An interesting point in Why England Lose on Penalties is that the two countries that most overperform in football are Denmark and Iraq. Here is why Iraq produces so much talent for such a small and impoverished country.



That picture is taken in a refugee camp within artillery range of Mosul that houses about 2500 people. The camp is two and a half years old and the field was refurbished for the first time two months ago. Organised football is played from 8am to 10pm daily and they have 48 mens teams, from under 12s to seniors and 4 womens teams who are looking for opponents.

Every village of about 1000 or more has a field like this and sends representative teams to play in larger towns that have full sized artificial pitches. The only way to play on a full-sized pitch is to make the representative sides, until such time the Iraqi kids only play street football and SSG. This is a huge incentive for these kids, almost an obsession, and from a young age it breeds a mindset that winning is more important than player development. Interesting to compare and contrast with FFA introducing SSG as part of the national curriculum a few years back.

It produces players with wonderful touch but the goalkeepers are universally shit, comically so.

Interesting about Iraq.

Can someone from NSW fill us in on how the Small sided Football for under 12s is running this year?
Is it box to box or across ground? Are parents reffing the games or is a ref allocated. Any other feedback would be great.
Cheers

Must be running shit like all miniroos in this country

Not sure i'll try and find out for you.

Thanks Barca

Just asked someone who is a coach in one of the teams and he said yes they play 9v9 at under 12 level, with SAP is the same from 9-12's anyway barring the 9's where they only have 7 on the pitch and play with a smaller goalmouth and so they all play box to box.

10-12s play 9v9, box to box, generally with 3/4 size goals.

There are also whispers of taking it to 13s next season and starting 11v11 at under 14(just rumours though), which would be inline with the curriculums statement of 13s still being a skill acquisition age group.

I hope you're happy with the response. :)

under12s play 11 v11 full field

10s and11s play 9 v 9 across field (2 fields per adult field)

8s and 9s play 7 v 7 across field but narrower than 10s

7s play 5 no keeper

6s play 4 no keeper

hmm ive been told otherwise about 9v9 at under 12 level

Ok ive dug up some information regarding SAP and the use of SSGs in SAP im not sure about outside of SAP competitions but it explains how many players are involved to the pitch sizes, hope it clears all of the confusion for everyone...

http://www.footballnsw.com.au/fileadmin/user_upload/Rules___Regulations/Competitions/20151124_-_OPS_-_2016_SAP_Structure_Document__AF_.pdf

That is interesting, because FFA National curriculum and grassroots clubs in Granville and Hills play 11 v11 at 12 and above. Curious to know why SAP depart from it.

Thanks Barca, so it basically falls under miniroos format. Where games will be reffed by parents etc

Im not sure why they have this, there is confusion out there no doubt between what is done at elite level to what happening at community level.

Im not sure about that, parents are always trying in influence things no matter what you put in place i've experienced that just assisting my mate who is a coach in the SAP a couple years ago.

I read somewhere that in Holland they are trying an experiment that they have removed coaches and parents and referees from the sidelines to the point where they are far back so this will allow the kids to play on their own.

If it works i'm sure they will implement that idea here in the future. :d

Definitely heard that NPL clubs in NSW going to small sided at U12 with Vic likely to follow in 2017 but not confirmed

Just had a read of that document which specifies SAP. Wonder iif it is infact NPL as well?

Yes I agree, an option would be to keep 12s as part of the NPL format. They are first game of the day so ground could be set up box to box with smaller goals. It would only take a few minutes after the game to remove the goals so would not affect next game under 13s in any way.
With this system you could still have official ref and parents would be kept well behind the fence :d