Should we be talking about youth football becoming a summer sport?

Following another week of games called off, training sessions cancelled and after school clubs in the mud, should we be asking for youth football in England to become a Summer sport? Lets be honest, Summer's here aren't exactly the hottest and the extra sunlight would allow for evening games as well as the traditional weekend matches.

The Academy were due in Stoke this past Sunday but again due to the weather all games were postponed and it led to a day off. In the absence of the Academy football I was looking around the local area for another game to go and see or help out at. As expected every game that should have been on was off and I ended up at home watching Sky Sports, not always a bad thing.

This got me to thinking of the 2 months we have in the Summer where the kids are crying out for organised football and yet every club seems to take a 'break' and have what we call pre-season. Just think of the headway that could be made during that time to work on skills, techniques, game understanding and much more in a better more appropriate environment.

The idea, for me, would be to have 2 seasons, season one happening 1st March - 14th July and season two happening 15th August - 30th November. This allows for a break during the busy summer break when people are on holiday and the children are not at school. Also a nice break for December, January and February when historically most games are postponed anyway. This would mean better surfaces to play on (not ruined by the bad weather and play) and would allow for more hours contact time. Yes we would only play for 8 months of the year but during those 8 months we would get much more time out on the field with the children.

The Summer month off could be filled with festivals of mixed ages through the Foundation Phase to allow clubs more chance to raise a team at this busy time of year.

I would suggest this be the case from U15 down and then keep U16 up as it is to help with the transition to adult football. Obviously this would mean less opportunity for clubs to run their annual tournaments so may mean less revenue but with the better environment and more opportunity to play I feel an upturn in the number of children playing would out way that loss.

If you agree or not please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch if you have any ideas.

Until next week.......