>>[futbol(soccer)] Diluted talent is bad, concentrated talent means no visibility (politics, wink-wink, nudge-nudge). [...] <<
Concentrated talent means no visibility? First, if you're committed to being the "biggest fish in a small pond" and you have sufficient talent, there's nothing to stop you from playing recreation or classic and being a hero. In fact, there's nothing to stop you from playing on a non-competitive challenge team...although getting visibility might be more difficult. But more importantly, I believe that the premise is flawed. Concentrated talent increases visibility, if that concentrated talent is coached to play together as a team and has success.
Secondly, I understand the fear of politics. A personal anecdote. When I was asked to volunteer with CESA, my first question was whether they could give me a promise that it wouldn't hurt my kid who plays there. I knew that they take a pretty hard line on politics -- and I wanted to make sure that the directors or coaches would try to prove a point through me or my kid.
I fundamentally believe that politics occur in youth soccer clubs primarily when boards get involved in day-to-day soccer operations. Boards have absolute responsibilites regarding strategy, financials, values, policy, and the like. But when you have a board of parents making decisions such as which players play on which teams, or which tournaments will be attended, or which coaches will coach which teams -- it's a recipe for the "good ol' boy network" and politics at its worst. It's great for a board to set coaching selection strategy (i.e., we want to make sure that we provide great coaching for challenge and classic and not just premier teams); it's another for a board to get actively involved in deciding the specific coach that will coach the U11B team. Because once that occurs, you're only a tiny bit away from "Board member and donor Mr. Smith wants Coach John to coach the U11B team because Mr. Smith's son loves Coach John."
I'm not sure that this is well understood, particularly in places in which politics have run rampant.
