Youth director Lars Ricken from Borussia Dortmund has criticized the restrictions in youth football caused by the pandemic.
“In March, the corona measures in Germany will be relaxed, but we will still be in emergency mode in the junior leagues until the summer of 2023. It’s all extremely at the expense of all youth players,” said the former BVB professional “foosball” in an interview.
According to Ricken, the clubs’ ideas for improving the situation are being ignored. “Cologne and we have, for example, made suggestions for the current season as to how we in the west can fit more games at a high level into the schedule with a play-off system,” said the 1997 Champions League winner It’s that the regulations don’t allow it, all three seasons have to play the same. We need much more flexible solutions in the interests of all youth players.”
Clear warning from BVB youth boss Lars Ricken
Ricken sees significant structural deficits in the youth sector in Germany.
“The current problem is that in the junior leagues there are not enough games at the high level that the clubs train for,” said the native of Dortmund, who has been in charge of BVB’s youngsters since 2008. “We’re no longer preparing our top talent for the highest levels of professional football.”
Ricken even explained: “We don’t generally prepare our players for men’s football anymore at the moment.” The “majority” of today’s U19 teams will later only “play in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th league”, he warned.
“I’m afraid we’ll lose a lot of players”
Ricken calculated: “In the 2020/21 season, the teams in the Regionalliga West played 40 games, in the current one there are 38 games and in the coming one there will also be 38. In the A-Junior Bundesliga we had 2020 /21 four games, this and next season there are 16 each. So in these three years there are 116 games to 36.”
So it is “difficult to get youth players into the regional league or higher leagues and to prepare them for the intensity in which these leagues are played”. Ricken said: “I fear that we will lose a lot of players.”