What is the worst event you have witnessed at a youth soccer match?

Well, no one has ever died (or even been taken to the hospital), so I can't top that one. But two do stick in my mind...

1) A U14(?) game got a little out of control between parents and the ref. Coach ended up ejected as did 2-3 parents.

2) U12? girls game got a lot out of control, parents from both teams yelling at each other, parents yelling at coaches, coaches yelling at parents. One of our parents yelled (to the other team's parents) "these are f-ing kids!". Sort of defeats the purpose of the complaint if you're going to drop an F-bomb. We were the home team and we heard later the visitor team had to have a sheriff's deputy at all of their future games.

 

Thankfully cannot top Volk. That said:

-- At a U14(?) boys game at a tournament I helped run, a goalkeeper gets a red card for some kind of hard foul. Unhappy dad sees what he assumes is a tournament official sitting on a golf cart (she's not, she's a trainer), charges toward her and verbally unloads on her, then storms back to the sideline where he rips off his shirt and skulks around bellowing about the injustice. His son's coach deftly diffuses the situation, tells dad to stand down, apologizes to the refs, and the club later apologizes profusely in a nice letter. Faith in humanity restored.

-- At one of my son's games at about U13, a blowout his team was winning against pretty low-skill opposition, a dad from the other team loudly encourages one of that team's larger players (not his child, it turns out) to play enforcer and deliver some revenge for the scoreline, congratulates him when he does, ... That parent's son later gets his foot stepped on by my child (I'm fairly sure he didn't mean it, but things had gotten pretty chippy by that point ...) and goes down crying near his dad on the sideline. Dad comes onto the field and grabs his son by the jersey and yanks him up, criticizing him for (I think) lack of toughness. Dad then again encourages the team enforcer to deliver payback. All of this at really high volume. The refs ... don't say a word. Nor did parents from either team. I wish I had.

 

I’ve witnessed many examples parents out of control on the sidelines, mostly directed at refs, some at other parents…I’ve probably seen a good dozen parents or so ejected, at least one standing right next to me…to be honest, they kinda blend together and have a hard time picking out one incident that was demonstrably worst then another…I’ve seen my share of poor sportsmanship and dirty play on the field as well, but that too tends to blends together…that’s probably a sad commentary…

I will cop to the worst thing I have ever done on a sideline…heck, I think it was just last year. We were over in Champaign at the 1st and Stadium fields; some of those sidelines can get a bit crowed and tight. Anyway, our game ends; pretty sure we lost. Me and another dad, seeing that the next game parents wanted to move their chairs into place, stepped up on to the touchline to make room from them, as we waited for our boys pack up and to walk around the field to us. As we are waiting and just chatting away, the next game starts…less than 5 minutes; quickest turnaround I’ve ever seen. Understandably, one of the parents asked us to move…which we quickly did and apologized as we did so for being in the way…we honestly weren’t playing any attention and we were both embarrassingly caught by surprise the next game had started….like I say, quickest turnaround ever.

So, now we are standing behind these parents, pretty much commenting on what a quick turnover that was, when of the adults (different from the one who asked us to move, but I believe related) says purposefully loud enough for us to hear “You meet the rudest people at these things”. I was like are you talking about us? Which quickly led to a bunch of F-you’s and other such comments being exchanged…it got pretty heated pretty quick, and then just as quick, got kinda silly, and we finally walked away. Even in the moment, I think I knew this was one of the dumbest confrontations I’ve ever had with someone…I just couldn’t stop myself.

Of course, by this time, our kids had finally walked up and witnessed most of it…needless to say, my son was super impressed with his dumbass dad…I am sure anyone who witnessed this incident would have thought I was the biggest tool in the world, and at that moment they would have been right….

And no, stone sober…

The thing is, I’ve been pretty mellow on the sidelines for the last 3 or 4 years now…it just caught me wrong and got out of hand very quickly…

 

I'll add one I'd forgotten about until reading Wolf's. Not violent or loud, but amusing and a little aggravating.

Toward the end of halftime at one of my son's tournament games a couple of years ago, the teams were on the field, all but ready to kick off, when parents lugging chairs, bags, ... began trickling across the field form a far corner headed toward roughly where another dad and I were standing and talking on the parent sideline. Two or three groups of a few each slowly, obliviously made their way across the field. I remember one of the dads being seriously engaged in a waffle cone. They all seemed to be entirely unaware of the players and refs on the field about to kick off. Kickoff waits maybe an extra 45 seconds for them to clear the field. Rude, but no big deal.

