these amateur football clubs faced with violence from parents of young players

Several clubs are trying to stop the trivialization of violence on the part of certain parents of players. Latest example, FC93, in Seine-Saint-Denis, whose training sessions will take place behind closed doors.

Montrouge, Chartres, Linass-Montlhéry, Villejuif: so many football teams which, in recent days, have been confronted with violence from the parents of young players. Faced with this, Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) announced on Tuesday December 19 that it was canceling all its training for the week, after the attack on one of its coaches by the father of an apprentice footballer. In other clubs, after the Christmas holidays, all sessions will be held behind closed doors. A radical measure which is gaining ground, the only response found by clubs to warn of the scourge and best protect their educators in the face of certain increasingly violent parents.

There will therefore be no more parents lining the railings on training days. Reda Bekhti, the head of the youth division of FC93 (club based in Bobigny, in Seine-Saint-Denis), took this radical sanction from the start of the season. “Fed up with parents who compete with each other during training sessionshe decides. Which meant that the kids were unfortunately more obsessed with what was happening in the stands than what was happening on the pitch. It was also a way of protecting the kids in their work.”

“A lot of parents are going crazy.”

The effects of the measure are positive. But it is difficult for a club to stop the trivialization of violence throughout society, underlines Reda Bekhti, who cites attacks against teachers as an example. It must be added, in amateur football, what we today call “the Mbappé project”, with parents who want to experience through their offspring the same success as Bondy’s child.

“There are a lot of parents who are going crazy over this”notes Reda Bekhti. “The lure of profit, the dream… Tomorrow if your child is good, he can become a professional player and win millions of euros. Mbappé has not only made people happy. At the amateur level, it’s complicated for us to manage that. This climb will sometimes make people lose their minds.”

And faced with the increase in attacks, sports authorities are currently helpless. “It’s the child who toasts”, laments Jamel Sandjak, the president of the Paris Ile-de-France League, who is calling on the Minister of Sports to find the right sanctions. But he also asks to review the content of the training of educators, too focused on the quest for performance according to him.