Question Number: 20152

League Specific 10/4/2008

RE: AYSO Recreational Under 11

Travis Griener of Fallon, Nevada USA asks...

Is there a rule as to how many goals one player may score in a quarter, half or entire game? Your help would be greatly appreciated with this.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

There is no rule per FIFA or US Soccer but your local leagues may have one in place

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Many youth leagues have policies or rules against 'running up the score'. This is defined in those rules. Sometimes those policies have unintended side effects, such as a team that scores against itself to keep the goal differential down, or a team that plays a boring game of keep-away for the last 30 minutes.

Personally I feel that if a team has one star player, better than all the rest in the league, that player should be given an opportunity to play at a higher level more commensurate with his skills. There may be reasons this cannot be done - for example, you don't want a player playing up several age groups, or the family may not be able to afford the time or money needed to play in a premier league. If this player stays in the recreational league, he should be encouraged to help his teammates develop their skills. That means 'spreading the wealth' of goals, using this player to feed the ball to teammates to score.