I’ve seen situations where parents treat football like a personal war. Like they’re defending territory. Like their child’s performance on the field is tied to their own worth.
I’ve watched in disbelief as a coach at a local match shouted to his players, “Kill them! Kill them!”
Are such violent words appropriate at a youth match, or any game for that matter? Children pick up on such hostility. They start sneering at their opponents, refusing to shake hands after a match.
When things get that personal, the game stops being about learning and starts becoming about ego. The idea of sportsmanship becomes secondary to the pursuit of victory.
The SYL, an elite youth football competition under the Unleash The Roar! national project jointly run by SportSG and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), will likely hold over 4,000 games this year. This will involve over 6,000 young footballers, across 12 age groups.
Meanwhile, the JSSL league, Singapore’s premier youth football league, will hold over 1,600 games.
With multiple matches played every weekend on public fields, incidents of aggressive and inappropriate spectator behaviour are disturbingly common. Match organisers and officials have reported having to deal with fights, racial abuse and threats. There have also been reports of xenophobic remarks directed at players, coaches or fellow spectators.
Sport is meant to teach discipline, teamwork, perseverance and the value of healthy competition – resilience in the face of defeat and grace and empathy in victory.
When the adults lose control, what kind of lessons are we teaching?
