We could do that here!

EAMONN SEARLE certainly got everyone talking. Complete strangers are recognising him '” not difficult, that one '” and stopping him to agree with his views. The 40-year was reacting to what he found on his return to the County League after eight years.

He said the game had lost its sense of fun and honesty, and that young players lacked the hunger and determination of his own generation.

Others have weighed into the debate on these pages.

Last week, Colin Smith brought insight into American soccer, which is producing players capable of playing in the FA Premiership ahead of Englishmen. He reported that in Texas they have a youth soccer framework and atmosphere that lacks the pressures parents and coaches place on ours at the expense of the fun children can experience in football, now they do not play on the streets.

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Now Mr Smith adds one last thing and we want to bring it to your attention.

)ONE THING I didn't mention about the parents who watch the games in Dallas is that when the match is over, both sets line up on the halfway line facing each other and applaud the kids as they leave the field. Can you imagine that happening here in local junior league soccer?

If opposing parents were that close to each other it would probably end in a brawl.

These Americans are a funny lot.

Are they really that funny? Forget their politics for just a minute.

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Basketball teams shake hands before the game starts, then again afterwards.

Rugby Union teams in Britain have always formed a tunnel to applaud each other off the pitch.

So why not the rival team's parents in youth soccer, setting each other and their children the example; sending them into the world with a readiness to respect their opponents more as fellow human beings?

Could it catch on here?

Herald Sport is issuing a challenge to Youth Football Clubs.

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Make it happen at your match this weekend. Do exactly what they do in Dallas. Get someone to take a picture of it happening, to prove you did it.

Then send it to us. Make sure it's at least 300MB if digital, tell us who the clubs are in it, give us a phone number for both clubs '” and we will print it.

Get your club at the forefront of change '” and in the paper.

We'll wait here and see if it really can happen . . .

See this week's Shoreham Herald for Eamonn Searle's reaction.

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