Exactly. They should have had qualifiers to select that one it. All of this was done in a haste and now looks unfair
</font><br><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I hope they consider a change for next year though. If not this year then do qualifiers next year.</font></div>
<h1 style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 8px; color: rgb(30, 30, 30); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.16em; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Football Association make historic decision on future of youth football for the future good of England</font></h1><div style="font-size: 10pt; "><div class="firstPar" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Fittingly, the vote was at Wembley which will eventually reap the benefit of these much-needed reforms.</p></div><div class="secondPar" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">The impact of introducing small-sided games all the way up to under-12 level, allowing kids more touches in matches on sensibly-sized pitches, will not be felt at elite level for a decade but it is a hugely significant step on the road to enlightenment.</p></div><div class="thirdPar" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“The whole of the country has its eyes on us today,” said Barry Bright, the chairman of the FA Council, in his opening address to the FA shareholders from counties, leagues and assorted other bodies at the annual meeting. The shareholders did not let the country down.</p></div><div class="fourthPar" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">There was still resistance among certain county FAs to change, although eventually the reforms were passed by 679 votes to 99.</p></div><div class="fifthPar" style="color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Concerns raised by some of the sceptics revolved around pitch logistics and the cost of new goals. Some of the Luddites appeared more worried about the wording of the reforms.</p></div><div id="tmg-related-links" class="related_links_inline" style="background-color: rgb(244, 244, 240); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); margin-bottom: 8px; overflow: hidden; width: 460px; color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; "><div class="headerOne styleFour" style="background-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/template/ver1-0/i/grey_dots.gif); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-top-width: 2px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(53, 100, 6); color: rgb(38, 38, 38); margin-bottom: 6px; padding: 2px 0px 8px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; "><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; padding: 0px 5px 1px 0px; font-size: 1.1em; text-transform: uppercase; display: inline; line-height: 1em; border-top-width: 0px; 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padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Leagues will involve smaller periods of competition, rather than the eight-month adult variety, while parents and coaches will be urged to drop the “win-at-all-costs” approach to children’s football.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“We want there to be less pressure on kids,” said Nick Levett, the FA’s national development manager for youth football who has spent the past two years criss-crossing the country, making presentations and winning over counties and leagues.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“There needs to be a climate change – this is kids’ football, not the World Cup final.”</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">Yet the long-term aspiration is to accentuate technique, so moulding better players. “This is about grass-roots football but also a 15 to 20-year programme for long-term player development, ultimately to help produce players to support the professional game and <strong><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/"; style="color: rgb(35, 75, 123); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; ">England </a></strong>team,’’ added Levett.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“It will mean more touches, more shots and more dribbles for young players and therefore improving the kids’ technique.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“The Mid-Herts League told me that they did nine v nine for the first year at under-11s and said they ‘couldn’t believe we ever did 11 v 11 on full-sized adult pitches’.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">"Bolton and Bury District Junior League started it at 11s and 12s and had feedback from clubs and kids to say ‘we want to do it for another year’. They’ve taken it on to under-13s as well [as in Spain]. It won’t be a surprise if in five years’ time a lot of leagues are doing a similar thing.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“Bolton, Bury and District League found that when people came together at under-13s, having done two years of either the 11 v 11 route or nine v nine, the teams who finished in the top six of the league were the ones who’d gone the nine v nine route and had developed better techniques and game understanding.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">“The Surrey Youth League is a massive league, 500+ teams. They’ve gone to nine v nine for the first time and they’ve seen a massive improvement for the kids. Chelmer and Crouch League in Essex were a little league who decided to run nine v nine.