Football has become a pseudo religion. Not a fully fledged religion as it doesn't gain the particular rights that fully fledged religions do but a pseudo religion with some of the rights associated with it.
Take for example a Celtic supporter who refuses to go to work or school because it is an Old Firm game (Celtics versus Rangers) This would not be considered acceptable because football is only a pseudo religion but for other circumstances unacceptable societal behaviour is tolerated within football because it holds an esteemed place in society (which is entirely wrong in my opinion)
For some context I never played football as a child, I wasn't good enough, wasn't cool enough, wasn't athletic enough or whatever. I found myself falling into the basketball area of sport and was able and privileged to play international basketball up until the age of 17. Throughout all of my basketball career and regardless of whichever team I played for; school, club, county, country, if we answered back to a referee we were substituted immediately. If we swore on court the referee would call what was known as a 'technical' a foul which was listed beside your name and after five fouls you were sent off. At that point the coach would take you off for swearing anyway.
It led to a culture within basketball (and I played in quite a few countries) of respect of the referee and the other teams. Clearly i'm thirty years out from basketball now, things may have changed dramatically and things may have changed dramatically in the NBA.
My point though is this - I have recently had the privilege of starting to coach an under 9s football team that my son plays in. They're not very good. But we love it and we try out very best. Some of the behaviour of parents (this is relatively rare at the moment) is unacceptable but in the majority the behaviour of the boys who play is exceptional. There is no swearing. There is no deliberate harm. There is always a hand shake at the end of the game and it's never the end of the world.
On Sunday past Callum and I were practising football down at the local pitch as we do on an almost daily basis (I have actually gotten reasonably good for my standard). There is a high tech astro turf pitch which is fenced by a 30ft fence adjacent to the grass pitch we were playing on and there was an adult game of football going on. The language was absolutely awful (and that comes from someone who swears a lot).
Then the ball came over the fence. My eight year old boy ran fifty yards to collect the ball for those guys and proceeded to kick it over a 30ft fence.
None of the guys on that pitch even acknowledged that Callum had done this. In fact far from it. The point where he kicked the ball over the guy who was to take the throw in screamed at one of his team mates one of the worst obscenities an eight year old boy should ever have to hear. Nobody batted an eyelid at this. Nobody thought for a minute that there was an impressionable eight year old football fan standing within 10ft. The game continued.
Callum returned to me 50 yards away and said "They're not very nice men"
This is framed by the language and the behaviour that we see as we walk past football pitches to go and train in our little pitch every single weekend.
My point here is - where else would this behaviour be accepted? Where else would it be reasonable for grown men to run about screaming obscenities at each other and trying to hurt each other? Where else would be acceptable for other adults to stand at the sidelines screaming obscenities in a cauldron of hatred.
Football is a pseudo religion but it doesn't have to be like that.
There's an easy way to fix this and it's just by example. One person after one person after one person not indulging in that behaviour. Why wouldn't the FA (who send many directors down to under 9 football teams) just book any player who swears and send him off the next time he swears? Very simple and very straightforward. At what point does the change occur where it's unacceptable for a young footballer to talk back to a referee or to swear to the point where both of those are entirely accepted on National pay per view TV?
I don't think you necessarily need a 'rule book', a policy or a poster to tell you how to behave decently but I do think you need to stand up to the people who don't.
Blog Post Number: 1119
Leave a comment