Record number of aggression reports in Flemish youth football
Reports of aggression during youth football matches in Flanders reached an all-time high last season. Between August and December, the Flemish youth and amateur football association Voetbal Vlaanderen received 337 complaints and reports.
"Our youth and amateur football gets more than a million people moving every week, which is fantastic," said Philippe Rosier, CEO of Voetbal Vlaanderen. "Unfortunately, sometimes things go wrong. Children are sometimes booed, parents get into fistfights, coaches put too much pressure on young people to win a match, and so on."
In the first half of last season, Voetbal Vlaanderen recorded around 91 cases of verbal or physical aggression on and off the pitch. This year, the number has quadrupled. Most of the incidents involved transgressive and unfair behaviour.
The number of sanctions imposed by the federation for aggression on the sidelines has also increased. There were 3,808 in the first half of the season, around 400 more than in the first half of last year. The sanctions range from fines to suspensions and even life bans.
The federation has teamed up with singer Metejoor to launch an awareness campaign. In his latest song De Zijlijn (The Sideline), Metejoor describes the pressure to perform he experienced as a 10-year-old footballer.
"You get negative stress, you lose your self-confidence and you can no longer have fun on the football pitch. I want to spare the boys and girls that feeling," he said.
#FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP
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