The President presented Beitar Jerusalem with the State Cup: "Violence - State of Emergency" (Avi Rokach)
As Israeli football prepares for the historic match of the national under-20 team tonight (Saturday, 00:00) in the World Cup, from which the team may qualify for the round of eight, there is a real storm going on here regarding the youth and youth leagues.
The management of the Football Association will meet tomorrow (Sunday) to approve quite a few changes in the regulations and structure of the football leagues. One of the clauses that leads to a real uprising during these three days of the holiday is the change and reduction of the structure of leagues in the youth departments. At tomorrow's meeting, they plan to pass a resolution according to which the Youth Premier League, which has 16 teams, will be reduced to 14 teams, as will the leagues below.
The youth committee, which dealt with this issue for a long time, argued that there is room to reduce the number of teams and turn the Youth Premier League into the format of the Premier League for adults. This means 14 teams, and possibly even a division into upper and lower playoffs.
Great storm. Maccabi Haifa's youth team (Photo: official website, Maccabi Haifa)
This idea has many opponents in the Premier League and National League teams, and letters on the matter were sent during the holiday by a joint struggle group that was established, both to the chairman of the association Shino Zuaretz and to the Minister of Culture and Sport Miki Zohar.
The headquarters of the struggle, led by Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Hapoel Haifa, Bnei Sakhnin and Ironi Kiryat Shmona, said, among other things, that "instead of reducing teams and preventing children from realizing their dream, there is an urgent need to expand the leagues and reach as many players as possible throughout Israel. Certainly not to reduce the leagues, and in practice it harms the chances of tens of thousands of children from all over the country who dream of becoming soccer players. Without us there is no football, and everyone needs to understand that."
Opponents of the reduction added: "This move will lead to the dismissal of coaches, clubs to be purely competitive, instead of learning the basics of the game from a young age and there will be no professional processes for player development."
Those who support the reduction insist that it is a professional decision that has been examined for a long time by the Football Association's youth committee. They claim that professionals such as Yela Huss and Bonnie Ginzburg led the process, insisting that the change lead to an improvement in promoting the quality of young footballers in Israel.
- sport
- Israeli football
Tags
- Youth Premier League
- Football Association