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; ">"Another big league in the same area in Essex have started doing nine v nine because they were losing so many teams to Chelmer and Crouch.’’</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.48em; "><strong>Key proposals</strong></p><ul class="storylist" style="list-style-image: url(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/template/ver1-0/i/articleBullet.gif); overflow: hidden; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 1em 2em; padding: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><li>Five-a-side games mandatory for Under-7s and U-8s.</li><li>Nine-a-side for U-11s and U-12s.</li><li>Pitch size to match age group.</li><li>More time on ball the priority for youngsters to develop technical skills.</li><li>Competitions will change from</li><li>eight-month-long, adult-based season into shorter periods.</li><li>Parents and coaches encouraged to drop a win-at-all-costs approach.</li><li><hr>Yes this is not Indian football but I am just wondering... can we do this for Indian football. Youth football needs something and the AIFF-FIFA Academies wont just get us better themselves.</li></ul></div></div>
<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 20px; ">Airtel kicks off India’s largest under-16 soccer talent hunt with Manchester United</b><div><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 20px; "><br></b></div><div><table bordercolor="red" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tbody><tr><td id="newranu" align="right"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr><tr><td id="story1" valign="top" width="100%" style="float: left; "><table><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="padding-left: 10px; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: '', 'Times New Roman', ',', serif, '; mso-fareast-font-family: ', 'Times New Roman', '} '; ">New Delhi, 26 Jun 2012</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday kicked off of ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ India’s largest under-16 soccer talent hunt. Launched in association with Manchester United (one of the best soccer clubs in the world).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "></span> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">‘Airtel Rising Stars’ is a rigorous scouting program that will cover 16 cities across India and choose 12 talented footballers who will get the chance of a lifetime to attend a week long training camp with Manchester United in Old Trafford, England.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">This announcement was made in a press conference held in the presence of Sanjay Kapoor (CEO, India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel), Manchester United football legend Dwight Yorke as well as ace footballer and ARS brand ambassador Sunil Chhetri. This 3 months long talent hunt will be conducted in 16 cities (including Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Calicut, Chandigarh and Jaipur) with the support of the respective State Football Associations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">"Followed by over 1.6 billion fans worldwide, soccer is a cult sport amongst youngsters across the globe. In fact, millions in the Indian subcontinent closely follow the game and aspire to play alongside professional soccer players. Given the mass appeal of football and a large youth population, we are uniquely positioned to tap and nurture young soccer talent. Aimed at recognizing and training such talent, we are today excited to launch ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ as a hunt for the best under-16 soccer players across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. As a game, soccer represents the principles of team-play and ‘friendship’, thus making it a perfect fit for brand Airtel. We see ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ as an exciting strategic step towards strengthening our brand positioning and appeal to the youth”, said Sanjay Kapoor of Airtel.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">Manchester United’s Commercial Director, Richard Arnold said; “We were very pleased to associate with the ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ programme in India and look forward to working closely with a number of extremely talented players. With 35 million Manchester United followers, India is one of our fastest growing fan bases and I have no doubt that we will see equally talented individuals in this country too. The programme is one of the largest of its kind in India and it is a great opportunity for us to work with these talented players in order to coach them on how to play the Manchester United way.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; "> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; ">The unique format of ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ program will ensure that every player gets an equal opportunity to showcase his skills and playing acumen through a series of selection criteria, overseen by renowned and officially certified coaches in each centre. The best three players from each city will then be picked to attend a final six day camp cum selection trials by coaches from Manchester United. The 48 players will be divided into four teams of 12 each and will be tested on all parameters (including physical attributes, individual skills, match situations and their performances in actual matches) before 12 of the best players are chosen to travel to Manchester United for a week and to train alongside the Manchester United Academy team.</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td id="newranu" align="right"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td id="pindex2" valign="top" align="right"></td></tr></tbody></table><br><hr>http://www.telecomtiger.com/Corporate_fullstory.aspx?storyid=14788§ion=S162</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div>;