Then they began setting up their chairs and gear between us and the sideline -- a space of no more three or four feet. It became clear as they talked while doing all this (including one hoisting an umbrella in front of us) that they were setting up for the next game.

The other dad and I stopped talking and just watched, looking at each other like "Is this really happening?" He finally asked me out loud whether I thought they knew we were even there, leading one of them to turn around and realize they'd set up essentially on top of us and move behind us. All but ice cream dad, who kept his seat in front of us with his waffle cone.

 

Unfortunately, my story happened at U10. Semi's of a reasonably large tournament. Ref is allowing a lot of physical play, tackles from behind, thrown elbows, pushing etc. There sideline is pretty noisy, but one women is incessantly screaming, and among other things, is telling their boys to take out our boys in a language other than English. Our boys are retaliating. It's turning into Lord of the Flies on the pitch and the sidelines are getting chippy with each other. One of their 9 year olds tells one of our parents to "shut the f%$k up". There are multiple stoppages of play for injuries (nearly a dozen by games end), but fortunately nothing serious. I tell the AR that the game is getting out of hand and he needs to do something. He agrees that it is out of hand, but due to "ref protocol" he is not allowed to say anything to the CR. I said "so ref protocol trumps player safety", (which was the most polite thing I said to him, don't exactly recall the rest but it wasn't positive). Both sidelines are arguing with the CR and he is arguing back. It's a complete unmitigated cluster F. My son executes a clean but hard slide tackle, no foul called, but the player he tackled pops up and punches my son in the stomach. Ref looks at my son and waves it off. Game ends 1-1, the other team advances, and the refs literally sprint off the field. In the handshake line the other players are flipping off our players and one of them punches one of our kids in the stomach.

I've seen a lot of youth soccer games in the last 7 years but nothing I've seen has remotely come close to this game.

 

https://media.giphy.com/media/HBGWRpcmmaioo/giphy.gif

 

1) U14G game last summer. Mouthy Dad gets into it with Ref. Ref tells him to zip it, Mouthy Dad proceeds to spit a string on epithets at him spanish. Ref speaks spanish. Mouthy Dad is ejected, makes the Walk of Shame away from the field and proceeds to stand at the top of the hill, arms folded, and glare down at us the rest of the game. We all laugh. Jackass.

2) U13G game; we're losing. One of our girls, who is a total thug of a player, nails an opposing player from behind while she was carrying the ball. She put our her arm to stop herself from faceplanting into the FieldTurf...and her forearm snaps a couple inches above the wrist. Hand flops around a bit like a wet noodle, and then the screaming starts. Yikes. We're all standing around in awkward silence as the cart comes out to get her, after what everybody knows was a deliberate cheap shot. (No card either) The remainder of the game was super uncomfortable, but none of the other parents said anything of note to us. They should have.

3) U13G tournament in Oklahoma. My daughter's first club tournament game. Our FWD passes the initial kick back to my daughter, and one of theirs- a real moose, that looked 16- charged and basically cutblocked her right at the knees. I lost my shit, but before I went too far off the rails I noticed that DD saw it coming and hopped up in the air a bit to get her feet out of the turf (Smart girl!) and proceeded to land on top of Moose, WWE-style.

Moose got the wind knocked out of her, and started rolling around on the ground, struggling for breath. Now Moose Dad looses his shit, and wants my daughter, who is standing there utterly perplexed as to what is going on, carded. Some of our parents that are close to the opposing side of the field start to let him have it, and both coaches have to get involved to cool things down. At this point we are about :05 into the match, and I am wondering just WTF we have gotten ourselves into with club soccer.

 

A pool party

 

8th grade girls indoor. Two teams that really hated each other. The game started getting physical and the referee swallowed his whistle so it got worse. Girls were boarding each other at every opportunity and the room was almost vibrating with the hate.

The the meekest, mildest girl on my team planted wrong and dislocated her knee. The sound she made is one that I will never forget.

The other coach called me after the game and we agreed that things were out of control. Before our next game, we had a joint meeting with both teams where we explained that the last game was uncool and we didn't want want a repeat of the prior game.

