All in all, a very encouraging week in the soccer media scene, with a few notable exceptions. While noted Globe and Mail sports columnist Stephen Brunt gave a very useful (and badly overdue) rundown on the situation leading up to Canada winning the bid to host the 2015 Women's World Cup (in addition to the 2014 U20 Women's World Cup), a lot of the media focus was sadly stuck on news that the Pan Am games would knock Toronto from the list of World Cup host cities. Still, the WWC announcement has received a healthy amount of positive media attention, which will only build as the high-profile FIFA tournament approaches.
However, journalists are often very good at covering the one-off news events and then letting the story of Canadian soccer lie dormant until everyone forgets about the CSA and development issues and all the rest, just in time to write another Canadian soccer "state of the union" for the next big announcement. Lost amid the largely pro forma FIFA bid announcement is the longer (and decidedly drier) term soccer player development issue, specifically Sports Canada's Long Term Development Plan (packaged by the CSA as a document titled "Wellness to the World Cup" back in 2009), to be hopefully implemented in Winnipeg.
Despite the fact fellow Winnipeg soccer writer Jerrad Peters put the issue to bed several weeks earlier in the Free Press, the Winnipeg Sun's Tom Brodbeck had the time and the editorial space to take a right-wing ideological crack at a particular provision in the LTDP regarding league tables for U9-U12 players.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Brodbeck writes:
The soccer groups he's referring to are the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association, the Manitoba Soccer Association and the CSA. But as Bill Ault of CanadaKicks pointed out in a rejoinder post, LTDP prescribes no such "no scoring" provision, but rather a provision that league tables not be used until after the U12 level.A recent Leger Marketing poll proves what most of us suspected all along about amateur sport — that most Canadians believe keeping score and tracking wins and losses in kids sports is a healthy part of the game. The question now is, will soccer groups — who’ve been pushing the idea of eliminating scoring and standings for kids 12 and under — proceed against the will of most Canadians?
Ault:
What the LTDP is proposing isn't the leftist, politically correct "everyone gets a medal" scheme of Brodbeck's nightmares, but simply streamlining mainstream development practices with other successful soccer nations (insert witty anti-England retort here).The [Long Term Development Plan] does call for no league standings and a jamboree format with an emphasis on fun at U6 - U9 and an organized schedule but no standings for the U9 - U12s...The academy program in traditional soccer nation England, involving some of the world's major clubs, does not keep standings (or tables if you prefer) until, wait for it U18.
Jason DeVos explains it perfectly:
You can point out what a hack Brodbeck is, but the underlying point Ault makes in his piece is the CSA is allowing people like Brodbeck to drive the narrative by not getting their message out in a way everyday Canadian parents and players might better understand.Unfortunately, the current structure of youth soccer rewards teams that win and punishes teams that lose, through a system of promotion and relegation that can begin for players as young as 8 years old. As a result of this win-at-all-costs system, players are failing to learn the fundamentals of the game.Many coaches select their teams based on which players are best equipped to win from the ages of 8 or 9 onwards. Those are generally the players who are bigger, faster and stronger - who are developmentally advanced for their age - rather than those who have the potential to develop into talented soccer players given the right learning environment.
Why is this important? Because the actions taken at the amateur youth level directly affect the development course players will take throughout their young careers.
Parents of kids playing soccer in Winnipeg however aren't downloading lengthy PDFs and visiting CSN; they're reading newspapers like the Sun and taking Brodbeck's disinformation at face value. Meanwhile the LTDP initiatives remain a mystery to many involved in youth sports.
While the soccer hardcore know otherwise, parents reading Brodbeck's drivel are going to assume the MSA is trying to coddle their children rather than build a skill-based player. As Ault writes, it's up to the CSA to work out a way for local associations to get the message across in a direct accessible way, to say that LTDP is a necessary next step in bringing this country to soccer standards and not some sort of babysitting scheme. Otherwise the Brodbecks will get the last word, and we'll have missed a golden opportunity to move forward.
Richard Whittall writes on football from his hovel in Toronto, Canada. In addition to A More Splendid Life, he also writes the Canadian Soccer history blog, The Spirit of Forsyth. He is the associate editor of Tom Dunmore's award-winning Pitch Invasion. And his writing has appeared in Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, and he was a contributor for Brooks Peck's Yahoo! blog Dirty Tackle for the 2010 World Cup. His columns on media and football will appear weekly on Canadian Soccer News. Follow him on Twitter @RWhittall