some park football coached by idiots.

Kids at clubs are allowed to play for the school and represent the town upto the age of 11.

As for playing and enjoying football how do you know this doesn't happen playing for an academy?  The trainin is hard but enjoyable, the games are not just about winning but learning, they get to go and play at some of the biggest clubs in England too.

Serious question if you had a gifted lad aged 6/7 would you take him into a club?

Just need Money Joey.

Too much being paid to a few at the top of the game, teams rely on local business,s for buying kits, and any training equipment, not to mention the astronomical cost of hiring pitches to play on, pitches that are rarley maintained, covered in dog **** and condoms from the local night walking teenagers.

Its all wrong Joey, all wrong.

whatever the wrongs and rights,acadamies,lower leagues,even glen hoddles school for players let go by clubs,you speak as though 100,s of gifted players are missing the boat,whatever the systems inplace the cream rise to the top, after years of listening to brooking and co going on about the dutch system,the italians,germans etc,they arnt winning tournaments on a regular basis,turkey have brilliant youth sides but are getting no  better at national level, the kids in this country like the competitive nature of the game,cant see by that making it non competitive you improve the players, there are millions of kids outside every chip shop with ball skills the likes of brooking can only dream off,but cant intergrate them skills into a match enviroment

My local FA has pumped in £25000 for women's football, to be shared around about 6 teams. The kids teams have got nothing.

Serious question if you had a gifted lad aged 6/7 would you take him into a club?


The sad part is how can you break your child's heart..

I would have nothing against him attending an academy but if this meant he was not able to play on a saturday or sunday with his friends then l would say NO, but on the other hand if he played with his mates for a coach who never run the team in the right manner l would not let him play for that club either..

1st time poster     29 Sep 10 14:33 
whatever the wrongs and rights,acadamies,lower leagues,even glen hoddles school for players let go by clubs,you speak as though 100,s of gifted players are missing the boat,whatever the systems inplace the cream rise to the top, after years of listening to brooking and co going on about the dutch system,the italians,germans etc,they arnt winning tournaments on a regular basis,


So, just to get this right - the Dutch who got to the WC final, the Germans who won the U21 tournament in 2009, the Italians who won the WC in 2006 have all got it wrong? In 2008 there were 15000 UEFA A and Pro coaches in Spain compared with 1000 in England. I would hazard a guess that getting the coaches qualified is a start.

some good points but also a lot of mis information. you don't play 11 aside until under 12s. you don't play with a size 5 ball until under 15. you get good and bad coaches in all walks of life, and also its pretty obvious the best players will end up at the best team, leading to some sriously one sided games. what is the way round it ? only allow 2 academy players per team etc. then are you not penalising these kids for being better than the norm. don't think there is a really simple solution. my personal preference is full size goals are too large, basically put it under the bar at the age of 12 and it almost certainly leads to a goal. 3/4 size goals would be ideal for junior football, 15-0 and 26-0 would probably become 5-0 and 9-0 etc. the problem being obviously is that the cost and effort to remove full size goals and replace them with 3/4 size on match days is impractical.

Tifoso, totally correct mate but that takes money.

I think that Level 1 (An untrained chimp could pass this level) costs about £90

Level 2 costs about £200 - £300 (This should be the minimum level for all football coaches at grassroots level)

But these days who can afford that type of money?

THE F.A, thats who.

england did reach u21 final and won u19 final .

The FA should pump money into following the Spanish model. They would reap the rewards in 15 years.
Since 1998, Spanish youth teams from under-16 to under-21 level have won 19 Uefa and Fifa championships. During this same period, England have won just one - the U17s European Championship in May when they beat Spain in the final.

italian football is dead inter milan havent got one italian starter,the star of italian football 2 years ago was aqualiniif thats what we are aiming for you can stick it,that german side was laughed at 5 years ago,holland are the biggest underachievers in world football the equal of andy murray, stil behind england in world cups,as a high percentage of all players spain apart for the present play there football in a foreign country,whats the relevance of a countrys coaching set up,brooking after years of going on about the italians,then the dutch set up,now bang on about clairfontaine in france and france has been the laughing stock of world football for 4 years,1000,s of these spanish,italians,french,etc footballers are getting coached alongside british players in english acadamies

1ST time poster

Not a very high percentage of Enlish kids in english acadamies i would guess.

How many British youngsters In academys now days???

We can all moan at the foriegn invasion but how much is this down to how we are teach them at an early age?

The biggest problem is not enough kids are playing these day, they'd rather play on laptops, playstation and so on.

Plus child obesity isn't helping either.

well according to this thread thats a good thing,when england and brazil were winning world cups,they took the game to the world and countrys tried to copy their style of play ,now they are just another cup competition played mainly by players playing each other 6 months of the year in the champions lg,a month after winning the world cup rather than countries studying spanish football ,they were watching them getting slaughtered 4 nil by argentina,another day a different result thats football today

Who cares that the Germans were laughed at 5 years ago? They demolished England a couple of months ago.
Who cares that the French have been the laughing stock of world football for 4 years? They won the Euros and the World Cup with their golden generation.

They were all coached properly at an early age. England have won fckall for a very long time, and will continue to win fckall until attitudes change.

This thread could go off at a tangent. Tony Blair sells off playing fields for housing and then bids for the Olympics - where did he think the next generation of athletes were going to practice?

My final comment is this - I doubt the Spanish give 2 sh1ts about being beaten in a money spinning friendly in Buenos Aires. They're the World Champions, and 15 years of investment got them there.

so whatever the rights and wrongs if lampards goal had been given,and england had gone on to win,all will have been well with english football and germany would have been in disaray,was german coaching finished and englands blooming when we beat them 5 1

thats precisouly the point 50 years ago it would have been a travesty for the world champions to get hammered a month later,it wasny just another game like today it was a brand of football,thats why england used to go on tours to south america, its now just an extension of the ch lg

Think for a long time we have known all is not well with English football. Our inability to keep hold of the ball and pass under pressure being fairly basic..

Did England not invest money years ago starting with the mis-guided Lilleshall school of excellence that was set up in the eighties.

There seems to be lots of mis-information on this thread.

The FA actively encourages all those involved with football to take the coaching courses. A couple of seasons ago they introduced Youth Coaching courses, specifically designed for those involved with the younger age groups.

The point of those courses (as has always been) is that youngsters play for fun.  They are encouraged to develop skills.  Winning is not emphasised until much later.  The reason is simple: kids develop at different ages.  Example: a 14-year-old may be near fully developed.  Grab 11 of those players into a single team and it will dominate another team of 14-year-olds who are still to grow.  Therefore, the developed players win by default.

Any youth coach who is demanding his team wins at all costs is doing his players no good whatsoever.  Just because you'e seen some coaches doing that doesn't mean they all do.

If you have kids and want to find a decent club, go for a Charter Standard club which requires all coaches to have FA Coaching Certificates (as well as first aid and child protection training).  Speak to the coach and let him explain his own thinking.

The best coaches aren't necessarily working at the most successful youth clubs.

you could argue that the english football system produced the golden generation,which was ruined,let down,whatever by erickson and capello,2 so called superstar managers and coaches

betfairy is correct

You a coach Betfairy?

You speak like someone who has been on one of my courses. I'm a coach educator.

my big gripe about youth football in the UK, more so scotland, is the standard of pitches and the adverse weather conditions the kids have to play in. howling winds and pouring rain on parks not fit for rugby is no way to learn how to play football. scrap kids football form november till february and give them a chance to play in a decent environment, where passing the ball is actually possible!