You've got coaches on the sidelines pushing their kids to do things that they shouldn't be doing, like going over the top in tackles. It's too results orientated.
Eddie Newton on grassroots football
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Eddie Newton told Sky Sports News that the standard of grassroots football has stagnated and must improve.
The ex-Chelsea midfielder, who scored the second goal in the 1997 FA Cup final win over Middlesbrough, is now coaching the Blues under-16s.
He feels that coaching and refereeing in particular are in desperate need of improvement in the UK, especially when compared to other European countries.
He told Sky Sports News: "The coaching is not good enough; the refereeing is not good enough because it's parents that are taking the refereeing and they're making the decisions solely by their heart for their son's team.
"It's not boding well for the future. In Europe the fact is, they develop. They develop the individual, they're not worried about winning titles, they would like to win titles but that's not the main focus, they want to develop players to push them on to academies.
"In this country it's all about results. Everyone wants to win, they want to go to the local pub and say that they've won the championship and beat the top side in their league. It's too results orientated.
Pressure
"That puts pressure on the kids. You've got coaches on the sidelines pushing their kids to do things that they shouldn't be doing, like going over the top in tackles. It's too much for them."
Newton feels that the win at all costs mentality is damaging for the game.
"At Chelsea we're left alone at the academy to develop our players, at our level its not about results, it's about development."
He also believes that the gap between grassroots level and the professional game is increasing.
"It's poor at the moment the gap is getting so much bigger. To get trialists in, they're so far off the mark now - it wasn't like that about five or six years ago but now they really struggle to be taken on, especially at the top level.
"That's down to the fact that nothing is really developing at grassroots level."
Conduct
Another harming factor at youth level is the continual abuse from parents on the sidelines which Newton also believes must be eradicated at grassroots level as it now is at academy level.
"There is a code of conduct at Chelsea and the players know if they step out of that they understand there will be repercussions.
"We do things properly at Chelsea, we make sure parents can't coach or scream out from the sidelines because the coach has to be able to say what he's saying, he's the expert and then you hand back the children at the end of the game and the parents need to know that."
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