 

As a player, I saw, and played in many games that got badly out of hand. The worst being a brawl that caused the game to be abandoned. The fighting continued up to the changing rooms with players and coaches all involved. Pretty nasty. Both clubs were dragged over the coals at the ensuing league committee hearing. To be honest, if that had happened after the pub on a Saturday night, it would have been a court summons and not a football hearing.

As a coach, other than a little parental coaching from the side (which is quickly stamped out), there is virtually zero problems at the upper levels. The games are very physical and full-blooded, but nothing the referee isn't paid to deal with.

 

If its ok, i will post Bout berlin germany u10 team. (Glad i found this thread)
We are... A europa league (ie not premiere, but close with youth) quality club in berlin. There are around 240 clubs here in berlin.

Unbeknownst to be i was playing against a coach who was a former professional boxer and whom had previously coached at our club. Years ago, he was given "hausverbot" meaning he was forbidden from entering club premises for threaten behaviour.

When i see his kids in the locker room, no joke u10 kids are all downing redbull cans.

I was immediately worried i would have to call child services when i was hearing him literally scream with a blood curteling voice in warm um...

In the u10s in berlin, there are no refs. Its called they fair play league.... No scores are officially recorded and they children are taught fundamentals instead of results, at least that is the official policy...

As soon as kick off starts his u10 kids come out as if it is an mma match.

As weird as it sounds, it took me a good ten minutes to fully understand what was going on (think of aliens the movie where the incompetent Lt. Is getting his men slaughtered by the aliens).

I stop the match at go up to the boxer and say if they keep playing the match this way, i am taking my kids off.

Match starts back up my kid accidentaly fouls a kid (our first foul and btw, no elbows, kneecaps etc as they had pratically every 30 seconds) and their entire parent group started to threan this poor 9 year old.

As soon as that happened, a took them off.

I took it to the berlin soccer administration and his opening words were there is no problem giving u10s red bull before a game....

 

I can see this clearly in my minds eye.

I coached in Germany in the mid-2000s for a number of years and was really surprised by the behaviour of many Germany coaches and parents. I've watched, and intervened, as opposing coaches have reduced players to tears on the pitch and then continued to scream at them on the sidelines after substitution. Horrible to watch. Strangely, this approach must work to a certain extent as Germany consistently produce many of the world's best players.

The three things that really impressed me coaching in Germany were:

1. The high standard and availability of facilities. Absolutely amazing.
2. The high standard of referees, especially young referees. There were many 13/14 year old refs who officiated games with confidence, common sense and authority. Great to see.
3. The wonderful organisation of tournaments for youth football.

So many positives in the way Germany runs it's grassroots football..... however, drinking Red Bull before the game seems a step too far

 

Some fault definitely falls on the owner of the complex. It is their responsibility to collect proof of insurance that names them as additionally insured.

 

Yeah, not sure how they even pulled that off. There are multiple levels of fraud there. And I thought the multiple fights I had to break up/step into between dads at ECNL games over the years was bad. Good advice, never be the biggest guy on the team, the moms always want you to jump in.

Best one I had was over a decade ago, we were U-littles at a tournament, my DD injured two GK from a team with shots, after the game, our coach is talking to the team and one of the GK moms comes right up to him and punches him, no warning, no words, just a straight up punch. He was so stunned, he popped up and ran off.

 

Dishonesty meets ineptness... total B.S.

 

I am still dumbfound and impressed how well you (Volk) handled yourself at the field…I say this with all humility and embarrassment, I would have totally lost my shit…

 

At a high school game in WV, one of the opposing team parents yelled at their players to "take our her knees", talking about my daughter. I was not near enough to hear it (probably a good thing), but I had several players and other parents mention it after the game. I also personally heard her called a bitch by opposing fans and heard them cheer other players being injured.

WV high school soccer was pretty awful.

 

One of ours was cold-cocked during a state cup game by a disgruntled opponent who had no direct beef with them just happened to be standing nearby when the foul go called.

Maybe u13 at the time... Had to sit out rest of game for precaution.

You had to rub your eyes to make sure you saw what you thought ... I’ve seen plenty of mutual aggressiveness but this was unique in as much as one “combatant” wasn’t even looking at the other.

Red card. We won. Good laugh years later.