Football - Played, watched and run by idiots

[BrilloPad]

Until we stop playing 11-a-side for kids under 14, England will not win an international tournament.

We panicked 15 years ago and said the kids need more coaching. Now they are over-coached from an early age.

Just let them play, have fun and develop at their own pace.

qh

Bigger issue is they have too much money and don't care for their country.

Introduce the maximum wage again.

[minestrone]

Agreed, 11 asides should be scrapped for kids.

Also parents should not be allowed to attend these games, they are often hurling abuse at the kids and punch ups are fairly common.

Madness.

[d000hg]

At least in England, this is true. I note from some of the threads that England-Scotland was 3-2.
The fact that we were stretched by such a poor team proves my point.
We should just abandon football - we've proved that intelligent application and money can make England a world beater in any other sport we choose.
The only one that resists is football as it is run by a bunch of self-interested, old-fashioned cretins, watched by thickos who don't mind paying a week's salary for a ticket and played by a bunch of narcissistic, overpaid mediocrities who fondly think they are "world class".

It is a bit of an odd situation though. Traditionally countries tend to excel at sports everyone plays, unsurprisingly... and football is far and away the most common sport in the UK as well as being about as ingrained a national sport as one could imagine in any country. Also we're a relatively populous nation.

So it just seems surprising we don't have a surplus of great players.

[shaunbhoy]

It is a bit of an odd situation though. Traditionally countries tend to excel at sports everyone plays, unsurprisingly... and football is far and away the most common sport in the UK as well as being about as ingrained a national sport as one could imagine in any country. Also we're a relatively populous nation.

So it just seems surprising we don't have a surplus of great players.

England DO have a surplus of great players. They just have a dearth of great teams due to the dearth of great managers.

HTH

[quackhandle]

Agreed, 11 asides should be scrapped for kids.

Also parents should not be allowed to attend these games, they are often hurling abuse at the kids and punch ups are fairly common.

Madness.

+1 The reason why I quit being a coach, didn't do it to argue with parents. I realised I liked coaching but hated being a manager. The league I was in had mini soccer (6v6) for under 10s. This was good, however the under 11's was straight to 11-a-side, full pitch, big goals. No wonder some kids move to another sport.

10 yrs ago I coached at a soccer school down south for two years, it was all about having fun not goals or results and ALL the parents were brilliant.

qh

[d000hg]

Speaking of thick managers:

BBC Sport - Man Utd: David Moyes criticises Premier League fixture list

Luckily he's Scottish, perhaps they don't teach probability at school there.

[gingerjedi]

I thought a stato like Sas would realise that 14th out of 207 is pretty good, that's the lowest England have been in a long while.

[Doggy Styles]

Agreed, 11 asides should be scrapped for kids.

They did that at least 10 years ago, probably more.

I don't know about the country as a whole, but it's everywhere I've seen kids football played in my area.

Our local club runs more than 20 teams of various age groups under 12, and play 7 or 8 a side on smaller pitches with small goals. Obviously the other clubs in the area they play against do the same, including those over in Luton.

[shaunbhoy]

Speaking of thick managers:

BBC Sport - Man Utd: David Moyes criticises Premier League fixture list

Luckily he's Scottish, perhaps they don't teach probability at school there.

Yes. Just the latest in a long line of thick Scottish Managers that have seen that proud footballing institution languish in the doldrums for so long.

[Doggy Styles]

At least in England, this is true. I note from some of the threads that England-Scotland was 3-2.
The fact that we were stretched by such a poor team proves my point.
We should just abandon football - we've proved that intelligent application and money can make England a world beater in any other sport we choose.
The only one that resists is football as it is run by a bunch of self-interested, old-fashioned cretins, watched by thickos who don't mind paying a week's salary for a ticket and played by a bunch of narcissistic, overpaid mediocrities who fondly think they are "world class".

You take it too seriously sas. I enjoyed a good game of football last night for its own sake. Rankings and expectations don't come into it.

Money drives all sports. In all those other sports the money is generated by the national team, so they call the shots. That's not true of football.