Parents need to learn and accept that there are no winners or losers at their kids’ soccer games.

B.C. Soccer and a number of local districts and clubs have eliminated league standings at the Under-12 and below levels, in line with a national directive from the Canadian Soccer Assocation (CSA) as part of its long term player development (LTPD) strategy.

Although this approach has been in place for some time — first drafted with the CSA’s LTPD model as early as 2009 and effective at B.C. Soccer sanctioned tournaments since May 2013 — criticism flew from Province readers after a May 28 article about Coastal FC’s Umbro Challenge Cup, which eliminated the “public display of scores” for its more than 100 U12 and younger teams that took part.

“(This) is deluding our kids and putting a halt to natural competitive instincts ... these are priceless life lessons,” one reader commented.

“Kids need to know how to win and lose while being good sports about it. Everyone hates a sore loser,” wrote another.

But according to Vancouver United FC technical director Gregor Young, this reaction is “applying faulty logic.”

“These are development years and we don’t need to be concerned about the results here,” said Young. “There’s soccer lessons to be learned before you’re going to be at an age, at a level where you’ve learned how you can win soccer games when it starts to matter.”

“If we want Canada to do well at a national team level in the future, these are the critical development years and our players are not learning how to play the game, they’re learning how to win at U9 and that does nothing for our national teams.”

According to Young, to win a game at U8 or U9 generally involves bashing the ball down the field to score, which won’t help at the older, more competitive levels. The emphasis at the 12-year-old level and below should instead be on the “principles of the game,” like getting comfortable with the ball, spatial awareness, dexterity, ball control, decision making and technical and mental skills.

“You’re never going to be an elite player if you’ve missed out on those three, four years of coaching where the emphasis isn’t on winning,” said Young.

For Jason de Vos, former professional soccer player and current TSN commentator, winning games and trophies as a kid had “zero impact” on his later success.

“What helped me become national was learning the fundamental skills of the game,” he said. “The outcome of an Under-8 soccer game should not be about who wins and loses.

“We need to change the way we look at games.”

But the hardest part of implementing this aspect of the LTPD model is education — especially with parents.

“Far too many adults are compromising the development of those skills at the expense of winning trophies,” said de Vos. “It isn’t that it really affects children in any way, it’s the behaviour in adults that scores and standings bring out that is detrimental to the development of children.”