Rest of the World, meet the U-20 rule.

By: Lugo | April 5th, 2008

Colombia has an almost unique rule (”almost”, because the Mexicans have already copied it) for it’s league which mandates that every team has to start with a national player born after 1988 and that another one has to be on the bench to increase the number of substitutes to 5. To some this may sound like an imposition on coaches but this rule has had tremendous impact on the Colombian youth NT’s allowing us to qualify to the last youth world cup in Canada and to win the South American Youth Championships three years ago when we hosted it. Thanks to the U-20 rule, we have benefited with the talents of:

Hugo Rodallega (Necaxa- MEX)
Freddy Guarin (St. Etienne- FRA)
Wason Renteria (Strasbourg- FRA)
Juan Carlos Toja (FC Dallas- USA)
Edwin Valencia (Paranaense- BRA)
Cristian Zapata (Udinese- ITA)
Juan Pablo Pino (Charleroi- BEL)
Carlos Daniel Hidalgo (Sporting Gijon- ESP)
Dayro Moreno (Dinamo Bucarest- ROM)

And many others in the FPC. There is also an U-17 rule for the 2nd division. Perhaps if you have such strong youth systems as Argentina, Brazil or the Netherlands, a rule such as this one is unnecessary as youths spring right on to the top flight because of the high export rate and the great amounts of raw talent. But in many other countries, like it was in Colombia before this tule, the leagues are overrrun by veterans and you see that the players from the youth NTs are not necessarily coming from professional teams. So, what do you think about this? Would you like your league to adopt this rule?

In a future entry, I will elaborate about the talents that this rule is producing today in Colombia because one of this days, one of them might end at a stadium near you.

Today’s Games.

League leaders La Equidad could not get anything out of their visit to Atletico Huila. The Ricemen won 1-0 in a bad afternoon for Equidad’s stellar forwards. And at the time i’m posting this, Santa Fe is breezing trough Cali thanks to goals from Venezuelan starlet Luis Manuel Seijas and Luis Fernando Mosquera, a product of the U-20 rule.