Hi all,

Firstly this isn't a knock on the FA, just wanted to start a conversation.

I'm a coach at an U9 team and we have two teams with equally mixed ability players in both but the club's philosophy is aligned with football for all so we don't do trials and we keep playing time equal. The problem we have is that we're in an FA league where maybe three other teams do the same where the others all have trials and controlled squads, this tends to result in either a hiding or a competitive game.

I understand that this isn't competitive football and of course we preach that there are more goals than the results and focus on getting better but the players and parents still get frustrated and each year we lose our best players as they want to move to 'better' teams. I guess my questions are:

1. How are teams in the FA leagues able to use trials and closed teams when the FA preaches football for all?

2. Why isn't there a tiered development league system where players get to play football at a more appropriate level and then move up or down if needs be? Kids love playing football, scoring goals, and winning games - wouldn't it be a good thing to promote these?

Interested to hear everyone's view!