Changes immenient for Scottish youth Football

[Boab 73]

One of those who is working along with McMcLeish and Ogilvie is Jim Fleeting and the SFA director of football development stressed that changes was already on the way even before McLeish's report.

"They now have a youth structure in Scotland they never had before," Fleeting said while admitting that change was always difficult to achieve.

"Come 11 June next year, all young kids will be playing summer football, all young kids between the ages of four and eight will be playing four-a-side football, all kids above that will be playing seven-a-side football, all kids out of primary school age will be playing 11-a-side football.

"Things are changing and changing for the better."

I mentioned it on RM and was proved right, I mind a prominent local coach saying the local were thinking of 4 a side at the time at that age and went to a wee coaching course on that and was impressed and the wee guys get more touches of the football. Obviously, the pitches will have to be made much smaller as I seen games of a 7-a-sides being played across a full elevens in my time as as a coach locally with the 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s age groups.

Critics of McLeish's report have cast doubt on the ability to find his recommended funding of £500m over 10 years, £400m of it to improved facilities.

"Nobody is suggesting for a minute for that the £400m we need for facilities can be made available overnight, but facilities are a crisis issue for Scotland and we need new ways of thinking about money to invest in them," he said of the report commissioned by the SFA.

"I have had lots of discussions with the government. It is about local government, the private sector, the football authorities, the clubs and every level of the game.

"We are not just knocking on the door of the government with a begging bowl. We've got new creative ideas to take to them and I am hopeful we can take that forward.

"Facilities are crucial. Unless we can replicate what is happening in Scandinavia with the Norwegians and with some of the other areas like Sporting Club Lisbon, like the Holland set-up, then a lot of what we are recommending will just not happen, because one of the issues is contact with the ball."

McLeish said that he had asked the government to look at ways of opening school facilities in the evenings, which he said "would provide a huge change in terms of facilities and infrastructure" for a small investment.

Facilities are also imperative, much more important than Summer Football as the importance IMO should be scope for facilities (and great ones) all year round.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/8650517.stm

Didn't copy and paste the start of the article however good to say that McLeish will have a part in delivering this, I'd also suggest he's pretty well respected throughout the political spectrum which is handy.

[Guest SandyIniesta-Nordahl]

Apart from summer football, not much has changed then.

I played 4-a-side from 5-8. 7's at 9 and 11's when I went to high school.

[Guest SandyIniesta-Nordahl]

I still think 9-a-sides should be introduced though.

[PrsosPonytail 170]

Hate seeing weans playing on full size pitches with full size goals.

With so much space, the natural inclination is to punt it long. Its one of our games major ills.

[Guest SandyIniesta-Nordahl]

Also, kids should be waiting till older to use a full-size ball

[Mike Newells Sexist Army 2]

Probably depends on what school you went to, but i'm 23 and we were playing 11 a side on a full size red ash pitch for the primary school and local boys club team from P4 onwards, mixed with occasionally playing at Ibrox Complex when it still had the sand pit astroturf from the 80's.

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,933]

the only thing i dont like about the youngsters not playing 11's is that they end up having a major lack of positioning sense when the time comes to play 11's

you find your fullbacks get caught too far up the park, your strikers getting caught offside too much, and your midfielders get dragged towards the ball rather than keep in their position

i can see the benefits of the smaller team games btw, lots more time on the ball, more involved etc, but the positioning thing is noticable when these players step up to 11's

hell even 7's is a non position game

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,933]

Probably depends on what school you went to, but i'm 23 and we were playing 11 a side on a full size red ash pitch for the primary school and local boys club team from P4 onwards, mixed with occasionally playing at Ibrox Complex when it still had the sand pit astroturf from the 80's.

im 28 and had the samefootballing upbringing mate

was the dugs baws

[disgruntled_bear 157]

I'm so happy that we have finally realized to change youth football to Summer football, it really makes all the difference to fully use the current facilities we have at our disposal.

Now fingers crossed the SAFA (Scottish Amateur Football Association) follow suit

jimbeamjunior is spot on with his point, we have to get youngsters playing a certain amount of time on a 11 aside rule pitch, and this summer football gives us that opportunity. Some people will scream out but 11 aside is too big, just go down and look at the size of these 11aside pitches they really ain't to scale.

yes 5-7aside shouldn't be ignored as it works on technique and it's great for a training exercise to build them up. But you have play the game at 11aside to fully understand the tactical and positional side to the game. The difference between 5-7 to 11 his huge.

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,933]

spot on DB, 5's, 7's and even 9's is great for training players,

but in competitions its pointless if the young players aspire to play full 11's

another problem with playing on smaller pitches is that players dont have to time runs, dont get practise at playing passes further than 5 yardsn and they end up getting into the midset of having to play the ball as soon as they get it (while not a bad thing, surely players should also work on getting space for themselves to enable them to collect a pass, look up and analyse the situation)

smaller scale games are good at working on first touches, stamina, workrate and awareness, but they lack certain other aspects of a players game that if it isnt trained early enough, might be lost to them for good

[Lando 249]

I'm so happy that we have finally realized to change youth football to Summer football, it really makes all the difference to fully use the current facilities we have at our disposal.

Now fingers crossed the SAFA (Scottish Amateur Football Association) follow suit

jimbeamjunior is spot on with his point, we have to get youngsters playing a certain amount of time on a 11 aside rule pitch, and this summer football gives us that opportunity. Some people will scream out but 11 aside is too big, just go down and look at the size of these 11aside pitches they really ain't to scale.

yes 5-7aside shouldn't be ignored as it works on technique and it's great for a training exercise to build them up. But you have play the game at 11aside to fully understand the tactical and positional side to the game. The difference between 5-7 to 11 his huge.

Just checked out the SAFA website which is really behind and not really updated. What is the age range for the adults playing in SAFA?

[disgruntled_bear 157]

I'm so happy that we have finally realized to change youth football to Summer football, it really makes all the difference to fully use the current facilities we have at our disposal.

Now fingers crossed the SAFA (Scottish Amateur Football Association) follow suit

jimbeamjunior is spot on with his point, we have to get youngsters playing a certain amount of time on a 11 aside rule pitch, and this summer football gives us that opportunity. Some people will scream out but 11 aside is too big, just go down and look at the size of these 11aside pitches they really ain't to scale.

yes 5-7aside shouldn't be ignored as it works on technique and it's great for a training exercise to build them up. But you have play the game at 11aside to fully understand the tactical and positional side to the game. The difference between 5-7 to 11 his huge.

Just checked out the SAFA website which is really behind and not really updated. What is the age range for the adults playing in SAFA?

Players ages range from 16 upwards.

[Boab 73]

Neat wee video http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/youth-football-in-scotland-1.1006713