AIBU to think parents like these are an utter disgrace and ruin youth football?

I've witnessed two women have a fight at a kids football match, was horrendous and embarrassing. Thankfully we aren't in that league anymore!

U15 girls today. The men in charge of visitors were utterly awful. Told side line man to stop coaching and he shouted at us, said nobody should speak to officials. It was a disgrace though. They were literally telling the girls to cheat, slowing down play, time wasting by distracting the ref. And it made my blood boil. So I can see how it happens! Then the girls were hurting our girls and the teenage ref didn’t step up & send the girl off. Too intimidated I expect.

Both my DS and DD play football and the only time I have encountered physical fighting was between 2 groups of mums (who seemed drunk @ 11am) at a tournament and the matches all had to be stopped so it could be dealt with!

I have a very poor view of football due to repeated bad behaviour at any level from the antics of professionals down to parents at kids games. I was at Sheffield station a few weeks ago when crowds of football fans were being herded onto trains by police. The behaviour was awful, like some sort of riot was going on. Screaming and shouting at the other fans across the tracks, animal noises, disgusting lewd songs and comments and gestures towards women. I took my cue from the police who seemed relaxed but the atmosphere was very loud and intimidating, my kids didn't like it. I want as much distance between them and that sort of thing as possible and if that makes me some sort of snob then so be it. It's a pity because I know there are decent people who like football, my grandad was one of them (he ended up with a broken arm in a surging crowd at a match when he was quite elderly and vulnerable) and they get a bad name. Luckily my kids aren't interested in sport so it's not an issue I'm expecting to face.

Completely agree with this. Football has been such a unifying force over the years, in many situations for me, my father, my siblings, my husband and now my DC's. The minority who give football a bad name and ruin the experience for others upset me because of the bad name they give the sport.

this post says a lot more about you than anyone who enjoys watching football.
The irony of someone who clearly thinks they are intellectually superior considering the word 'morons' appropriate to use in 2024....

(I've never watched a game of football in my life btw so not defending it as a fan of the sport, just think your comment is disgusting)

Of course it matters. I don't like to form opinions without knowing the facts.

It always amuses me on these threads when some posters display a lack of critical thinking and label all football fans as 'yobs'.
As someone who has been around football all my life I have seen some horrendous behaviour from parents (both mums and dads) and also players.
I've also seen and been part of some wonderful, life affirming experiences.
Not all of us are yobs, and interesting enough a friend of mine refuses to work at the local stadium for the local rugby derby (the stadium shared with the football team) due to the behaviour of the supporters- just for that one match. I could use that as evidence that all rugby fans are yobs, but I don't, because they aren't.
The last player who I heard of getting banned for verbally abusing a ref is someone who went to school with my son and was constantly being suspended for his behaviour. It wasn't the sport he was playing it was him.

It always makes me laugh on a Saturday when driving to my daughters athletics. Drive passed the local rec and it's loads of dads/male relatives standing on the sidelines shouting at the kids. Get to athletics (and swimming on a different day come to mention it) and it's 98% mums who take the kids to these other clubs. It's only football that seems to attract the dads to take them and watch. I have heard of abuse at the local rec but have never witnessed it as my daughter hates football.

This is the very reason my DD won't allow my football mad DGS to join a boys' football team. Such a shame

They should get a warning first, then if they repeat this behaviour they and their children are banned for a designated amount of time?

The couple that ran my DS’s team were very dogdy, a fight broke out at one match caused by them. People thought they were scamming people too.

YANBU. I took ds out of a football club he'd started going to, because it was full of typical football lads, egged on by their typical football dads. Bunch of yobs. Ues I know that plenty of fans and some players are not like that, but it's enough of them to spoil the reputation of the game.

When ds was at primary school, the Head was constantly having to impose temporary bans on the boys playing football at lunch time because it caused so much trouble.

It's too uncivilised. They should let the girls play because they don't act like that.

There is a big age gap between my eldest and youngest BILs and my eldest BIL had his first child fairly young. This means that FIL, at one point, had an 18 year old son (who was a senior international at a sport that isn’t football) and a 6 year old grandson (who played youth football).

FIL reckoned that the parents of the 6 year old youth football were terrifying whilst the parents of the “teens who were on team GB in a sport that isn’t football” were far more relaxed!

Agree. I refer to it as the sport for morons to watch.

What were they fighting about?
I mean the assumption is that they were arguing over the kids' match...but we don't know that. There are no details.

@Gogosmarty

I saw some appalling behaviour of parents (yes mums as well) at girls football, one team we actually put a formal complaint in about and refused to play the return match (at their ground) due to the threatening and completely racist behaviour of the parents. (DDs team was half Asian, something to be celebrated for opportunity and diversity!)

I coach U8 football and DS also players rugby. They’re incredibly different- football is proper teams, organised matches and very formal. The party line is it’s non competitive but in reality you’re grouped in divisions and everyone including the kids know which is the top/bottom division.

Rugby is much more relaxed, lots of rolling subs, no keeping score and a coach referees it. Personally I think the over formalising of football does no favours as it’s taken too seriously.

The parents are the biggest source of hassle for all coaches. I’m a parent who’s volunteering and I constantly think about quitting to escape the abuse and hassle.

There's so much money to be made in professional league football, these badly behaved parents think their DC is the one whose going to make it big ( and keep them in luxury) so they resent anybody who tells them different. Look at the number of professional footballers who end up in trouble with the law, the sense of entitlement starts pretty early with some of them. @Seymour5 , it's ironic, Rugby is much more physically brutal and yet far more civilized

One child in a red top hit a woman wearing a black coat, I had to watch the footage three times, just goes to show that the kids are picking up on the adults behaviour