Last updated 11:39, Wednesday, 16 April 2008

WHEN kids’ football matches kick off on playing fields up and down the country, it’s all too often the signal for trouble to kick off too.

Not among the youngsters – more shockingly among the parents standing on the edge of the touchline.

I bet you’ve witnessed it in Cumbria – I saw a horrible argument unfold once between parents of a young player who started shouting abuse at a referee who had the temerity to blow his whistle for a foul by their little ten-year-old darling.

Their foul-mouthed tirade was toe-curlingly embarrassing, completely over-the-top and sent out a dreadful message to the children. It’s sadly typical of many of these over-competitive parents who turn into ranting lunatics on the sidelines and whose appalling antics are casting a shadow over kids’ football.

Youth football no longer seems to be about children playing the game, it’s about the adults who watch and run it.

Recently, a youth game in Coventry had to be abandoned after 15 angry parents stormed on to the pitch, sparking a mass brawl.

In another shocking incident, a 40-year-old woman was cautioned by police and her 16-year-old son reprimanded after a linesman ended up in hospital with head injuries following an attack at an under-13s match in Huddersfield.

Is it any wonder that Britain has the biggest drop-out rate of young footballers compared to the rest of Europe?

Now a campaign entitled Give Us Back Our Game (GUBOG) has been launched to curb the behaviour of parents. Let’s hope they can persuade the FA to impose strong deterrents for bad parental behaviour. They should be punished in exactly the same way as you would a terrace yob – ban them for life.