‘Somebody will get seriously hurt or even be killed’ - fears raised about violence at underage soccer

Soccer chiefs in Dublin are vowing to crack down on underage soccer violence but face an uphill struggle. John Fallon reports Soccer chiefs in Dublin are vowing to crack down on underage soccer violence but face an uphill struggle. John Fallon reports.

‘Somebody will get seriously hurt or even be killed’ - fears raised about violence at underage soccer

On a cold Saturday morning in a Dublin public park, there’s a buzz of activity in a corner of the wide expanse.

Roars and shouts from the epicentre can be heard far away, only these are solely the voices of adults instead of the eight-year-olds chasing frantically around the small-sided pitch. On closer inspection, the atmosphere is anything but sporting.

Opposite each other, the nominated coaches spend most of their time inside rather than outside the sideline, one amid a haze of smoke from the cigarette he’s puffing on at pace. The other is so engrossed in barking out instructions to his son on the best method to score his fifth goal of the whitewash that two substitutes are ignored.

Frozen out and frozen legged, their pleas for game-time go unheeded.

Time on the pitch must be shared equally amongst the squad, just one of the rules being blatantly flouted.

But it is far from being the most serious of regulations broken.

When the referee, a parent of the home side, rightly calls a throw-in, he’s confronted by a section of the away support.

The culprits are not coaches, rather parents and, more specifically, a couple of mothers.

Winning the game convincingly just isn’t enough; they want double-figures with each player scoring. And each of those has to be their child.

Hassled and harried, the volunteer whistler isn’t getting anywhere being reasonable in his explanation and turns away from the baying faction. Then wallop. A strike to the head leaves the official crumpled on the ground, triggering a free-for-all.

Parents and children have to be separated from each other while a rump of players hunker behind the goal for the own safety, by now shaking with fear and crying uncontrollably.

The incident, forcing the game’s abandonment shortly into the second half, gets reported to the league but the absence of an official referee or independent witnesses renders it an academic exercise.

Violence and intimidation pervading the schoolboy game got a mainstream airing during this week when the Dublin and District Schoolboys League (DDSL) issued an alert for better behaviour from adults.

The call to arms stemmed from seven matches in the previous six weeks having to be cut short due to unruly antics from the sidelines. That’s only from games with referees, which in their case, doesn’t begin until U11 level. Those at the top of the league, which is the biggest of its kind across Europe catering for 20,000 players, have vowed to clamp down hard on perpetrators.

Still, they’re not naïve enough to believe they alone can eradicate a plague sweeping beyond the capital and football.

“This is a societal problem that is creeping deeper into sport,” explained Paddy Dempsey, Chairman of the DDSL.

“As a league, we can investigate and issue sanctions such as fines, suspensions and even expulsions. Look, we imposed a 10-year ban on an adult last year for gross misbehaviour but the wider responsibility rests with parents and the clubs themselves.”

Some clubs, more than others, are proactive in this field. St Joseph’s Boys, the south-Dublin nursery where Paul McShane, Alan Judge and Andy Keogh learned their trade circulate a code of conduct to each parent and hold pre-season meetings reminding them of their role in creating a sense of respect. Initiatives like ‘Don’t X The Line’ and ‘Silent Sideline’, whereby for one weekend of the year, parents agree to keep their mouths closed, have highlighted the malaise without curtailing the overall trend of malpractice.

“Just because parents get Messi or Ronaldo printed on the back of their child’s jersey doesn’t mean they’ll develop into a world star,” noted John Bolger, a coach at St Joseph’s, who managed the likes of Anthony Stokes, Richie Towell and Glenn McAuley at underage level.

“Kids must be able to enjoy the environment of football, not fearful of making mistakes. I don’t allow any of our parents address the players or referee. That’s my job and, if I need to do so, it happens at the right time.”

So toxic has become the schoolboy and schoolgirl sector, swarmed with pushy parents, that even referees are fleeing to the relative shelter of the senior amateur ranks. There will be further demand for officials next year when the FAI introduce the U13 national league into a market already struggling to attract a new wave of men in black.

Back at local level, this weekend is sure to give rise to another bout of adults overstepping the mark. Children have been assaulted and even racially abused, according to legislators. Resistance to introducing non-competitive games, with no results or tables up to U12 level, underlines the challenge faced by administrators.

Dempsey was a referee himself before moving into the boardroom and is now flanked by a committee steeped in similar backgrounds and experiences. Amongst the clout they have in administering disciplinary action is removing a team from the league, a last resort considering youngsters bearing the cost of a mentor’s thuggery hardly seems fair.

“Our worry now is that somebody will get seriously hurt or even be killed,” warned Dempsey. “We’ve raised the matter at our bi-monthly meeting of clubs and earlier this week issued a notice to all. This cannot continue.”

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