New form of play should keep children playing football

With the Funino game form, the BFV wants to keep the Bambini and the F-Juniors happy.

Because after the U10, many footballers are currently quitting.

District - The Bavarian Football Association (BFV) wants to break new ground in five-a-side football.

Association youth leader Florian Weißmann informed the clubs in an online meeting about the new project "Mini football - child-friendly football in the BFV".

The main aim of this project is to counteract the development that has resulted in a noticeable loss of youth players in recent years.

“A lot of players are currently quitting after the U10.

Of course, many children lose their interest and discover another hobby for themselves, but it is undisputed that many of them lose their fun mainly due to less working hours and that is why they quit, ”explains Weißmann.

With the new form of play, which is also known under the name Funino and will be offered in addition to regular gaming in the future, it is hoped that this will be a significant improvement.

Although both forms of play will be carried out in the future, Weißmann appealed in his lecture that “the G-Juniors should only use the new form of play, because the form 7: 7 does not suit children - especially at this age”.

In future, so-called festivals, which the association or the clubs themselves can organize, will take place during the game-free period. The large playing field is to be divided into eight smaller playing fields, and each field is played three against three, which means that all children have significantly more ball contact. Each team has a maximum of one additional rotation player available. The rule that after every goal - or at the latest after two minutes without a goal - a change of player is mandatory, ensures that all children are able to attend enough times. The larger number of goals also ensures that the children will in any case have more sense of achievement through the hits.

“These measures will definitely increase the fun factor for the children. It is also important that children who are not yet so developed benefit from it. So far, they have only been used to a limited extent, but now they will develop more quickly with much longer periods of use, ”says Weißmann, describing the reasons for this project.

The association youth leader sees a further cause for demotivation of children in runaway victories or high defeats, which one now also wants to turn off. On the one hand, the shortened playing time of seven minutes will prevent such results, on the other hand, there will be “promoted and relegated teams” after every game, says Weißmann. The winning team moves to the next, stronger field, while the loser plays the next match in the field below. This ensures that the performance levels of opponents are automatically adjusted in the course of a festival (F-Juniors 7 games / G-Juniors 5 games), which always meets the demands and encouragement of the children.

The arguments met with approval from the participating officials.

The Altenerdingen junior manager Florian Aldinger is pleased that the children can now also be offered games when there is no play.

"Up until now, vacation times were mostly taboo because the required number of children wasn't available, but in future it should be possible to provide at least three actors," he believes.

Some junior leaders were quite skeptical about whether the E-Juniors could accept the new form of play.

However, the Bavarian Football Association wants to take account of the further development status in this age group with larger playing fields and the number of players of five against five.

District junior leader Jochen Fuchs, who has already attended several festivals, made a fiery appeal for Funino. “The children were full of verve and I just looked into happy eyes. Everyone exhausted themselves and drove home happy, ”he reported. "We adults should put our own thinking behind us because the children just want to play, and the new form of play makes that possible in any case."

When asked whether clubs would be willing to host a pilot event, it was clear that the Funino officials were convinced, because there were positive responses from all regions.

For example, SpVgg Altenerding has applied for the Erding play area.

"The corona pandemic does not yet allow precise planning, but we hope that the first festivals can be held in July," says district junior manager Stefan Erl, looking confidently into the near future.

Andreas Heilmaier