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Jake plays in a local  little under 9's football team/league.

They all have a fantastic time and it is great for learning to love the beautiful game.

By far the best player in Jake's team is a boy called Tom.

Tom is very skilful plus bigger and stronger than all his teammates and most opposition players he faces too.

Last week he scored a pretty good goal, beat about 5 defenders and slotted the ball in the corner of the net.

In celebration he lifted his shirt over his head did a little dance around the corner flag.

The coach's reaction? He immediately subbed Tom and told him he would not be playing in the next match "unless he learned how to respect both the opposition and the game itself".

Cue one very unhappy 8 year old.

Over reaction by the coach or good to teach the kid a lesson early?

Its a fine line between encouraging skills and respect for the game

At that age they are copying what they see on MOTD, Sky etc every week too

Done similar myself, to a lad at U11 level who didn't play in the right spirit subbed the lad for the rest of the game.

Think not playing the next match,or threatening it, is a step too far at that age

I should have added, he did say before the first game they played, if and when someone scores a few high fives are all he wanted to see before they ran back to get ready for the restart.

No warning about punishment though, but Tom's celebration was definitely OTT - especially as they already winning easily.

Over reaction. It's a physical game, let him express his pleasure physically.

Nothing wrong with the other kids learning to cope with having a little salt rubbed into the wound to sharpen the sting of defeat either.

There's too much mollycoddling of youngsters imo. Youth is designed to prepare you for adulthood. the real world isn't all warm and fuzzy.

If it were a non physical came, like poker or chess for instance, I would see it completely differently.

Not fair. You moved the goal posts just as I replied.

hmmm difficult one i don't get why people are punished for celebrating goals it does not seem to over the top if he just scored a worldie goal. but learning to respect your opposition is a great lesson.

I remember a referee sin binning a player on our team in a rugby match for going "wheyyyy" when he ran past an opposition player and left him on his arse. We were winning by lots and our number 10 was running riot. After about the third player he went "wheyyy" to the ref gave them a penalty and binned him. We were all shocked but he never did it again thats for sure

subbing for rest of game is appropriate

Not a fan of carrying any "punishment" over beyond that match at this age though

Sub him, then let him play next game as normal

FA is moving to non competitive, no league table, small sided games up to U12 anyway, so its irrespective the score......more the lad has behaved against the coach's instructions

I'll ban you from my thread if you're not careful!

That's a horrible decision by the FA.

Kids love league tables and finding out the scores from other games and how it affects their position.

Many coaches agree with you

FA has been v draconian about it, bans from coaching for managers who do their own league tables etc etc

Apparently its a continental model!

agree when I was 12 I used to ring friends from every team or be on MSN to every team after my match, it was always fun to be competitive. 

I dont even think op is that bad, it seems like fun, if you were there and it was OTT then sure, but speak to him after the game and tell him what you dont like and why and then give punishment in the future. After reading that they were already warned, subbing off and explaining after the game suffices but banning for the next game is ridiculous, way too far.

We used to love celebrations, on Friday nights instead of drinking wed plan football celerbrations, they wernt offensive, they were just our way of having fun.

The only problem with kids leagues is there are far too many complete mis matches.

Nothing worse than 20-0 results.

My junior school was at least 5 times bigger than any other in the area. And I don't think we ever lost a football match.

But our PE teacher used to keep games within shouting distance by giving penalties for offside or disallowing goals for pushes which didn't happen.

Not sure how that can be altered, but nothing wrong with competitiveness in itself.

What a load of nonsense. Life is competitive, and makes a sport much more fun.

Ha. Has felt like that in senior sports for me before - take a decent lead and suddenly whistle keeps going against you.  It's like bloody Mario Kart when every bugger behind you gets red shells and lightning.

Substituting the player seems fair 'punishment'. Have a word with him after the game and before the next game, just to enforce that they don't want to promote that kind of behaviour. Making an 8 year old sit out the whole next game for over-celebrating seems pretty absurd. Sure if they hit someone or swear at the ref or something, being sub for the next game or missing it seems fine, but not for this.

Good on Tom.

Indicative of society where it only seems authority is happy when it's wringing the joy out of everything.

Nothing I enjoy better than seeing a pumped up Poulter hole a put, usain Bolt firing an arrow etc.

If he was doing it after every goal, maybe so, but as said, after a wonder goal, enjoy the moment son, you only got one go at this life.

exactly this!

I can't do YouTube links properly but I think toms next celebration should be this

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=82wM8s-_2RM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D82wM8s-_2RM

I used to hold exactly this view. However, having witnessed at first hand what the FA are trying to achieve, I am now convinced that at this age a non-competitive structure provides a much better environment for young players to develop their skills and reach their full potential. It might not seem as much fun for the competitive parents but it definitely benefits the kids.

I think as manager I would force the kid to do my shopping for a week.

So you'd make him dial Dominoes 3x a day for a week!? poor lad

If it was me Tom would have been quietly subbed and be playing in goal next week, at that age they should be rotating positions weekly anyway.

I've managed a team from U8 to currently U15. I'm not a coach, don't have any badges, I'm just a Dad who facilitates a bunch of kids having fun. When they were U9/U10 I thought the FA were completely wrong with their plans. Like sharky, having seen the plans in action I think they're got it just about right.

Variety is the spice of life, need to be getting in some KFC and McDonalds in there, I'm not an animal.

Balance..

Really is nothing wrong with celebrating a worldly when that age, let them enjoy the moment. Its not like they went up to the other team rubbing it in. Millions of other things to worry about with kids football than celebrating.

Also fwiw I think at any age scoring a goal that is something a bit special (whether that be your best player beating 5 men and putting it away or some little left-back scoring the first goal of his life) there's got to be an element of common sense whereby you just let a bit of over-celebration go. It's when you're 11-0 up and over-celebrating tap-ins something needs to be done. I guess that manager has to make a judgement call if the player is really excited about his goal or just being cocky and a bit disrespectful. I can't imagine there are too many 8 year olds who are concious of it though, so a gentle nudge in the right direction as opposed to a 1-game ban, which could really upset a young kid, seems appropriate.

In my opinion, the order of priorities for kids playing football goes;

fun > respect > skill development > results

With that in mind, celebrations and expressing your love of the game should be actively encouraged.  Gloating after scoring is not on but a wee dance is the least the lad deserves!

In saying that, the coach seems to have set out rules that (for better or worse) are well intentioned and must be adhered to.

Just let kids be kids I say.

I think the coach did think he was rubbing it in, that's why he was so cross.

Probably was an over reaction - but I could see where he was coming from.

In our school football team it was stated that anyway who got booked, sent off or over celebrated goals would never play in the team again. Not one person got booked, sent off or took the piss celebrating goals in 5 years. We won pretty much everything we could.

Its good to teach kids to not act like dicks in my opinion.

As a Qualified Ref, and A level 3 FA Coach to an u8 team and u11 team, Varied views, the boy should be able to celebrate at that age, the Fa are getting so strict on The Respect rule, Children should be able to react with a goal celebration at that age group, and to stop a child playing football is a no no for me.

Seems like a terrible decision by the coach because if you want to win games you need to pick your best eleven. If you've got a player who is bigger and faster than all the other boys and can dribble past 5 defenders etc they should be the first name on the teamsheet.

FYP