What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?
Team names, team titles, team assignation can be the cause of deep schisms within grassroots football. However you name a side the reality bleeds through, parents, players and coaches see past the disguises. Be they an A team, a B team, Lions, Tigers, Whites or Blues, there is a give away, their division comparative league. You can call them Tigers, but if the Lions are in the Premier and the Tigers in League 2 then the effect is negligible. One is still lesser than the other and the politics will emerge.
Sport has a problem with names. In peoples minds letters are linked to grades. In education everyone aspires to garner an A grade. B is not bad, but it is not as good as an A. That thought process translates into sport. Sure the B team is ok, but everyone wants to be in the A team. It is how people have been taught to think and very difficult to break free from.
Worse still is the idea of a Reserve team. The dictionary tells us as much. The very first definition reads –
To keep back or save for future use, disposal, treatment, etc
Is that somewhere you would want to be? Kept back for future use? Then there is the old footballing nickname for a reserve team, the ‘stiffs’. The same nickname used by undertakers, morticians and others who work with the dead.
Even the A team can be seen as lesser. The England cricket team used the A team as it’s development team. Traveling on separate tours from the senior squad, players awaiting the call to join up with the first team. In 2007 a decision was made to re-brand the A team as the England Lions. While there have been many players who have made the transition from Lion to senior the world still knows that the Lions are not the strongest side England can put out. That the players are viewed by management as inferior, at least for that moment in time.
The reserve team set up and that of international teams have a significant advantage over grassroots A and B teams. The easy transference of players. Recent experience has shown that assigning players to their teams (under whichever title those teams take) stirs up a variety of issues. Many of which could be avoided if league rules allowed for the simple movement of players. As things stand the league treats these two teams as unrelated entities. The registration and de-registration process is as though a player is moving from a completely different club. If a player moves, the move takes weeks to verify. of course free and easy transference could be open to abuse by coaches who prize trophies above all else, but the league itself should not prize those trophies more than the happiness of players and their development. The sanctity of the league should not create labels and stigmas for young people, labels they could be stuck with for six months, a year, longer. The label of A and B.
Being labeled as lesser can have real consequences for young people. In an atmosphere in which they are constantly being evaluated, being evaluated as lesser could knock their confidence and their self belief. As an after effect, the B team could lose a large percentage of belief and confidence before they even play a game. If they are trapped with this label with no way to move ‘up’, without a strong growth mindset, they could give up the game. Parents may decide that there is no point in their child being a B team footballer. Volleyball could suddenly become very appealing. All because of letters.
Beyond the league set up, what else can be done? Attempts at re-branding only create other problems and even then, it is so ingrained that people still slip into A and B post the re-brand. During a club meeting discussing Whites and Blues I referred to them as A and B on numerous occasions. Others did too.
There are perfectly legitimate reasons for having teams of differing abilities, or certainly teams in different divisions. There will be players at different stages of development. Some who need to be tested to their maximum, some for whom controlling the ball unopposed is challenge enough. While there is an argument that the concept of A and B teams is not fair, it is hardly fair for these two players to play against the same quality of opposition. They need to play against opponents of similar ability, not light years ahead or behind. If these players are at the same club, As and Bs, Lions and Tigers etc come into play.
Maybe the answer is one of subversion. If the two teams are in different divisions, does the team in the Premier need to be the A team? Could they be the B team? There is no reason for this not to be done. Like most labels I am sure that it would be seen through quite quickly, but if this could be combined with a greater fluency of movement of players then the lines of definition could become so blurred that labels become irrelevant. Arguments become consigned to the rubbish bin. Players and parents don’t feel slighted. A player from the A team would then be aspiring to play in the B team. This can happen when the A and B team are in the same division (another recent experience) but without easy transference one is destined to be stuck with it’s label. Destined be lesser, no matter what the name, the rose will wither and die.