Shocking Conduct in Grassroots Football

The competition

The Lumina Cup was contested this weekend in Bucharest, Romania. It is a football (soccer) tournament for school based teams and has been an annual competition since 2008, its inaugural year. The reputation of this cup has built up over the years and now it is considered a fairly prestigious event. It has certainly been the focus of our training and the end of year target. While you are coaching in this type of tournament everything happens at a million miles per hour and it is hard to take anything in other than the immediate situation facing you. So I actively tried to absorb more around me this time and my findings were quite eye opening. The general conduct of the different people present was quite extreme and at times a little shocking. I will try to break it down into different groups.

The children

I will start with the kids, and let’s face it; this is by far the most important part. The rules for the tournament allowed for two age groups, under 9’s and under 11’s; boys and girls, but all very young primary school attendees. There are two main observations about conduct that I have made over the years and this competition was no different. Firstly these kids are extremely vulnerable and impressionable. They spend an awful lot of their time mimicking their favourite players for good or (mostly) bad. Play acting to get a foul is at an all-time high; so much so that it seems a priority to most children. Again this can be seen regularly in football at the professional level.

There is a worrying lack of humility in the game at all levels including grassroots football. Without fail they have practiced their goal celebration and have it perfected. This elaborate act will be used regardless of the type of goal scored. For example the goal scored includes some serious misfortune by the opposing player and a lot of luck to the goal scorer. This will be celebrated the same regardless, like a programmed robot, ignoring the basics of sportsmanship.
Secondly, the intense pressure that these very young boys and girls are under from schools, coaches, parents, teammates and friends. You can feel the intensity of the situation. There are lots of tears and sometimes for very silly reasons, children arguing with referees, coaches and parents and a disturbing amount of aggression towards opposition players (again mimicking pro football). It is rare to see a child playing with a smile on their faces, and that makes me sad.

The Referees

The refereeing standard in the tournament was appalling, but that is not unusual. In my experience referees and coaches rarely see the game in the same way at all levels. I think fundamentally they are two very different types of people. Coaches tend to be; but not always, ex-players of some level. We have experience of the flow of the game and understand the intentions of players in certain situations. We see the game more from a player’s perspective than from a spectator’s point of view. Not all players make great coaches and teachers but their experience on the field makes a difference as to how they see things. It is extremely unlikely that an ex pro would become a referee.

Referees in most cases are not football players to any serious standard, if at all! Of course there are exceptions, but they are just that. I always try to have a decent relationship with the officials to help them relax and make even, calm decisions. This is not always the case and referees, the world over, have a very tough; maybe even impossible, task. They are berated by everybody and I mean everybody and they are expected to get everything right 100% of the time. The game is failing referees and before we lose them all something drastic is needed to either change things or support and help them.

Coaches

I am a coach and a teacher. I understand how children feel when they are learning/training and competing. Most of these children don’t know it but they are probably never going to be a professional player, so what we have left is the love and enjoyment of the game. In my opinion a coach’s job is to nurture these feelings and expand upon them. We are moulding these kids to be confident and competent so that they can play with a smile on their face and be the best player they can be. Too often I see coaches screaming negativity at players during matches because their own pride is at stake. There is a lot of win now mentality with coaches, which for me is the ultimate in selfishness. Picture it, you have applied pressure to a group of under 9’s, ranted and raved at them to ‘kick the ball’ or a player! (Rare but not unheard of), totally destroyed the other teams and have won the trophy. Congratulations. You have created a team of monsters that will follow your poor actions, demoralised and humiliated the other players in the tournament and won a medal that you can parade in front of the all the mums and dads. Who wins? For me, nobody but the coaches ego!

The parents

I’m also a parent, so I know the feeling of your child competing. It’s emotional, intense and sometimes heart-breaking. I get it. Our children are looking to see how to behave and react 100% of the time. For example if your child has a minor fall and there is a little pause when the child looks around quickly, they are waiting for the indication on how to react. If you feed that situation with a gasp and run towards them, they will burst into tears. Next time little Johnny has a little fall try saying calmly ‘nice dive Johnny, that was awesome’ and see how they react. You’ll be surprised. I do this nearly every session in training and it works. The majority of the time they dust themselves down and get on with it.

Now take the idea that our children look to us as teachers, parents and coaches on how to react and then put this into the context of a football tournament. They don’t stand a chance. Most of the adults are shouting, getting emotional and even getting angry. I repeat 99.99 times out of 100 the player you are watching will not become a professional or even a semi pro and they are only playing for the love of the game, whether they know it or not. In my opinion, kids are looking at coaches on how to react but more so their favourite players (good luck there) and most importantly mum or dad. I have some great parents for my under 9’s team. We have an excellent relationship and they are always grateful and thank me for my coaching of their children. That said, even one of my parents walked on the pitch to demonstrate with the referee during a stoppage. To my horror I quickly ushered them off the pitch and apologised to the ref, even though I was unhappy for the same reason as the parent. Remember your kids are watching your reactions at all times.

Could this be sour grapes?

Well, for a start we won the under 11 boys competition. My under 9 boys were under aged and under sized and struggled a little but did themselves proud. The organisation of this type of event is sometimes a little haphazard. Schools, contrary to the exterior view, can be a little chaotic and organisation is sometimes not a strong point. Any confusion leads to problems down the line and there were a few in this competition. I knew one of the organisers and I gave some constructive feedback to them as well as congratulating them on organising it in the first place. We need these tournaments as a focus for our training sessions. We need good officiating to help the games run smoothly and fairly. But most of all we need the people in the lives of these children to conduct themselves in a positive manner so it transfers to the children themselves. We are not separate entities, we are all part of the journey for these kids and we must work together to produce good people first and competitive footballers second.

All images are my own.

Thanks for reading

Gaz