All over England this summer the English FA are on the road running a series of roadshows focusing on the future of children’s soccer.
(FAI road show were are you?)
It comes on the back of over a year of consultation that forms part of The FA’s Youth Development review.
The ‘Your Kids, Your Say’ events will provide the opportunity for grassroots volunteers to come and hear the proposals being put forward and then discuss their implications.
Many coaches and parents will get a chance to ask questions of key FA staff and seek help and advice on overcoming some local challenges they face.
We Value your opinion..
As we know to well, many adult values are very different from children’s views and values and it is this that should drive young player development system.
Gareth Southgate says, “If there are hurdles and challenges to be overcome then the football family needs to work together to achieve these, ensuring that we create the best possible opportunity and environment for young people to play, enjoy and learn the game of football”.
The English FA are saying, “Children’s football in England needs to be based on common sense, be exciting and innovative and be world-leading. We have a fantastic opportunity to be at the forefront of change and, whilst not forgetting the excellent work that the army of volunteers and parents do for children across the country, ensure that we all pull together in the same direction”.
The key areas of discussion in the roadshows will be topics such as; Formats of the game, Child-centred approaches to competition, Addressing relative age effect and Developments to Mini Soccer.
In Summary
What I can’t undertand, is we have a Dutch man who’s title is International Performance Director; yet we see absolutely no Dutch ideas or methodologies in Irish Youth Soccer and I know his title is “International Performance Director” but wouldn’t we be better off with a Dutch man in charge of “Youth Performance”.
In Holland all the best coaches are down at the Grassroots level and working with the kids every week and in Ireland most of our best coaches are working within the professional game or with the Football Federation.
The Pressure is on
So many countries in Europe are restructuring Youth Football, because like Ireland it has got out of hand and been run by morons, over competitive coaches and parents. The men at the top who make the decisions, (clearly no intelligent ones have been made in the last few years) who go from one opening of an envelope to another and pose for all the medal ceremonies at the end of the season “A la politician style”
None to similar to FIFA delegtion only not travelling by plane, our lot travel in bus loads to vote against changes for the better of the kids, they stick by each other and back each other when it comes to making change, change that they don’t want to happen anytime soon. But it will happen whether they like it or not, because the FAI are under pressure to achieve, under pressure to restructure and follow the example of so many other European countries.
The game here is suffering , kids are moving to other codes like GAA and Rugby which are better organised, have better and safer facilities and look after the children that play. So the pressure is on, whether they like it or not!