Stories of parental behaviour at kids’ football

My son was involved in TJFA from 7 to 16 years old. I can genuinely say most parents were good. It wasn't perfect of course, and there was the odd heated moment, but those were few and far between. The most issues I witnessed were usually outside the TJFA season during the summer. The Flamingo Land Tournament could become heated. One summer a team got expelled from the tournament because of the parents!
 
Priv said:
There is one match a season where I go to watch my nephew play an away game. The kids on this team are vile and one or two of the dads even worse. My sister was threatened by one of the dads after shouting for a red card after a player on the opposition team punched one of my nephews team mates mid game. This was an u13 game.

This pr*ck says absolutely nothing when I go. I do my best to wind him up and goad him shouting to my nephews teammates to skin this guys son when they are attacking saying he’s crap and he can’t lay a glove on them etc but the dad won’t bite. He stays silent while his face turns a beetroot like colour.

The little wins in life.
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You do realise don’t you that everything else around you will think you’re the prat don’t you?
Not such a win after all
 
Chemicalworker said:
You do realise don’t you that everything else around you will think you’re the prat don’t you?
Not such a win after all
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Totally agree, no better than the other guy in my opinion, especially making comments to children that they are crap. Coached for a long time in the TJFA and will echo that the majority of teams and parents are fine, you just know as soon as you turn up when you are not so lucky. Used to use it as a reminder how lucky I was with the parents of my team, try and get the win and get out of there. I think some people forget they are watching kids and not a professional on a Saturday.
 
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Priv said:
Ah yes because embarrassing the guy and his son is equally as bad as physically threatening a woman or assaulting opposition players. Okay I bow down to your moral superiority.
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Forget about the guys behaviour, that’s obviously a disgrace and you agree as you’ve felt the need to tell us about it. You’ve also then gone on to tell us you’ve basically tried to goad him into some kind of reaction, again in front of children, to do something about it. You’re stood on a sideline saying to a child playing football they are crap, his Dads behaviour isn’t that kids fault. If he threatened your sister, it should have been reported and I’m sure it was. I hope your sister was okay by the way, she shouldn’t have to put up with that trying to watch her kids play sport.
 
Saying you’re just as bad was the wrong phrase, apologies. I just don’t think your reaction to it is wise and would probably only lead to more trouble, for both teams.
 
My eldest decided to pack in just before Christmas. His year group has had trouble with bellends since under 8s and the TJFA /FA have done nothing to bring it under control.

Trouble is the coaches of some teams are as bad if not worse than the parents. You would think they are trying to win the premier league they way they carry on


I’m glad he has walked away and picked up a better sport

My youngest on the other hand is a completely different experience. We have only had one team in 3 years that presented an issue once our coach brought the matter to the club in question if was dealt with appropriately and a full apology given.

All the coaches have been great in this year group and to be honest the majority of the parents.


With regards to Priv… you need to stop going. You’re doing your nephew, his team or his club no favours. You just sound like a knob.
 
Once went to a game and one of the parents shouted “ref get him in the book” but I didn’t think it was even a foul. Left a bad taste in my mouth tbh.
 
My mates lad was involved in a team a few years back. 12-13 year old he was. His lad ended up sacking it off due to the pressure from the coach and general way some of the other parents went about things.

He was added to the team WhatsApp group, and fair to say, he found it eye opening at how thick some of the parents were with some of the stuff they said.

The final straw is when the coaches son got sent off in a game for calling the referee a “F***** C***” for giving a blatant penalty against them.

My mate was appalled. But the way the his Dad (coach) and some of the other parents reacted to the referee after made him sick. Gave him Dogs abuse for the rest of the game. The WhatsApp was even worse later that day. My mate was flabbergasted as he’d have grounded his son and give him a bollocking for doing the same.

There was zero accountability for the lad in the wrong. Lots of parents jumping to his defence. It’s not right that you can show a complete lack of respect like that with no accountability, but it’s a bit indicative as to where we are as a society. It’s an issue that’s everywhere.

That said, I do know a few lads who run junior teams and seem to do it the right way. See lots of updates on their socials etc. and it seems to be very inclusive and encouraging. They just run into some “problem” teams at times from talking to them, but they just get on with it and focus on developing their kids.
 
I run a club in Carlisle and finding good coaches is near impossible, especially over here in a relatively isolated part of the country. This can be reflected in the culture of certain teams where one of the players’ Dad gets trusted with running the team. I’m lucky that almost every one I’ve taken on has been a good bloke who does things in the right way but I’ve removed 2 over the last 10 years. One for being a racist piece of **** and one for inappropriate comments in a WhatsApp group.

On a regular basis we see and hear some absolutely shocking stuff but I’d still say that 99% of games are played in the right environment.

Some clubs just don’t set the right culture, maybe through lack of options for someone better, maybe because they just don’t care.
 
Co-coached a team from U7s up to 17s. The coaches with clip boards and diagrams etc were hilarious. Some obviously living out their fantasies. There were some pretty nasty parental moments over the years but actually few and far betweens ... aside from the excessive yelling of derogatory remarks, which was pretty frequent. The worst offender that I can remember for that .... giving players and especially the ref dogs abuse, was Paddy Kenny. An absolute bell end.
 
School football games are just as bad. Parents are usually banned from attending, but you always get some who turn up depending on the venue. I had a grandparent of a child from another school who was horrendous. I later found out that he was the dad of an ex professional footballer so thought his word was god. He’s apparently known for it on the local football scene.
 
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