Surrey Youth League calls for ban for aggressive touchline parents

The growing level of violent or abusive behaviour by touchline parents has sparked a call from the head of a youth league for offenders to be banned.

Parents head-butting linesmen, fighting, and threatening to stab a referee - all have been reported to Surrey Youth League chairman Graham Ekins last weekend.

The situation has got so bad, Mr Ekins has sent a letter to all its clubs urging them to take a tough stand by banning problem parents.

One of the league's most experienced referees has also quit and the Surrey County FA on Wednesday pledged it is investigating the string of alleged incidents.

Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, Mr Ekins said: "From time to time you get a bit of lunacy out there. This weekend we had a huge amount of serious misconduct. The level of what we saw this weekend really concerned me.

"There must be 15,000 to 20,000 parents out there [watching SYL matches] but they need to behave in the right way.

"Self-policing is not working as well as I want it to work - that's seven or eight events out of 200 games this weekend. Every one of those is one event too many."

He said other alleged incidents which he had been told about included abuse by two teams of a referee aged under 18, at least three games being abandoned and players threatening to smash up a changing room.

"It's the parents and the supporters who get carried away and lose all perspective of where they are," Mr Ekins added.

"I don't know what happens. They see that white touchline and a different head goes on."

He is urging all clubs to take a zero tolerance stance on parents who go too far - calling for them to be banned from clubs and for the police to be called in when necessary.

"We will look at how we can work with the FA to bring instant justice to remove these people from the game so they cannot commit offences again," he said.

"This is not about the kids on the pitch, the way they play. This is about removing parents from clubs."

Brighton & Hove midfielder Steve Sidwell, a guest panellist on Sky Sports News HQ, backed Mr Ekins' actions.

He said: "It's definitely a minority. As a dad myself and going through it with my son, I've seen it happen a few times this year.

"Whether it's an over-protective thing for their children or their own football club, it definitely stems from what goes on on the touchlines, heated exchanges of words from parents sometimes filter onto the pitch.

"It's not fair for the children, they want to be there just to play football and to enjoy themselves."

In its statement, the Surrey County FA said: "[We] have begun to investigate the incidents through our Raising Standards Working Group which works closely with youth leagues to ensure allegations of this nature are thoroughly investigated and charged under FA regulations.

"The County FA support the League in stating that this type of behaviour is unacceptable. We work closely with all Leagues and Clubs to promote the Respect Programme and to address unacceptable behaviour in football both on and off the pitch."