I think what needs to happen here is people need to be made aware of what actually youth football is, because I don't think people on this forum are really aware of what is going on in the real world.<div><br></div><div>1. Firstly, Youth Football isn't Under-15 or Under-18 league or competition based football - It starts from 4 years, and goes up to 16.</div><div><br></div><div>2. Youth Football is not about competition. The idea is to generate interest in the game and NOT bring about a competition format. Why? Because when it comes down to competition, people start looking at "winning" rather than "development". The moment "winning" becomes part of training children, you end up creating third-rate players like you see in the I-League everyday. To create TECHNICALLY SOUND and TACTICALLY AWARE players, you need to make sure that children ENJOY the game and have FUN playing it.</div><div><br></div><div>3. Whoever thinks that youth football begins at the club level doesn't know how football works. The first and most important aspect of youth football is "street football". This includes those pick-up games that we played in the evenings, with friends. This DOES NOT include any academy structure because academies train you for 1 hour, three times a week. Lionel Messi didn't train for 1 hour, three times a week - if a child doesn't enjoy the game, he will not put in those hours required to become technically sound and tactically aware!</div><div><br></div><div>4. The problem is that there aren't enough children playing football in this country. We, at Cleat Beat, are changing that by giving out free footballs to children from second and third tier towns as well as in villages.</div><div><br></div><div>5. The second major problem in youth football is that coaches aren't trained. Any coach, who until the Under-16 level, trains a team to win, SHOULD BE FIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. There are too many coaches and academies where people do not know how to coach, but are training kids. They need to be trained and we, at Cleat Beat, are training coaches for free, in local communities, to make them understand what needs to be done in the right way.</div><div><br></div><div>6. Airtel, Manchester United Soccer Schools, Barcelona Schools - all are useless marketing gimmicks that will never create ONE good player. Why? Because the fee to get into these schools is higher than the monthly salary of most Indians. We need numbers to play the game, not a handful of children who can buy Adidas Predators and pay 15k a month for academies.</div><div><br></div><div>7. A lot of people on this forum are discussing the I-League, the Pailan Arrows and so on. However, what they don't realise is that the foundation, (which is 4 to 16-year olds) in this country is flawed.</div><div><br></div><div>In 2010, we had launched our magazine and some guy named "Somesh" made fun of the name - Cleat Beat. Well, Cleats are the shoes we wear when we play football and Beat refers to the field of journalism.</div><div><br></div><div>Then another said that we wrote about "European Football". We don't write on European Football, we write on GOOD FOOTBALL PRACTICES. That, in no uncertain terms, means that we don't care what happens in Indian football at the moment because it is useless and not worth writing about. There are only two things we care about - First, what is the best known way of playing football and, second, how to instill those habits into Indian children.</div><div><br></div><div>We at Cleatbeat.com are giving away free training exercises every single day. We run a magazine that talks about the best practices in football coaching, management and playing at all levels of the game. We do not advertise on our website, or charge money for anything that we offer from our site.</div><div><br></div><div>What we want to know is why are there so many people who are willing to TALK about Indian football and not ONE of them volunteers to DO anything about it?</div>
</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">1. Firstly, Youth Football isn't Under-15 or Under-18 league or competition based football - It starts from 4 years, and goes up to 16.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">My Reply: We know that but lets be honest. What is easier to fix right now. The under-18 league or leagues at the age of 4 thru-out India.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">2. Youth Football is not about competition. The idea is to generate interest in the game and NOT bring about a competition format. Why? Because when it comes down to competition, people start looking at "winning" rather than "development". The moment "winning" becomes part of training children, you end up creating third-rate players like you see in the I-League everyday. To create TECHNICALLY SOUND and TACTICALLY AWARE players, you need to make sure that children ENJOY the game and have FUN playing it.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">My Reply: Agree. Its like with the current u22 qualifiers. Everyone is expecting India to win and only win but why! Be realistic. Also I think everyone knew the fun part.