Just heard the best conversation/rant on the radio about youth football.

Back in the day kids would go out to the local field and make a makeshift pitch & goals, mainly using jumpers and coats as goalposts or playing in the streets using garage doors for goals.

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There was no age groups, referees, separate genders, time limits or coaches telling you how you should play (normally whoever owned the ball made the rules) ! We mainly played World Cup singles or doubles with one keeper or SPOT in the street, until more kids turned up.

Then someone from your group had to pluck up the courage to ask the other kids for a match. If there was a bad tackle or foul play you got up, shook it off and got on with it.

You would play out from 1st thing in the morning until it got dark only going home when you were hungry.

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Nowadays the government & FA say there is loads of top class facilities for the youth, yet you will probably have to pay £3 to £5 per hour to play on a pitch which back in the day I know my parents wouldn’t be able to afford that if I wanted to play football every day for the amount of times I was out playing !

Kids are regulated at a young age for how long they can play, rules are set by governing bodies and are even advised not to play or participate in other sports if they have big games coming up !

Could this be the problem to our modern day youth football instead of blaming lack of trained/qualified coaches & how kids are coached?

Have we took a game and over complicated it, over coached it and over regulated it???
What do you think.

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