14/10/2022
A message on behalf of the North Bury Junior Football League committee volunteers.
Coaching in junior football is a lot of hard work. Most of us fall into volunteering to run a team by accident. Cajoled into it by the club your kid’s trained with since they were 5 or 6 years old, filling a gap left by a previous coach, or just because we love the game and want to give something back.
We register on the Whole Game System, get our FA number, pay our tenner to be DBS checked, complete the FA level 1 coaching course, tick off the on-line safeguarding course, get an FA First Aid certificate etc. then off we go – let loose with a bag of balls, some plastic goals, and not enough metal pegs.
I’m sure that the overwhelming majority of us set out with the sole intention of helping our kids (and their teammates) fall in love with football the way we did. Whether you’re on the pitch, or on the side-lines coaching or supporting - there’s nothing like the thrill of a goal, a great save, or a last-ditch tackle.
Unfortunately, just a month into the new season and we’re already dealing with abandoned matches, threatening behaviour, teams not wanting to play a particular team without ‘a strong ref’, teams not wanting play if ‘that ref’ has been allocated to their game etc. You name it, we’re seeing it (again!).
As I’m sure most of you will be aware, these issues as not restricted to our league. It’s already so bad in the Merseyside Youth League that they’ve suspended all matches this weekend and are holding an emergency managers’ meeting instead. The Bolton, Bury & District League sent out a statement at the end of last season about ‘toxic behaviour’, and last week the East Manchester Junior League sent out a strong warning to all teams regarding conduct following the expulsion of an U7’s team (yes U7’s!!) from their league for a ‘serious incident’.
So what’s going wrong? Why is it that for 60 to 90 minutes on a Saturday morning when things ‘aren’t going our way’, we can’t control ourselves? Why does shouting and screaming at the coach, the ref, the kids, become acceptable? How does this spill over into pitch encroachment, threats of physical violence, car park altercations?
We’ve all seen it, many of us have been victims of it – particularly those crazy enough to put themselves through the hell of refereeing (many of whom are just kids, like the players).
We warned clubs at our Annual General Meeting in June that although County FA is responsible for disciplinary matters, as a league we would also be taking the strongest possible action against any team, coach, parent / carer, or player found guilty of misconduct.
Therefore, please take this notice on board, consider your behaviour carefully on match days, remind yourself why you want your child to play the beautiful game, and conduct yourselves in a manner that your kids can be proud of.
So go out on Saturday morning, expect things to go for and against your team, accept that mistakes will be made by players and referees, and count to ten before you do something you might regret. Above all else, support the kids on the pitch and enjoy the game.
Please be assured that if you cannot control yourself, we will be more than happy to take you out of the environment that’s causing you so much stress. You will be removed from our league.
