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The Mercy Rule

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PinnerPaul

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Apparently there is an FA trial this season for certain youth cup competitions (Applies to all Herts Youth County Cup matches for example) whereby if one team attains a 9 goal advantage the match is deemed to be finished. Ref reports the score as full time 9-0; 10-1 etc and the time the match concluded.

IF this occurs quite quickly the two teams may play a friendly (perhaps mixing players) and the referee may officiate that as well, although sensibly he is under no obligation to do so.

Anyone else come across this and your thoughts on it?
 
The Referee Store
Yup, I've encountered it. At 10-0, both teams wanted to continue (not sure I did!), so we ploughed on
 
Closest I can get to it is one of my first games, I accidentally blew for FT about 10 minutes early (don't ask).

Everybody trudged off, score was probably 8-0 to home team.

When we realised what had happened, I asked both teams if they wanted to continue, they did, and it finished 10-1.

I would've been happy with finishing there, but the consensus was to carry on, so we did.
 
We have that rule in high school here in the US. It comes in handy. It sounds like the only difference is the match must reach at least half time.
 
I know that schools rugby has a similar rule in place for when one team reaches a 50 point margin. Like somebody already said though, the second half has to have started.
 
If you are going to make mods in breach of LOTG why not make it more practical.

For every goal above a difference of seven, the winning team must drop a player who can come back after the goal is put back. For example if they start with 11, at 8-0 drop to 10 players, at 9-0 drop to 9 players and at 10-0 drop to 8 players. Then 10-1, back to 9 players and so on. This will allow them to continue playing competitively in a balanced game.
 
In the AEFL junior Saturday in Worcestershire, the 8 goal in front rule applies. problem is coaches don't read the rules and still put in 17-0 as the final score - which begs the question as to what they actually did to even it up!
 
A couple of years ago I used to do a lot of games on local U16 & U15 leagues.

I always felt - and a few mangers, coaches etc agreed with me - that it would be beneficial if the league ignored goal difference - if the top two teams were tied at the end of the season, a play off final could easily be arranged to determine the champions.

When comfortabley leading, the more enlightened teams would bring on their fringe players to give them more game time. Sadly one to two teams would keep their best players on to rack up the goals as it was good for their goal difference.
 
RefJef said:
A couple of years ago I used to do a lot of games on local U16 & U15 leagues.

I always felt - and a few mangers, coaches etc agreed with me - that it would be beneficial if the league ignored goal difference - if the top two teams were tied at the end of the season, a play off final could easily be arranged to determine the champions.

When comfortabley leading, the more enlightened teams would bring on their fringe players to give them more game time. Sadly one to two teams would keep their best players on to rack up the goals as it was good for their goal difference.
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Harrow Youth League, where I started, have never used GD to determine league positions
 
Sheffields Finest said:
Hate this stuff, learning to lose is as important as learning how to win!
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I'm sort of in agreement with that but I do think that there's little to be gained for either team from +10 goal deficits. The match itself as a spectacle (or even as training value) has lost it's meaning by the time that scoreline is reached. What generally happens after that is players laughing/joking at the losing team's expense, piss taking and using the opportunity to "show off" - even seen it at adult level. It just makes the whole thing pointless and nurtures resentment for the team on the receiving end.

I'd be for simply ending the match once the "walkover" scoreline has been reached. :)
 
It depends. I've seen blow outs where both teams were still having fun. And then there are others. . . . I kinda like @one 's suggestion of taking players off to balance. The point of youth sports is to play and have fun and have a chance to get better. And you only do that by, well, playing.
 
I played an ex prem footballer in my school years and he was brilliant at all sports. We played his school at cricket and he opened and got about 70 off ten overs. He was star bowler too getting us all out for 12.. he was signed for MUFC but played for Swindon in 1992 era in the net. He was a big rugby player too, although those games were closer. Every game against his school was a potential thrashing! You need to learn what losing is too to improve!
 
Some countries have a rule at younger ages that if a team takes the lead by a certain number of goals they have to remove a player. Never liked that as it is denying a kid time on the pitch.
 
RustyRef said:
Some countries have a rule at younger ages that if a team takes the lead by a certain number of goals they have to remove a player. Never liked that as it is denying a kid time on the pitch.
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For me its better than denying 22 kids the rest of the game on the pitch ;)

Of course with return subs, time of pitch can be shared.
 
Rather than a team taking off a player would it not be better to allow the losing team to add a player or 2? No one misses any game time then and some subs get more, I’ve used this in preseason friendlies at youth level and it seems to work well.
 
In the youth league I coach in, if your team are losing by 4 clear goals, you are allowed to add a player. The extra player is then removed if you it get it back to 3 clear goals or less.

Works very well.
 
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