Enough is enough: Abusive football parents, players shown red card
Another football association has vowed to drive out ‘thugs, louts and troublemakers’ from Sydney’s amateur soccer scene; PLUS one young ref tells of the regular vile abuse she cops.
NSW
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Criminal prosecutions, racism and all-in brawls — Sydney’s amateur soccer scene is in disarray, with league officials saying they are fed up with feuding parents, fighting players and racist attacks.
Senior bosses at three major football associations — which host nearly 30,000 players every weekend — have now pleaded publicly for an end to violence and intimidation of officials at both junior and senior games.
Canterbury District Football Association chief executive Ian Holmes is the latest to shine the spotlight on football’s bad behaviour problems, with police called out to several incidents.
It comes a week after The Daily Telegraph revealed the St George Football Association issued a scathing letter warning parents and players that if they did not improve their conduct they would be kicked out.
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Mr Holmes has pledged to drive out “thugs, louts and troublemakers”, and stop racial divisions surfacing on the field.
“We have something like 80 different nationalities involved, plus we have people with a whole lot of different religious backgrounds,” he told the Telegraph.
“In some younger age groups people were making racist comments, kids were actually picking up language, I suppose, that we’re seeing a lot on social media.”
Mr Holmes said some particularly abhorrent players and parents, currently suspended, would be kicked out permanently. “You get your marching orders, then after that we’re not opening the door to let you back in,” he said.
Mr Holmes said youngsters felt emboldened to verbally attack refs after seeing some of the sport’s biggest stars doing the same every week.
And he warned parents “who live vicariously through their children’s sporting activities” were not calling their kids out.
“When they see players in the professional football leagues challenge the ref and argue, they think this is the norm,” he said.
Flare-ups involving police are also of huge concern.
One south Sydney father found himself before court this year over a confrontation sparked when his daughter suffered an injury in an under-14s game.
Court documents show the 45-year-old man ran on to the field at Croydon Park last August after the girl was “inadvertently but forcibly kicked in the head” and was “lying still on the ground”.
A volunteer ground official “abruptly” told the man to get off the field so the next game could start and later told him to move on from the sideline.
“That argument became heated and others became involved, including other officials … During that argument the offender pushed the victim in the upper chest,” a police fact sheet said.
The man pleaded guilty to common assault in Burwood Local Court on April 15 but a magistrate dismissed the matter without conviction.
His lawyer, Danny Eid, said “the magistrate was unimpressed by the prosecution against (the man) and queried who genuinely was the victim”.
“I don’t condone any type of violence but people have to start using common sense,” Mr Eid said. “If someone’s injured, why don’t they tend to the injured rather than ignore them simply because a game’s going to be delayed. So what?”
St George Football Association chairman Angelo Bonura and Blacktown District Soccer Football Association boss Bill Owen have also issued sweeping warnings to all players and parents.
“Female referees and the abuse (aimed at them) has been phenomenal, where the kids have said we don’t want to go back to that park,” Mr Owen said.
“The background of the sport is very tribal and I think that’s half the problem.”
Mr Owen is so keen give violent players a permanent red card he is urging supporters to “pick up your phone and film” during brawls.
“We’ve had instances where there’s an all-in brawl and not one person’s got video,” he said.
In St George, a father was hospitalised with a leg injury after allegedly being pushed to the ground when a fight broke out among parents at an under-7s game in Peakhurst on May 18.
A furious Mr Bonura told players and parents in a letter: “High-level abuse of match officials, violent conduct, assaults between players, parent/spectator threatening behaviour, racial/cultural abuse have occurred. If you are one of these people we do not want you in this association.
“The game is better for your not being a participant.”
Football NSW CEO Stuart Hodge said he was looking at taking “clubs that have repeatedly had disciplinary issues within their association” out of rep competitions and “making them ineligible to apply for Football NSW grants”.
TEENAGE OFFICIAL GIVEN A REF RIDE
Referee Angelica Georgopoulos can handle the foul-mouthed abuse directed at her every weekend, often from grown men. What she cannot stand is the pathetic excuse they later offer when called to the judiciary.
“They say, ‘sorry sir, I’m just passionate about the game’. Every time I hear the word ‘passion’ I get a chill down my spine,” Ms Georgopoulos told The Daily Telegraph.
“They know they just did the wrong thing and they just use the world game, the beautiful game, as an excuse.”
The 19-year-old, who referees three games in the Canterbury Association on a Saturday then plays on a Sunday, said abuse on the field and from the sidelines was getting worse.
So bad, in fact, other female refs are quitting.
“I had three friends who started with me and none of them referee any more. They’re leaving and it’s because of the abuse,” Ms Georgopoulos said.
She blames parents for the appalling example they set children by shouting abuse at her during junior games.
“The last thing you want to be doing is dealing with parents going off,” she said. “There’s no way a 13-year-old would be saying the things they do without someone in their ear.”
And she said sexist adult male players constantly undermined her because she was a woman: “If one team scores, the defending team will be running back saying, ‘it’s a female ref, what would she know’.”
She said fights often broke out after the final whistle as players were shaking hands.
“People can’t contain themselves,” she said.
Angela Pino said her sons Salvatore, 13, and Adrian, 8, relished every outing for Strathfield FC and knew the spirit in which the game should be played.
“It’s a very positive thing in our house,” Ms Pino said. “It’s about your teammates and it’s not always about winning.”
DANIEL ZAUTSEN COMMENT: SICKENING BULLYING IS AN UTTER DISGRACE
Three years ago I watched on as a large man in his mid-40s unleashed a stream of abuse at a terrified and shaking 14-year-old boy. The torrent of obscenities included phrases like “you f … ing c …” and “you c..... screw us every week”.
It wasn’t any alcohol or drugs that brought this on. It was an under-12s match on a Saturday morning at a football field surrounded by parents and children.
The man was the coach of the losing team and the young boy was a referee in his first game. The incident began due to a dispute over a last-minute goal.
Myself, as a referee coach, and the boy’s father had to stand between the man and the referees’ room for the next half an hour attempting to calm him down while the team manager pleaded with him to stop.
Sadly, incidents like this are not uncommon across Sydney every weekend.
Of the 5000 referees registered each year, between 1000 and 1500 walk away from the game, with about 30 per cent listing abuse as their main reason for quitting, according to exit surveys conducted by Football NSW.
I am fortunate to referee in the Macarthur Football Association, where behaviour among players and coaches is for, the most part, respectful.
But in the past few years the level of disrespect and outright abuse from parents has increased. I have heard stories of abuse directed towards referees, other spectators and players in games as young as under-6s.
Introducing sin bins for under-6s and up has done much to control behaviour on the pitch, but the actions of parents on the sideline often go unchecked.
When a ground official, usually a volunteer, does approach these people they end up being threatened or intimidated.
I love football because it is emotional and passionate. But those people whose passion quickly morphs into anger need to take a look at themselves.
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