Why don't park districts and clubs for u-18's play by the laws that Fifa has set forth? Even high schools don't play by the Fifa laws? Being a major supporter of football around the world it is very frustrating that the US is teaching its younger generation a different set of rules then the rest of the world. Prime examples are substitutions. Fifa states that you may substitute whenever there is a stoppage in play. Most, if not all tournaments I ref have different cicumstances when a team is allowed to sub a player. I was asking a senior official about this and he told me that America has its own way of running the game compared to the rest of the world. It is not good for the game in America to be changing rules that the govering body of football has set forth. Any thoughts on this?
The Rules of the Game is akin to a dictionary, not a bible. The game must adapt to the conditions and context in which it is played. For reasons transcending the value of the game itself, unlimited substitutions is more or less not a bad thing in youth soccer.
The laws limiting substitutions is different. With so many more substitutions allowed, the times they can be made has to be limited. Otherwise, some unsporting coach could choose to substitute each and every time a delay in restarting play would benefit his team. As for the modifications allowing so many more substitutions; one of two reasons (or maybe partly both): We pretend participation in a sporting event is more important than winning it and modify the limits on substitution to ensure maximum participation. The clubs need the money from the players' parents and the parents aren't likely to keep paying to see their son/daughter sitting on the bench.
It's still about winning and at club level people are trying to win. The probnlem is most coaches are clueless with regard to how subsitututions disrupt the flow of play. I have seen countless calls for subs when teams have a tactical advantage to putting the ball into play quickly. I believe that the substitution rule for youth is a double edged sword. When players are very young it makes sense given their lack of concentration/focus and stamina/endurance. When players reach the U14-16 level, players need to learn to play together as a team and coaches need to learn that players are not interchangeable like mass produced car parts and that chemistry only happens from maintaining consistency in starting line-ups.
You may be shocked to learn that pretty much all countries modify the Laws of the Game at the youth level -- the United States isn't the only one with unlimited subs at restricted restarts
Interesting thread as this was a hot topic down here in New Zealand this year. For the Under 12 to Under 19 age groups we have been using three rolling subs. This means that you have the starting XI and 3 subs with each player being able to substitute an unlimited number of times. The normal procedure for substitution applied but as time when on the system was reduced to players coming on and off as they wished and the games were affected by this. We tightened this up this year so the coach requests a substitution to the AR who flags at the next stoppage in play. The system works if everybody works at it. Crowdie