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INVESTIGATION. In cities, towns and villages alike, violence undermines football pitches, resulting in a shortage of referees.
by Erwan Seznec
Warning. FFF poster encouraging the public to respect refereeing and referees under penalty of sanctions.
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Reading time: 10 mins
Slast supper seen on a Saturday morning on the lawn of a field, somewhere in the west of France. U10-U11, in other words children of CM1 or CM2, play eight-a-side football, their mini-calves springing from their XL shorts. Clinging to the barrier, a man in his forties, who also showed all the outward signs of civility, yelled at his son: ” Kill him ! Kill him ! » In the meager public, made up of fathers who came to see their sons play, no one flinched.
The anecdote does not even surprise Pierre Guibert, secretary general of the Amateur Football League (LFA): “Parents are often terrible, they all think they have the next Mbappé! If their son is punished unfairly in their eyes, if the coach does not make him play as they want and when they want, that is the tragedy…
Fred MARVAUX/REA – SPORTS PRESS – AFP