The Cork Schoolboy League are getting serious on Sideline Behaviour. Over recent months Eddie Doyle Hon.Secretary of the League has been sending out notices to his members on the marked deterioration of the behaviour of adult mentors and spectators.

Taken from an email send out in November, Eddie wrote,

“Not a weekend goes by without reports of conflict between mentors and referees, mentors and opposing players, spectators and opposing players and, even between spectators and spectators.

The Management Committee of the Cork Schoolboys League will view all such incidents with the utmost seriousness  – particularly in cases of verbal/physical abuse of players.

The Management Committee wishes to remind all adults involved in our games that the players are children – and we all have a duty of care towards them.

Clubs in membership of the Cork Schoolboys League are fully responsible for the actions of their appointed officials and for the actions of their supporters.

You, as secretary, are requested to inform all adults involved in the running of your schoolboys teams that:

1. Any team official found to have verbally abused match officials will serve a suspension from all football activities.
2. Any team official found to have abused/threatened a schoolboy player will serve a lengthy suspension and incur a substantial fine for the relevant club.
3. Any finding of aggressive/threatening behaviour by parents/supporters will result in a substantial fine and/or further sanctions (points deduction, team suspension or expulsion) for the relevant club.

It is the view of the Cork Schoolboys League that there can be no excuse for any instance of an adult official/spectator threatening or abusing an underage player. Please treat the above as an official warning from the Cork Schoolboys League”.

-end of Email

This week another email was sent out to members reiterating the message from the previous email:

“Following on from our email below on November 2 the CSL is initiating a respect programme which we would expect all clubs to note carefully. We will be using the FA Respect videos and the message is very clear in each video.

We will use the news section of the website www.corkschoolboysleague.ie and the CSL twitter @corksl to publish the respect videos. The first video has been uploaded on the website and twitter today.

Please advise all your players,coaches, parents and supporters of this initiative”.

-end of email.

As you know I welcome any initiative that is going to keep spectators on the sidelines of youth sports in check. I still feel that leagues in Dublin and around Ireland are still not doing enough and although many got involved with the Silent Sideline weekends, it’s important that we carry that message into each and every weekend.

Let’s not forget these are children and not adults. They play for fun. We are in the ‘development zone’ and not the entertainment zone!

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