So the FA have announced this week that football for under eights should not be played in a league system.
The object of this is to put the fun back into football for young players and make winning games less important.
This is a small step in the right direction from the FA, but most respecting leagues across the UK do not play competitive league games at this age anyway.
A bolder step by the FA would be to stop the academies taking players into their fold at the tender ages of 7, 8 and 9 and to raise the age that an accademy can approach any player to 10 or 11 years old.
Young players are being scouted by top clubs at very tender ages. I have watched a local teams progress through the seasons and the club scouts would turn out in their forces to watch players at 7 and 8. When those players reach 10 or 11 the scouts and clubs don’t seem to be interested in them.
It seems a great shame that in this country we consider a player to be past it at the age of 11 plus.
By not allowing clubs to take on players until this age it would give young footballers more time to express themselves at a young age, allowing them to mature with more flair, and that can’t be a bad thing!