The Football Association has ruled that young children must no longer play in competitive leagues, because the pressure of winning is too much for them to deal with.
Under-eight teams will be stopped from taking part in knockout tournaments where cups and medals can be won, and no results will be publicised for any matches.
Junior teams across Britain will have to adopt the new policy from the start of the 2008/9 season in September.
It means that managers will no longer be able to publish the under-eight league results, tables and cup competition score lines in the local paper, or pin them up on notice boards in the clubhouse.
The ruling has attracted criticism from parents who said that playing the game competitively teaches children vital skills in how to cope with winning and losing.
But a spokesman for the FA said that they do not want the children to take the game so seriously until they are over eight-years-old.
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