Junior Girls Grading

This forum is for discussion relating to junior football.

Moderators: John Cena, Forum Admins

Post Reply
TDK18
Ball Boy
Ball Boy
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 10, 2019 12:53 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Junior Girls Grading

Post by TDK18 »

My daughter has started playing soccer this year at U15 level. She isn't going to be a superstar but enjoys playing the sport and I'm glad its a hobby that gets her outside and moving.

We're in the bottom division and have come up against teams of varying quality which I expected. However, there are two standout sides who are dominating the others.
Purple Table.png
Purple Table.png (15.13 KiB) Viewed 2215 times
I imagine the bottom division is always hard to balance because there's nowhere else for the poorest sides to go, but these are the bottom two sides of the division above
Blue Table.png
Blue Table.png (12.84 KiB) Viewed 2215 times
So we've two teams smashing one division, two teams getting smashed the division above. I'm not a genius, but it seems a simple solution...I suggested this to our coach who said it was up to clubs to nominate their division and the FSA does not decide who goes where. Apparently, some coaches will deliberately play a lower division to win their league, which is both funny and sad at the same time.

Now, since we joined our club, we've had sessions on social media policy, our team manager has to provide a perfect team sheet or risk forfeit, girls who have filled in with other teams are cup-tied, girls can't play because their socks are the wrong colour or they're wearing skins under their shorts. There seems to be a huge number of rules enforced by FSA - yet they can't create a league with balance?

As I said, I'm new to the whole thing but surely offering the girls (or boys) an environment where they can be successful is a key to player retention or attraction? Particularly for those who are just using it as a hobby or are new to the game altogether?

Is it worth approaching the FSA for answers?

themagnet
Squad Player
Squad Player
Posts: 1403
Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 3:52 pm
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 7 times

Re: Junior Girls Grading

Post by themagnet »

Funnily enough, FSA saw fit to move a number of teams from the top division down and I believe 3 teams up from the middle division because of similar results. I cannot understand why they wouldn't apply the same logic to the lowest division where girls are more likely to be beginners and it's much harder for clubs to retain these players if they've just spent the season getting thumped.

Post Reply