The league recommends that players on the team with the higher score can play short-handed, kick with their weaker foot or play positions that they have less experience playing to even out the score. (Canadian Press)

A team that wins a soccer game by more than five goals will be declared the loser in an Ottawa children's recreational soccer league.

The new policy of the Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league takes the fun out of the game, complains 17-year-old Kevin Cappon, one of 3,000 players in the league's 200 teams for children and youth aged five to 18.

Cappon said he found out about the rule from the referee when he scored the last allowable goal for his team during a recent exhibition game, bringing the score to 6-1 early in the second half.

"I couldn't really believe it, but I wasn't going to doubt the referee," he told CBC's Ottawa Morning Monday.

His team spent the next 20 minutes just passing the ball and keeping it from their opponents, he recalled.

"I felt like I was mocking them sort of when I really didn't want to … I didn't feel good doing it, and I don't think they felt good receiving it."

Bruce Cappon, Kevin's father, has sent emails and left phone messages with the league opposing the new policy.

Existing rule

Sean Cale, chair of the league, said what happened in Kevin Cappon's game wasn't the league's intention.

"The point isn't to punish anybody," he said. "The point is to try and enforce an existing rule that we have."

Cale said the rule has been on the books for years to encourage coaches to start thinking about strategies to even out the game when the score reaches a three or four goal spread.

For example, the league recommends that players on the winning team can:

• Play short-handed.
• Kick with their weaker foot.
• Play positions that they have less experience playing.

As a result, the league hopes it won't ever have to give a team a loss for winning by more than five goals, he said.

Bruce Cappon thinks a better approach is to balance the teams by moving around stronger and weaker players, since it's a recreational league. He said that's the league's job.

Cale agreed, but said it's not as easy as it sounds. The league is evaluating a system to help balance the kids on various teams for next year, he said.

"In the meantime, the board of directors felt something had to be done based on feedback that we received from parents."

He added that last year, scores for some games were 14-0 or 16-0.

Since the new policy went into effect, the league has received little feedback about it, Cale said. In any case, he said, the league isn't going to reverse its decision this early in the season just because because one or two parents aren't happy.