BTMason wrote:I am just curious and will not name teams but is anyone ever curious if everyone plays by the rules when it comes to age?

I am a coach, so I often turn a blind eye and try not to think about if players are "really" the age they are supposed to be, and take the stance if they are playing down obviously they are less than superstar.

For example today I saw a U12 team with 3 different players taller than both their parents and with facial hair and facial definition that I think would be in the less than 1 percentile for the age group.

I have been seeing things like this from time to time, and to be honest in my short experience since coming here from TN, what I have seen it is more with the independents.

Do any of you parents or other coaches ever see this and wonder?? I know we all see a large kid from time to time and think .... damn, what did you drive to the game today. lol, However, most times you see the child later and his parents are large people as well and it is easy to see why he is towering over everyone.

But... There are those occasions where all the easy disqualifiers just dont exist.

Not that this matters for anything other than integrity, I am just curious what you all have experienced.

Rocketeer wrote:

BTMason wrote:I am just curious and will not name teams but is anyone ever curious if everyone plays by the rules when it comes to age?

I am a coach, so I often turn a blind eye and try not to think about if players are "really" the age they are supposed to be, and take the stance if they are playing down obviously they are less than superstar.

For example today I saw a U12 team with 3 different players taller than both their parents and with facial hair and facial definition that I think would be in the less than 1 percentile for the age group.

I have been seeing things like this from time to time, and to be honest in my short experience since coming here from TN, what I have seen it is more with the independents.

Do any of you parents or other coaches ever see this and wonder?? I know we all see a large kid from time to time and think .... damn, what did you drive to the game today. lol, However, most times you see the child later and his parents are large people as well and it is easy to see why he is towering over everyone.

But... There are those occasions where all the easy disqualifiers just dont exist.

Not that this matters for anything other than integrity, I am just curious what you all have experienced.

What is the procedure ? to question a kid on another teams age, how does one do this ?
This is happening in the soccer leagues and a valid concern.

What are soccer associations doing about this ?

R1 wrote:Some of the kids probably are too old, what can you do?

Its a risk some probably take, but its not new. You hear about it with professional athletes from time to time. Especially ones from countries where they don't keep great records. You find out after they become professionals what their real birth date was due to reporters with resources going to their birthplace countries and pulling the actual real documents. It then gets reported, but its way past any time to do anything about it. For most people who do this, you probably won't ever know.

just4fun wrote:

R1 wrote:Some of the kids probably are too old, what can you do?

Its a risk some probably take, but its not new. You hear about it with professional athletes from time to time. Especially ones from countries where they don't keep great records. You find out after they become professionals what their real birth date was due to reporters with resources going to their birthplace countries and pulling the actual real documents. It then gets reported, but its way past any time to do anything about it. For most people who do this, you probably won't ever know.

You hit the nail on the head. My job puts me in almost daily contact with people who have entered this country illegally. They come here and want to enroll BB in school, their friend or cousin, already here, has a birth certificate from the US, and he is close in age, only a year or so younger and the friend is more than willing to help out a friend in need. Three years later when BB wants to enroll in soccer and they asked for a birth certificate guess which age group he is placed in. It can also work the other way, thats why you see some kids that you just assume are playing up. I don't think many of them start out doing it with the intention of cheating or playing down in soccer but thats just the way it turns out.

Seinfeld4 wrote:I watched several U 13 games this past Thursday. I saw several players that I questioned if they were playing in the correct age group.

SoccerGenius99 wrote:

Seinfeld4 wrote:I watched several U 13 games this past Thursday. I saw several players that I questioned if they were playing in the correct age group.

There are some shady things going on with the u-13 age group. i know for a fact, alot of the hispanic teams are using older players to play down. More will come to light of this in the next month or so. Wait and see.

Seinfeld4 wrote:

SoccerGenius99 wrote:

Seinfeld4 wrote:I watched several U 13 games this past Thursday. I saw several players that I questioned if they were playing in the correct age group.

There are some shady things going on with the u-13 age group. i know for a fact, alot of the hispanic teams are using older players to play down. More will come to light of this in the next month or so. Wait and see.

I know a lot of people including myself believe that. How do you think it can be proven?

SoccerGenius99 wrote:

Seinfeld4 wrote:I watched several U 13 games this past Thursday. I saw several players that I questioned if they were playing in the correct age group.

There are some shady things going on with the u-13 age group. i know for a fact, alot of the hispanic teams are using older players to play down. More will come to light of this in the next month or so. Wait and see.

AND! wrote:FIFA had this problem until they started age testing. It's no way they (NTSA) will start age testing every kid that plays classic league, so stop whining about the players that play down and look at it as a benefit to your kid. Its not just Independent teams either. I know kids that were not born in the US that play for TOP clubs that are playing DOWN also. Most competitive parents would love for their kid to be able to play up, so look at your kid as play up when playing against "those kids". Both of my Boys play up so they can get faster, tougher, more experience competition, so you should feel lucky that these kids break the rules because it helps your kids and not themselves. Stop worrying about winning now so you can be "winning" in the future.

AND! wrote:FIFA had this problem until they started age testing. It's no way they (NTSA) will start age testing every kid that plays classic league, so stop whining about the players that play down and look at it as a benefit to your kid. Its not just Independent teams either. I know kids that were not born in the US that play for TOP clubs that are playing DOWN also. Most competitive parents would love for their kid to be able to play up, so look at your kid as play up when playing against "those kids". Both of my Boys play up so they can get faster, tougher, more experience competition, so you should feel lucky that these kids break the rules because it helps your kids and not themselves. Stop worrying about winning now so you can be "winning" in the future.

my2cents wrote:Two points to add here.
1. Being a parent of a few boys that were tall at a young age , one that was very tall early, I can tell you this does not happen as much as many believe. It does but it is rare. Most of them are just early to mature.
What I find very sad is not ONE person mentioned the possible safety risks of the physical mismatch caused by these supposed older players. All the complaints are about winning, winning ,winning! Its not fair. Waaa, Waaa Waaa!!! . That is why no one listens to the complaints. Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes over losing a game to a bigger team.

Ibystander wrote:

my2cents wrote:Two points to add here.
1. Being a parent of a few boys that were tall at a young age , one that was very tall early, I can tell you this does not happen as much as many believe. It does but it is rare. Most of them are just early to mature.
What I find very sad is not ONE person mentioned the possible safety risks of the physical mismatch caused by these supposed older players. All the complaints are about winning, winning ,winning! Its not fair. Waaa, Waaa Waaa!!! . That is why no one listens to the complaints. Sounds like a bunch of sour grapes over losing a game to a bigger team.

That's because when they add the older players, they usually use him to score, not knock down the other kids. They're supposed to try to "blend in" and not look too obvious that they're older. One example that comes to mind is an ODP 97 player that played in the 00 Tournament of the Champions that helped The Tigres beat a rec team. Everyone asked the refs to check him out, but they had the necessary fake documents, I guess. My bb felt cheated and still brings it up every time he sees the kid at World Cup Soccer. We always joke with the kid now, but it makes you wonder how proud the team must have felt winning that one. They didn't use this kid to hurt others, they just fed him the ball to score; and that, my friend, is why no one mentioned kids getting hurt by older players.