Borussia Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke has described DFB plans to abolish the performance principle in children’s football as “incomprehensible and incomprehensible to me”. He announced a reform of the reform.
When asked whether a reform of the reform was needed, Watzke said at an entrepreneurs’ day in Essen: “Yes. And we just decided that.” The new DFB sports director Hannes Wolf should “Try to show us alternative courses of action in the next one or two years”, said Watzke, who is also 1st Vice President of the DFB. Austria’s national coach Ralf Rangnick, Cologne’s coach Steffen Baumgart and ex-national player Dietmar Hamann had previously criticized the reform plans.
Background: The German Football Association (DFB) wants to implement new forms of play in the youth field nationwide from 2024 in order to minimize the pressure to perform and to focus more on the sporting development of children. The most important goal of the reform in the age groups U6 to U11 is to “to promote long-term fun in the game with a child-friendly type of football”, according to the DFB. So there should be so-called game festivals in the future.
According to Watzke, defeats are important
Watzke criticized this philosophy on Wednesday in Essen: “If when you’re six, eight or nine you never feel what it’s like to lose, then you’ll never find the great strength to win.”
Watzke added in front of more than 1,000 entrepreneurs: “There was also a discussion about not playing for goals anymore. In the near future we’ll be playing without the ball. Or we’ll make it square so that it doesn’t run away from the somewhat slower youngsters. I think that’s fundamentally the wrong approach. ”
More wins and losses, but less outside pressure
There should still be victory and defeat in children’s football. Markus Hirte, head of talent promotion at the DFB, refers to that Champions League-Principle at the so-called game festivals: The winning team rotates one field forward, the losing team one field back. “That provokes even more competition and results”, Shepherd told Sport inside. “It’s very intense.”
Intrinsic motivation is important, i.e. internal motivation, says Joti Chatzialexiou, sporting director of the DFB national teams: “Also with regard to the national teams and the professional field, we want to have footballers who are intrinsically motivated to win and not because there is a table.”
U15 national coach Christian Wück also emphasizes the natural ambition. “For the kids, it’s always about the result, they always want to win, they always want to play well.“What should be reduced, however, is the pressure from outside. “The important thing is that the coaches, parents and relatives are not about the result.”
Lots of frustration at the moment
Background: After several years of pilot projects, the DFB found that traditional game operations have weaknesses. Rigid team sizes meant that some children were given little or no working time. That leads to frustration. Many children turn their backs on sports at an early age.