If two children got in this kind of fight, the parents would sit them down and teach them about co-operating, sharing and solving problems like adults.

But this is soccer and asking people to co-operate, talk, share and be adult enough to solve problems are abilities truly beyond the people running the game.

Soccer in London is in the midst of another turf war. So what else is new? Over the years soccer in this city has battered and bruised, at one time or another, anyone who has been a part of it. Every soccer person knows more about the game than the other person, all you have to do is ask them. If one doesn’t like how one club operates, one forms his own club and operates by his own rules.

London has more academies and clubs than Shep has fleas.

Disagreements there are aplenty. Solutions don’t exist, only uneasy truces, often broken when the next disagreement surfaces.

The latest brouhaha has the Elgin Middlesex Soccer Association, the governing body for this region, refusing to sanction the London and District Youth Soccer League, in part over a dispute about long-term player development.

The board of the LYDSL has sought legal advice and plans to fight their governing body’s attempt to establish a new board and a new youth league.

The long-term player development model was established by the Ontario Soccer Association in an effort to foster skill development, especially at younger ages.

The plan has caused great consternation. Canadian soccer officials are tired of their men’s team being embarrassed on the international stage and have opted to do as much as possible to develop soccer players.

But the long-term player development plan is not for everyone. It certainly isn’t for recreational players. It is a plan to find elite players.

Part of the plan includes moving away from an emphasis on standings, games and goals in ages from eight- to 12-years-old so fun and skill is primary instead of results. It also involves a two-tier system tied to player ability that allows those younger players to play in weekend soccer festivals, which have replaced tournaments at those age groups.

Even at that age level, the plan doesn’t sit too well with a lot of people, 99 per cent of them adults. Adults want to see their teams and their kids get the recognition they deserve as being better than the neighbour’s kid even at age nine or 10.

They believe any sport that isn’t competitive and isn’t measured in terms of points, goals and trophies simply isn’t worth it in competitive society.

Players are supposed to be tiered in terms of talent at these festival/tournaments. All players though are supposed to get a chance to play at these tournaments. Once again though, those running clubs are trying to sneak in the best players all the time in an effort to win and to have their best players play all the time even at the eight-to-12 age group.

Attempting to explain where it all fell apart between EMSA and the LDYSL would take far more space than available. In a nutshell, EMSA says the LDYSL is dragging their feet on tiering all ages. LDYSL only tiers U12 and U11. The LDYSL is saying EMSA hasn’t allowed them enough time to put everything in place.

It’s interesting that when the Long Term Player Development model was announced several years ago by the Ontario Soccer Association, EMSA was one of the districts that indicated they would not follow it.

That has subsequently changed. It has really changed since the Vancouver Whitecaps have come to town to establish Whitecaps youth club and academy, looking to find players they can eventually send to their residency program in Vancouver.

EMSA was prominent at the announcement of the new club. It may be only a coincidence that the Whitecaps are looking to operate at the highest level, tier 1, between the ages of eight-to-12.

So EMSA declared that LDYSL wasn’t prepared to follow Ontario’s player development plan.

EMSA will establish a new youth league and no doubt the Whitecap youth clubs will have a prominent role to play.

Clear as mud, right?

What’s clear is that the continual bickering in the sport is more than embarrassing. It’s destructive.

We can say all the right things about doing what’s best for the kids, the sport and the parents but it’s all just words.

It has nothing to do about what’s best for the kids. It’s all about protecting one’s territory, acting like the alpha dog, not letting one organization get a leg up on the other. It’s not just in London. When it comes to soccer it happens everywhere.

Both EMSA and the LDYSL will deny it of course. They’ll find a million reasons why the other guy was wrong.

So here we sit having put men on the moon, having invented the internet, split the atom and found the human genome.

Yet a group of adults can’t get together in a room and find a solution to running a children’s league without legal action and bringing the hammer down on a league that’s been operating since 1990?

That’s pathetic.