C‘he is the parent-coach, the timekeeper father but also the bodyguard mother. And then the psychologist parent and the ultras parent. You can meet them every damn Sunday in the stands of provincial pitches. Football pitches on which children and teenagers have fun, while their adults – very often – fight around: parents who are fanatical fans and who have little understanding of the meaning of sport. Fathers (but also mothers) convinced that they have raised champions who scream in an attempt to make everyone else understand.
Fan parents, a school to teach fair play
Fights on the sidelines of youth category matches are unfortunately very frequent, sometimes even in friendly matches. And it would be laughable if the phenomenon had not exceeded the threshold of the laughable. Basta recalls an episode from last summer when, in an oratory in Seregno, in the province of Monza, during a football match between children (Under 9!), some parents in the stands came to blows. He was also involved in the brawl the manager of one of the two teams: he ended up in hospital, with a damaged spleen and a removed kidney. The attacker earned a 5-year Daspo valid in Italy and in all European Union states. Not joking.
Train mothers and fathers of underage athletes
To stem the phenomenon, one was born right in Seregno Sports Parents School (SGSP). We read on the website: the mission is «to inform and train mothers and fathers of underage athletes so that they can best support and accompany their children’s path in the world of sport in the best possible way. Avoiding all those deviant behaviors that unfortunately we witness every damn Sunday on fields and pitches in every corner of the country».
Youth football, between sporting children and fan parents
The degeneration of parental typhoid has consequences on the children, the kids on the pitch: forced to suffer too much, too passionate family cheering. And to find themselves confused, in front of their parents’ attitude, about the meaning of sporting spirit. Training parents therefore means first and foremost helping children, also to prevent dropout and abandonment: according to FIGC data, in the pre-pandemic decade 2009-2019 on average 55% of children between 10 and 16 years old hung up their shoes on the nail, with annual peaks of 65%.
Not just ultras fathers, all the “human types” on the sidelines
The school collaborates with the National Association of Italian Pedagogists-Anpe and is supported by teachers, former referees and professionals from the world of sport.
Among the possible tools imagined and implemented, the figure of the “parents manager”, to be included in youth football. An expert capable of promoting good practices on the playing fields: this means respect for everyone, including referees. OR “parents audio-analysis”, in which parents shouting, inciting and insulting from the stands are recorded and then invited to listen to themselves again. But the first step is to become aware of the phenomenon, perhaps with a smile, or a grin, depending on the level of involvement.
The cartoons created by. help in this sense Matteo de Monte, who they list the 11 types of non-sports parents that can be recognized within youth movements. The cartoons will become one Traveling exhibition, inaugurated in October 2023 in Brianza, which can be set up in sports centers throughout Italy.
There Sports Parents School (SGSP) was born from the idea of the journalist and manager Alessandro Crisafulli and is the result of the collaboration between the association Asd Divertisport APS and the Municipality of Seregno.
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