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">3. Whoever thinks that youth football begins at the club level doesn't know how football works. The first and most important aspect of youth football is "street football". This includes those pick-up games that we played in the evenings, with friends. This DOES NOT include any academy structure because academies train you for 1 hour, three times a week. Lionel Messi didn't train for 1 hour, three times a week - if a child doesn't enjoy the game, he will not put in those hours required to become technically sound and tactically aware!</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">My Reply: We knew that, like Brazil where most of there footballers start with street football but in order to hone those skills (because playing street football will give you raw talents, not amazing full talents) you need to join a club. Specially if you want to translate what you do on the street to grass football.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">
<div><br></div><div>4. The problem is that there aren't enough children playing football in this country. We, at Cleat Beat, are changing that by giving out free footballs to children from second and third tier towns as well as in villages.</div><div><br></div><div>My Reply: Good luck.</div><div><br></div><div>5. The second major problem in youth football is that coaches aren't trained. Any coach, who until the Under-16 level, trains a team to win, SHOULD BE FIRED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. There are too many coaches and academies where people do not know how to coach, but are training kids. They need to be trained and we, at Cleat Beat, are training coaches for free, in local communities, to make them understand what needs to be done in the right way.</div><div><br></div><div>My Reply: Mate that wont change wherever you go. Spain, England, United States, Netherlands, Brazil... at the young age you will always have the idiot coaches (mainly a parent). I got coached in both England and then the United States at u8 level and age 10-12 level here in the US and both my and other coaches were parents and they just volunteered and did what they saw on TV. Very rarely will you get the good coach.</div><div><br></div><div>6. Airtel, Manchester United Soccer Schools, Barcelona Schools - all are useless marketing gimmicks that will never create ONE good player. Why? Because the fee to get into these schools is higher than the monthly salary of most Indians. We need numbers to play the game, not a handful of children who can buy Adidas Predators and pay 15k a month for academies.</div><div><br></div><div>My Reply: Agree. One week will be shit for any player. Even Dwight York said so.</div>
@ArsenalKid: Firstly, what you say about Under-18s being easier to fix is correct - but here's the problem. You have to find a make-shift solution that will work only for a short period. Let us just take passing as an example. You teach the Under-18 side how to pass properly and correct the technique. You teach them how to receive passes, etc. which is required looking at how our national age-group teams play.<div><br></div><div>However, the moment you are done teaching the techniques and giving them enough time to practice it, they are too old for the Under-18 team and move on. No time for tactical training, positioning training, intelligence and psychological training and so on. Instead, if we accept that "ok, let the national team perform poorly for a decade, but LETS implement a solution that will allow us to make sure that there is a steady stream of players coming through after that!"</div><div><br></div><div>Would you not agree that that would be a better solution for a situation that demands a long-term solution?</div><div><br></div><div>On the coaching standards bit, I agree with you as well! Standards are abysmal all over the world but here's the problem, because we were much further behind the top nations, we are now heading into the phase where we will start making these mistakes. First we didn't have coaches, then we didnt have licensed/trained coaches, and now we don't have coaches who have the right attitude.</div><div><br></div><div>Our point simply is that if we can see that others have been through this phase and struggled, why are we making those mistakes again? Why can't we move on and learn from their mistakes and start off a little further down the road? Is it necessary to re-invent the wheel with every single thing?</div><div><br></div><div>Things are changing abroad and because of the Internet & television, we can all see it out here. The problem is, the AIFF will not bring about these changes. We have to do that. In no country will you find that every academy, every training centre, every football school is owned by the football association of that country. Yet, in India we expect the AIFF to set up centres all over. </div><div><br></div><div>That is a bit unfair.</div>
The Debanjan Sen memorial KEVENTER Cup tournament being organised by
FPAI(Football Players association of India) begins on today with La
Marts taking on Hartleys High School at LMB ground...<br> There will be non-stop action of Football 24 Best English medium schools of Kolkata till 21st July,2012.
Comments
</font><br><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I hope they consider a change for next year though. If not this year then do qualifiers next year.</font></div>
FPAI(Football Players association of India) begins on today with La
Marts taking on Hartleys High School at LMB ground...<br> There will be non-stop action of Football 24 Best English medium schools of Kolkata till 21st July,2012.