League rule: Win by more than 5 and you lose
 

Win a soccer game by more than five points and you lose, Ottawa league says



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By Terrine Friday June 1, 2010 – 6:05 am
In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.
The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.
Kevin Cappon said he first heard about the rule on May 20 — right after he had scored his team’s last allowable goal. His team then tossed the ball around for fear of losing the game.
He said if anything, the league’s new rule will coddle sore losers.
“They should be saying anything is possible. If we can get five goals really fast, well, so can the other team,” said Kevin, 17, who has played in the league for five years. “People grow in adversity, they don’t really get worse…. I think you’ll see more leadership skills being used if a losing team tries to recuperate than if they never got into that situation at all.”
Kevin’s father, Bruce Cappon, called the rule ludicrous.
“I couldn’t find anywhere in the world, even in a communist country, where that rule is enforced,” he said.
Mr. Cappon said the organization is trying to “reinvent the wheel” by fostering a non-competitive environment. The league has 3,000 children enrolled ranging in age from four to 18 years old.
“Everybody wants a close game, nobody wants blowouts, but we don’t want to go by those farcical rules that they come up with,” he said. “Heaven forbid when these kids get into the real world. They won’t be prepared to deal with the competition out there.”
Paul Cholmsky, whose four- and six-year-old boys play in the league, said the intended goal of a default-lose rule might backfire in teaching life skills.
“If there’s one team that’s consistenly dominant and one team that’s not, well, that’s life,” he said.
Mr. Cholmsky said he would be in favour of temporarily handicapping a team, for example reducing the number of players on the field, over ensuring a team loss for a high score differential.
According to the league’s new rules, coaches of stronger teams are encouraged to deter runaway games by rotating players out of their usual positions, ensuring players pass the ball around, asking players to kick with the weaker foot, taking players off the field and encouraging players to score from farther away.
Club director Sean Cale said he is disappointed a few parents are making the new soccer rule overshadow the community involvement and organizing the Gloucester club does.
“The registration fee, rergardless of the sport, does not give a parent the right to insult or belittle the organization,” he said. “It gives you a uniform, it gives you a team.”
Mr. Cale said the league’s 12-person board of directors is not trying to take the fun out of the game, they are simply trying to make it fair. The new rule, suggested by “involved parents,” is a temporary measure that will be replaced by a pre-season skill assessment to make fair teams.
“The board is completely volunteer-run and we do the best that we can to provide a good, clean, fun soccer experience for everyone,” he said.
Although parents are fuming, he said the commotion is coming from “about 1% of the parents.”
National Post


http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06...a-league-says/

Kind of a silly rule in my books. Not fair at all. It has a good concept, but the wrong way of doing it.

Jeesh! No wonder we can't produce a decent competitive team in the world leagues. We aren't even allowed to score!!

I think it should be left up the coaches to teach sportsmanship by telling your team to let off. That's how it usually is in hockey that I play.

I finished about 5-12-0 for hockey this year. And that's a good year for our team. I'm not too emotionally shattered. :icon_shrug:

Pretty silly rule if you ask me.

What a dumb rule. Where I live the little league soccer teams dont keep score. And grades aren't based on A,B,C, D, F now its either Satisfactory or Needs Improvement.

My niece and nephew play on soccer teams where they don't even keep the score! I guess it would be to damaging to the young children to know if they lost at something. Of course, this falls right in line with dropping a failing grade from a score below 70 to a score below 60.

I've been in my share of blowouts growing up on both sides of the ball. When you were on the winning side you felt great. When on the losing side you swore you would never allow it to happen again and work your ass off in practice.

Losing builds character more than winning, IMHO. It teaches you how to prevail in adverse situations, teaches humility and sportsmanship. Because when you do win, you don't tend to gloat and be a sore winner as you already know how bad it feels to lose.

This rule makes absolutely no sense to me.............:icon_screwy:

I remember when I played soccer and our team sucked. we got beat by at least 5 points most of the time... haha I guess those would have all been wins if that rule was instated. but wouldn't it make more sense to just end the game after 5 points have been scored because obviously the other team isn't going to come back from that

I play in a casual Flag Football league now with some freinds from High School and in the leauge were in they have whats called a mercy rule...if were up by 28 points the game is over and the score is recorded as 28-0 for example...I find it kinda stupid because of the fact that 4 TD's or 5 Goals is attainable if you still have a Reaasonable amount of time left. Then again Im not the kinda person that likes to give up. The funny thing about not keeping score at all is that the kids do still keep score even if its not kept and there will always be a winner and a loser in sports..

just let the kids play and don't keep score