OXFORD MAIL YOUTH LEAGUE

IT’S all change this season with a new format and a new name for Oxfordshire’s leading youth league, writes MATTHEW BRUCE.

Now known as The Oxford Mail Youth League, it is having a major overhaul in line with recent changes in the FA’s regulations.

Though the full extent of the league revamp will take place over several years, the league’s format will be almost unrecognisable from previous incarnations.

“Smaller pitches, smaller goals and smaller teams – those are the main changes this year,” said the league’s fixtures and referees’ secretary, Paul Lyon.

Previously children have played seven-a-side football until under 11 before moving on to full-sided games.

Now they will play five-a-side at under 7 and under 8 level, seven-a-side for the next two years and nine-a-side for under 11s and 12s to bridge the gap to full-sided football.

“It gives kids more opportunity to get on the ball, they spend less time running around and more time actually playing football,” said Lyon.

“If you look at Europe, they’ve been playing smaller-sided games for years so, who knows, perhaps 20 years from now we’ll be World Cup champions!”

Another major change is the replacement of the regular competition with a series of mini-leagues and short ‘trophy events’.

The first of these tournaments will take place at the start of next month, while indoor futsal is being arranged during the winter alongside five-a-side mini-leagues in the spring.

Lyon believes it is an ideal way to keep children interested throughout the year.

“It provides the players with far more development opportunities because teams who are struggling or overachieving can be moved at the end of the mini-season and play sides of a similar ability,” he said.

“No one benefits from winning or losing 10-0 every week but before we had to wait until the end of the season and kids lose interest part-way through if it’s uncompetitive.

“We did a trial run last year and the trophy events have proven very popular.

“In the past under 7s haven’t been allowed to compete for trophies so this has been a very popular change.”

And though new rules mean that the Oxford Mail will be unable to report results of regular matches from under 9 level and below, Lyon believes it is unlikely to deter many of its players.

He said: “Some of the parents and people running the clubs don’t like the lack of reporting, but for the kids it’s not so important.

“They love to win, but they move on very quickly after a match has finished.”