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I've always defended that decision and I still will by wcnitz
Not sure that was Tab, though. He certainly may have agreed with it. Tab Ramos was the one that was pushing for small sided play, though. That I do know.
The furor over the school->birth year change was and is overblown. It was always that way until FIFA temporarily switched it back in the 1980s (for two years), and we just refused to change it back until 2016. And I'm a parent who was affected by this, as my son is one birth year older than most of his classmates and was caught in a 'trap' year in 8th grade as a result.
Rec soccer doesn't have to comply with USSF guidelines in this respect, so the bigger impact was to club/DA/ODP soccer. The only countries that were still on school year in the top 100 of FIFA were the US and Canada.