There are six different colours of bib strewn across the indoor pitches of St George\u2019s Park. There\u2019s an equally vibrant kaleidoscope of disc cones marking out small pitches, and there are collapsible goals at each end. Amid it all are a load of youngsters, largely unattended, trying skills, dribbling past opponents, shifting from pitch to pitch and forming new teams. It\u2019s 3v3 football: a bit messy, a little unstructured and, the Football Association hopes, a key development in ensuring the future of the game.<\/p>\n
From next season, as part of a new strategy for youth football, the youngest cohort in the game \u2013 the under 7s, which is six- and seven-year-olds \u2013 will play three-a-side instead of five-a-side. When they\u2019re under-eights, they will shift back to five-a-side. It\u2019s a small tweak that lasts for just 12 months, but the FA believes a window of exposure to this new form of the game will help improve young players\u2019 technical ability and decision-making on the pitch. There are also quieter hopes that 3v3 may make some positive changes off the field, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this age players are getting used to their body,\u201d says John Folwell, the FA\u2019s head of grassroots coach development. \u201cYou\u2019re developing your agility, your balance and coordination. But you\u2019re also getting to love the ball; 3v3 gives you lots and lots of touches on the ball, lots of dribbles, lots of 1v1s. Go next to your opponent, do your tricks, do your skills, try and outwit them. That\u2019s what we want to encourage.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as putting an emphasis on the fun bits of football, 3v3 is also a game with no goalkeepers and no referees. \u201cThe main driver was seeing if we could create a model that allows every kid to play,\u201d says Folwell. \u201cWe know that in five-a-side, goalkeepers are often standing around. And we know that there\u2019s often squads of nine, with three or four on the side. Then we were thinking about how we give the kids more ownership of what their football looks like. So do we need referees? I suppose what we\u2019re trying to do is almost recreate that playground feel again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FA is adopting a 3v3 model used in countries including Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. Photograph: Cameron Smith\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The FA has not invented 3v3 football. In fact, it is playing catchup with other European nations, like Norway and the Netherlands, who have been using it at youth levels for more than a decade. Germany have developed the concept further with a 3v3 game called Funino that has two sets of goals to allow for an added emphasis on passing. But every country that has adopted the format has drawn similar lessons about how it can develop a new kind of relationship between young players and the game.<\/p>\n
For Rachel Yankey, the England and Arsenal legend and an ambassador for the FA\u2019s youth strategy, adding more fun and giving players greater freedom has the potential to shift some of the barriers that cause young people to fall out of love with the game. \u201cThree v three is a throwback to how we played when we were growing up,\u201d she says. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a parent or a referee, it was just about playing and learning that social side. Maybe with structured football you lose a little bit of personality and that resilience of just being able to get on with it. I think this matters, especially for girls where they are probably less confident. This is a game that shows you can try something different. You don\u2019t have to always be told what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A feeling that organised sport is not for them is one of the key factors in girls dropping out of football when they hit adolescence. Giving young players more control over the game they play may help change that. But read the literature on the FA\u2019s 3v3 rollout, and listen to the insights of those involved, and it becomes clear that it\u2019s not just the culture on the field that people want to change. Referees are not the only ones kept away from 3v3 football, parents are too.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are lots of really good things about grassroots football, but there is a cultural challenge sometimes about the sideline behaviour,\u201d says Folwell. \u201cThe result can be paramount for people on the touchline and parents will shout at little Johnny or Jenny to do what they want them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But with several games going on at the same time in 3v3, Folwell says: \u201cWe think this model takes away that focus. And parents are a little bit further removed from the actual side of the pitch as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the strongest pushback during trials that have taken place over the past year is from parents. The absence of a goalkeeper is the main frustration alongside, in the words of coach Ryan Walker who has presided over 3v3\u2019s introduction in the Cotswold Youth League, \u201cthe age old, \u2018it\u2019s just not football, is it?\u2019\u201d Even at the St George\u2019s Park showcase there are parents muttering that their child is not getting enough direct coaching in this liberated form of the game.<\/p>\n
3v3 football has no goalkeepers, no referees and no parents shouting on the sideline. Photograph: Cameron Smith\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Three v three is unlikely to be a magic bullet for all the challenges grassroots football faces, though the fact it can easily be played indoors is another bonus. But as well as being a format that can benefit younger players, it\u2019s also one that has been picked up by marketers. Whether it\u2019s Stormzy\u2019s 3v3 Merky FC Cup or the Adidas World Cup commercial<\/a> where Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet hustles Lamine Yamal and Jude Bellingham into a pickup game, 3v3 has a buzz about it. It may not be your dad\u2019s version of the game, but it\u2019s growing at pace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are six different colours of bib strewn across the indoor pitches of St George\u2019s Park. There\u2019s an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-695716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}