Quite the Mercy Rule

While checking out the Coach Huey Forum a coach posted a news story with a new twist on the mercy rule.  A soccer league in Canada initially was planning to have a rule where if you won by more than 5 goals then you automatically lost.  Here is the initial story from June 1st.

In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.

Since that time, the rule has actually been rescinded.  It took a total of 10 days for it to be rescinded.

An Ottawa children's recreational soccer league has pulled back from a controversial mercy rule under which any team that outscores its opponent by more than five goals is declared the loser.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league had put the rule in place earlier this season in an effort to do away with teams running up the scores, said league chairman Sean Cale in a statement to parents and coaches on Wednesday. 

Cale gave the example of one game in the 2009 season that ended with a score of 18-0.

But parents, coaches and players had complained that the rule took the fun out of the game and forced better teams to pull back and hold the ball until the end of the game if they had a five-goal lead.

While I do agree that you can't let scores get out of hand there are times when you can't help it.  I will give you an example from a couple years back.  Our sophomores played our rival and unfortunately it was a total mismatch.   Eventually we went to running the ball and putting players in positions that they didn't normally play.  However we were just so much better that it didn't matter and the score got out of hand.  At that point what should we have done?  Kneel 3 times and punt the ball?  Personally that would be more of an insult in my opinion to do that.  We think so lowly of you that we will just kneel and punt and you won';t even get back into the game.

Still this rule doesn't compare to the rule in Connecticut where if you win by 50 the coach is suspended for the next game.  Oh we are at 49 better just take a knee and punt.  I believe parents get more embarrassed by a bad loss then the kids do.  But again what kind of kids are we raising.  How will they deal when things don't go their way.  Anyway what are people's thoughts on the matter?  Let me know in the comments.