Could the presence of a non-competitive football comp benefit local football – Part 2

How would this all work? Well, for starters there would have to be some changes. Firstly, no slide tackling. Slide tackling is one of the most dangerous parts of the game and for people to have fun it also needs to be safe. Futsal has survived for many years without allowing slide tackles and there is no reason that normal football can’t be the same.

No injury or stoppage time, within reason. I say this because if it is non-competitive then the timing should not be as important, and you do not want non-competitive games delaying competitive ones where seconds on the clock might make a difference. Having said this if someone is being substituted and they take forever to get off the pitch or the opposition constantly makes substitutions in the last 5 minutes to whined down the clock then exceptions could be made and perhaps the game would be allowed to carry on a little longer.

Unlimited substitutions. Football is for everyone and everyone should get an equal opportunity to play. This is a lot easier when you are not limited by not only the amount substitutes you can make but who you can substitute.

Self-appointed match officials. Each team will referee one half. Match officials at community level are very scarce and there would be no point wasting an official on a non-competitive match.

Reduced registration fees. This would be largely attributed to not having a match official. Without the need to pay a match official there is no need to pay them and you would therefore expect to this to be accounted for in the registration fees.

A higher priority given to competitive teams. This is more for wet weather situations where some grounds are called out, some are called in and the association has to decide who plays where. At the moment, the higher the division the higher the priority. However this may not be an issue in the future if all or most of the fields are converted to artificial grass that can be played on in all conditions.

No tables or finals. Its non-competitive. NON-competitive. Tables and finals are what makes a game competitive in the first place. You can’t really have both. Leagues would be separated by age throughout the juniors up until they get to all age. They would then be randomly pitted against each other as they would have been assumed to have a random amount of skill level throughout the team.