G is for Game

It’s so easy for adults involved in kids’ football to forget this, but football is a game. Games are something we play; games are meant to be fun. Yes, you can play to win and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but winning isn’t the be-all and end-all of the game. It’s meant to be fun (I know I said that before, but it bears repeating).

When I was at school, junior football was just a smaller version of the adult game. Matches were 11-a-side and played on huge pitches with goals that dwarfed the poor goalkeepers. That meant that the bigger lads, the ones whose growth spurts had come early and could lump the ball furthest, tended to be the most successful players. Somewhere between then and now, people at the FA realised this wasn’t necessarily the best way for children to enjoy the game and get better at it.

The biggest change was playing numbers. Today, children start at Under 7s playing 5v5, moving through 7v7, 9v9 (as played in Foul and Fair), and finally 11v11 once they get to Under 13s. Offside doesn’t come into play until the Under 11s reach 9v9. It may seem counter-intuitive, but reducing the numbers means that more children get to play. For one, you don’t need as many children to start up a team, so there are more teams. For another, when you put too many children on one pitch, there are some who will struggle to even get a touch of the ball. Particularly with the younger age-groups, where sophisticated tactical concepts like passing haven’t necessarily established themselves, 11 a-side condemns many players to the role of spectator even though they are actually on the pitch. Reducing the numbers means each child has more chance to play, meaning they get more benefit – and enjoyment – from the experience. There are other rule changes too, my favourite being that with the younger age groups, the defending team has to retreat to their own half when the opposition is taking a goal kick, which encourages teams to pass the ball rather than get a big lad to lump it as far as possible.

Another much-criticised change is that until you reach Under 12s, results and league tables aren’t published. This is often – wrongly – described as being uncompetitive, and dismissed as football going soft. If you’ve ever watched one of those matches, you'll know that it’s anything but uncompetitive. If you put two sets of children on a pitch with goals at each end, you can be sure that they will compete. The kids don’t need a result on a website to take it seriously and give it their all, or to know which team has come out on top. The reason for the change is that football at that age isn’t so much uncompetitive as developmental. The aim is to develop players, to equip the children for the challenges they will face as they move up the age groups and, eventually, into adult football.

It wasn’t until I managed a team that I understood just what a difference it makes to not have league tables. When I was picking my team, there wasn’t the temptation to think, ‘If we win this one, we can move up to 2nd place; I’d better go strong.’ With no league tables, it’s easier to pick a line up on the basis of giving everyone the chance to play. Most of the pressure that hypes up the competitive element of children’s football comes from adults, well-meaning or otherwise. I’ve heard people grumbling that it’s a competitive world and that we’re not doing children any favours by protecting them from that; once they get out into the world of work, they will face competition, so let’s get them used to it now. There are two counter arguments to that, one to do with football – let’s use this time to foster their love of the game and to build their skill base and experience base for them to lean on later – and one societal. Yes, it’s a competitive world, but – as explored in the non-footballing elements of Foul and Fair – not everything can or should be reduced to a zero-sum game. For me to win, it doesn’t always follow that you have to lose. Sometimes co-operation rather than competition can leave everyone better off. Football can reflect that too, once you start to recognise that it’s not all about winning.