The FA are backing a radical strategy which would prevent the publication of youth football results, scorers and league tables for certain age groups.

FA-backed youth competitions are being encouraged to become 'development leagues', with a greater emphasis on training and skills development.

There would be fewer matches between clubs and they would all effectively be friendlies.

The goal is to enable players to reach their full potential, and the FA believes that traditional youth leagues can hinder this by encouraging a win-at-all-costs mindset.

The FA would like competitions for children under the age of ten to become development leagues next season, and ultimately the governing body favours extending the concept to older age groups, possibly up to under-14.

The idea has met with no shortage of criticism, not least on the Fylde coast which operates two FA-affliliated leagues, the Blackpool and District Youth League (under-11s to under-16s) and the Poulton and District Primary League (Under-9s and 10s).

Opponents brand the development leagues 'non-competitive', fearing they would add to the already mounting problems of attracting new players to football and could result in breakaway leagues operating outside FA jurisdiction.

And given that the vast majority of children involved in youth football have neither the potential nor the desire to become professional players, are not the FA proposals taking all the fun out of the leagues in order to benefit a few elite players?

After all, the professional clubs' scouting networks are so advanced these days that youth players of exceptional promise are likely to be snapped up from an early age anyway and benefit from professional coaching.

The Lancashire FA held a meeting at its Leyland headquarters in November, at which LFA official Derek Egan explained the governing body's support for development leagues to delegates from the county's youth leagues.

The Poulton Primary League was represented at the meeting by its fixtures secretary Paul Hughes, and The Gazette spoke to him and to Egan about these revolutionary ideas.

Egan began by disputing the claim that development leagues would not be competitive.

He said: "This is an FA strategy which we have to deliver nationally. Grassroots football will change over the next five years and we have to make sure that in Lancashire we are ahead of the game.

"We don't want to stop children playing matches and enjoying the thrill of a competitive game. Our view is that matches will always be competitive, whether there are league points at stake or not.

"But at present we have as many matches as training sessions and we need a better format.

"The problem at the moment is not so much the children as the adults. We have some fantastic clubs and fantastic volunteers who run them, but there is a mentality among the adults that you must win at all costs.

Some club managers become so intent on winning that they are not producing good technical players."

But the PDPL's Hughes was not convinced by what he heard at the meeting. He said: "It was all about the pros with nothing about the cons. The problem with making football non-competitive is that you may lose children to other sports and we are struggling to attract already.

"The more rules you have the more difficult it becomes to attract children. They brought a rule in in 2007 that nobody under eight could play in the under-nines league, and we ended up with two teams not having enough players to start the season on time."

Besides driving children away, there is a concern that too much FA interference could also discourage the adults who give their time and effort to run the clubs and the competitions.

Hughes added: "The FA are trying to force us down roads without putting infrastructure in place to help us go down them. They are telling us what to do but not helping us to do it. They have to recognise that the leagues are run by volunteers with limited time.

"We should have a phased approach to this and we need financial support. "The way to improve player development is to send all the coaches on courses but that isn't practical, again because we are all volunteers and all part-time."

Egan would argue that clubs are finding it difficult to recruit players because of the pressures which surround the current system. He continued: "The pressure to win is just too great.

"It means some children don't get a chance to play at all because they are not considered to be the best players, and this also leads to massive age bias (the suggestion being that teams are dominated by children at the top end of their age group). There is too much pressure on the children from the sidelines."

Those on the 'sidelines' include watching parents, and there is a feeling that concerns over touchline behaviour are what are ultimately driving the development league idea through.

Hughes said: "There is a national issue with screaming parents at matches. It has received a lot of publicity and the FA have to be seen to be doing something about it."

He adds that this is not a major problem on the Fylde, though our AllStars match of the week between the Under-13s of Foxhall and Fleetwood Town had be abandoned on December 13 following unsavoury scenes.

We should point out that this had never happened before in the five years of our matches of the week, though The Gazette understands that parents as well as players were involved in last month's disturbances.

The Youth League's committee will consider what action to take over this match when they meet next Tuesday.

Egan adds that development leagues could stop emotions running too high. "It is about producing better players but it does also link in to the Respect programme.

"The bottom line is that a more developmental structure would create better environment for the kids and we want them to be able to go out on the pitch without that pressure."

Club representatives at the Leyland meeting voted against development leagues but this show of hands ultimately means little.

If development leagues become FA law, then regional branches like the LFA will have to enforce them and local leagues will have to accept the change if they wish to remain under the FA umbrella.

At present, the FA are quick to stress that no such heavy-handed approach is planned, and the FA are hoping that the force of their arguments alone will convince leagues to go 'developmental' voluntarily.

The proposed changes could also see children not being introduced to 11-a-side football until they are older.

At present the PDPL is a seven-a-side competition, which is in line with FA thinking, but on graduating to the Blackpool Youth League at under-11 the matches become 11-a-side.

The FA is proposing to bridge the gap with nine-a-side matches from under-11 to under-13.

Egan said: "A FIFA study showed that England is alongside Belgium, Canada and New Zealand in playing 11-a-side football from under-11, and none of those other countries are enjoying great success in world football. In Spain, they don't play 11-a-side until under-15.

"But we already have more nine-a-side leagues in Lancashire than in any other county. We want to stay ahead of the game. That's what this is all about."

Hughes summed up: "The FA could make all this law but as yet nothing is being forced. They would like us (the PDPL) to become a development league next season but it is up to us. We will have to work with the Lancs FA to try to implement a compromise."

Egan said: "There is no FA rule change and that is some way off. We all have plenty of time."