The age reduction in the Donau / Isar district is causing problems.
Not all circles are involved, which makes planning for the coming year difficult.
Erding – Our football youth should get younger.
Sounds strange, but it can be explained.
In future, U19 juniors will be allowed to play for the men - this has now been decided by the majority of the clubs, but this and the complete age reduction only applies to the Donau / Isar football district, which includes the Erding, Freising, Pfaffenhofen and Ingolstadt districts.
Anyone who gets around a little further in Upper Bavaria now has a big problem.
As reported, district youth leader Stefan Erl called on the clubs to vote for the age reduction project.
Instead of the U 19 and U 18 juniors, the A youth will in future be the U 18 and U 17, the B youth will then be U 16 / U15 and so on.
109 of the 158 clubs took part in the vote - 70.6 percent voted for the rejuvenation.
But playgroup leader Willi Brambring is happy: “I think it's good that U19 players will play for the men in the future.
At this age they don't have to and don't want to play in their youth anymore. "
Erdings playgroup leader Brambring: Oberbayerischer Fleckerlteppich
But Brambring also says: "We now have a patchwork carpet in Upper Bavaria." The Munich gaming group, for example, has decided against lowering the age.
The district of Inn / Salzach has decided to lower the age for the 2021/22 season.
The U 19 will be deleted, the A youth will then consist of three years (U18, U 17, U 16), from the C youth there will be no change, it will remain with U 15, U 13, U 11 and U as before 9.
Brambring fears that the different procedures will be a problem for the clubs that travel beyond the boundaries of the soccer district.
According to youth leader Florian Aldinger, SpVgg Altenerding, for example, has to plan in two ways because it is still open which teams will play in the BOL next year.
"At the moment it is only certain that the C-youth will play in the BOL, but the affiliations of the A, B and D-youth will only be decided in June or July," explains Aldinger.
Specifically, this means: If Altenerdings A-youth are relegated to the district league, the team consists of the years 2004 and 2005. If the B-youth remains in the BOL, it will be the 2005 and 2006.
That would mean that the 2005s are the pillars of the A and B youth.
An A-youth from three years
If the A remains in the BOL and the B in the district league, the problem would shift to the point that the A youth would consist of three years (2003-2005).
"The young generation would have had a hard time gaining a foothold there because of physical deficits, because in extreme cases there can be a three-year age difference here," said Aldinger, who also sees the clubs facing difficult coaching plans.
“Many fathers are trainers, especially in junior football.
So far, when planning the season in January, I was able to say where his son will play next year.
Since the age group is now also dependent on the league membership, early planning is no longer possible ”.
Christian Mildner, youth leader from TSV Dorfen, voted for the age reduction.
However, he sees "now the association has an obligation and expects that it will come to a standardization in the short term." Since Dorfen from today's perspective with the A-youth will probably only have one team in the BOL in the next season, the club is confident that the situation can be handled well.
However, Mildner would have wished that the age reduction would not be implemented by next season: “Due to Corona, many months of match practice are already missing in all age groups.
This certainly cannot be made up overnight.
This means that the clubs already have a lot more work to do, and now you have to devote yourself to this time-consuming topic ”.
The difficult phase after Corona for the clubs
The time after the corona pandemic is also the great unknown for Brambring.
"We don't know how things will go in the clubs, how many players will be left".
He doesn't have any numbers, but when he talks to club officials and coaches, he repeatedly hears their concern that by far not all youth footballers will return.
“And supervisors have now also noticed that it is very pleasant not to be on the training ground twice a week,” says Brambring.
Gökmen Uluhan, 2nd sporting director of JFG Sempt Erding, is positive about the age reduction, but also has the concerns of his home club FC Türkgücü Erding in mind when making his decision.
"In the past, there have always been problems with finding A and / or B youth, which has to do with the fact that clubs are already planning for the men's area with their older age group." This problem is alleviated somewhat by the new regulation, because With the new age structure, significantly fewer youth players have the right to play in the men's area.
Uluhan hopes that this will get more players through the youth division, "because this way they will join the men's division a year earlier, which is also the wish of many young players".
Since the JFG is represented with the D-Juniors in the BOL, the Erdinger have to deal with the problem of the different rules.
Uluhan: "There is a lot of work to do to be able to plan this."
BSG Taufkirchen is looking forward to the 19 year olds
Although the BSG Taufkirchen will probably not come into contact with these difficulties before the coming season, junior manager Stefan Bart cannot understand the different approach.
He regrets that "every district, including the recently introduced reporters, is doing its own thing".
Regardless of this, the BSG voted for the age reduction, because in Taufkirchen you can ideally see the 19-year-old players in the men's area.
Despite everything, Bart is of the opinion that “a uniform solution - at least for the Upper Bavaria district - would probably make a lot more sense.
When I consider that even the districts have completely different regulations, I am sure that there will always be considerable difficulties in gaming operations here. "
(Andreas Heilmaier / Dieter Priglmeir)
A detailed interview with district game director Stefan Erl follows.