Seaside Spurs head coach Gerald Stober (pictured) is completely baffled with the Under 23 rule questioning its rationale and purpose.
This comes after Safa Western Cape released the so-called amended rules and regulation for the ABC Motsepe League campaign.
The rules states that the league shall be open for all players provided that a minimum of five players under the age of 23 are fielded at the start of the game, a minimum of two under 23 players shall remain on the field of play for the duration of the match (Including the National Playoffs), and failure to comply with this provision shall constitute a breach of the regulation and if a team is found guilty by a Disciplinary Committee, it shall result in a loss of points. The under 23 players shall not be substituted by the older players before the end of the first half.
Given this the former Bafana Bafana striker emphasized that he doesn’t want to get emotional about rules made by administrators that have “probably never kicked a ball,” but seeks facts to prove that this rule is to the benefit of footballers and clubs collectively.
“Since this rule has been implemented how many players have really progressed in the third division or the second division to the PSL or wherever, you understand,” Stober stated to No Bones with Jones. “And if you have a youngster, and you can see it now today, if he is very good, he gets snapped up by our pro clubs without zero compensation.
“How do they come up with these rules, is number one, they say it’s for development, I don’t know. Okay, so give us the stats. You can only make decisions based on stats, you know. And if you wanna do proper development for these players, have a league for them where they can be noticed. You know like they had way back the Under-19 (Colts) league but have a league just for those players.
“And if they are good enough to be thrown into the next (higher) league they will be seen. But you tell me now and I’m running a soccer business and my ambition is to go pro, First Division, PSL… But you are putting restrictions on me on how I must operate? So it is very frustrating I I know they have put some thought into it.
Andrew Pequeno, head coach of newly promoted Vasco da Gama also chipped in: “In my opinion a player who is 21 or 22 years old is not a development player and should have been developed already,” Pequeno pointed out to our website. “We are trying to fix the lack of proper development by putting in the rules in a league where owners are investing funds to try and get into a PSL structure instead of putting these rules at a lower level.
“We should rather have a development league at the Regional level as an U19 league and play that in Summer with maybe all the U18 league winners from each LFA from the previous LFA season included in this league and have those games as curtain raisers to RML or ABC games. The fact that we are now forced to play an U23 player through the whole 1st half is not a problem for me as I believe that a player must be able to be playing at that level.
“This will benefit the U23 player going forward the more minutes he gets. With more teams in the ABC league this year there is an opportunity though for more younger players to get exposed at this level but they need to also be protected by the coaches if they fail.
“There is now more pressure on coaches to get the mix right within your squad and your starting eleven, so it is another factor that needs to be taken into account on a matchday. The team with the most consistent U23 players will always compete to win the league. It is no longer just about the experienced players within your squad.
