Oakworth values new football initiative

3:29pm Thursday 10th July 2008

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Last Saturday Oakworth Juniors launched a new initiative which they believe will lead to greater enjoyment and better development for young footballers.

The club had a fun day where their U-7s played 4v4 non-competitive football in the colours of countries from around the world .

Oakworth have embraced the Give Us Back Our Game (GUBOG) campaign, which was celebrated over the weekend, and adopted playing 4v4 football for their U-7s age group instead of playing in the local Keybury Youth League. In season 2009/10 this will be extended to the U-8s age group.

Oakworth secretary Richard Hewitt said small-sided football is blighted by poor parental behaviour and coaches with a win-win attitude and he also cited the benefits of the 4v4 game played on a 35m by 25m pitch.

He said the benefits for young footballers playing 4v4 instead of the 7v7 or 8v8 format were shown in a study carried out by Manchester University showed the number of passes increased by 135 per cent, number of goals scored increased by 500 per cent and number of dribbling skills increased by 280 per cent.

This concept is not new, it was introduced by the Dutch coach Rinuus Michels at Ajax in the early 1970s and led to the Cruuyf inspired Dutch "Total Football" team of the era.

Hewitt said it is now widely used throughout Europe and South America. Since England failed to qualify for the recent European Championship an in-depth study into the fundamental coaching problems has taken place, the result is the FA Strategic Policy to 2012 which now fully embraces the contribution by GUBOG and the necessity to play 4v4 games at a young age in non competitive leagues at U-7s and U-8s level.

Oakworth Juniors are the first club to step away from the traditions of playing in the local Mini Soccer League and have full parental support.

By also adopting the "Don't X The Line", "Zero Tolerance" and "Respect" campaigns the club believe this will be a major step forward to improve touchline behaviour at junior matches.