This was passed on to the referees with the remind to use our cards if we hear the language.
Dear Clubs,
We have reached the half way point in the season for many teams and I wanted to take the opportunity to send out an email to check in with everyone.
There have been some great things happening in and around clubs, the Central League title race is very tight, the Women’s teams had a great Kelly Cup competition to start the season off, and the number of juniors playing each weekend is very pleasing to see.
Other notable highlights include the run of fantastic weather we have enjoyed until just recently, Stop Out Sports Club celebrating their 100th anniversary at Queens Birthday and Waterside Karori their 125th anniversary in May, great achievements for both clubs.
Unfortunately though the same old issue of behaviour remains the blight on our game.
This is not limited to one area of the game, rather spans juniors, seniors, coaches and supporters.
On a Monday morning we are flooded with reports from the previous weekend and this can take as much as three days to wade through – we just get them sorted in time for the next weekend to roll around again.
We recently received this from a referee – I will not mention the clubs involved as this is not limited just to these two clubs:
Just wanted to raise an observation from this game in the weekend.
After the match the referee team walked into the clubrooms to enter the changing room when the ball kids entered to hand back their jackets.
We asked them if they enjoyed the football which all the kids responded with yes but there was lots of swearing from the players and technical staff.
I just want to highlight this to you and if you could forward to the relevant people at CF please as this isn’t a good look and will turn young kids away from not only being ball kids in the future but also away from the game.
I have also spoken to club administrators who say they are struggling to get ball kids for games as parents are just not willing to allow their children to be exposed to this.
While Capital Football can, and do, deal with these issues on a weekly basis, this cannot just be Capital Footballs responsibility, rather the responsibility of all clubs to ensure the message of zero tolerance to this type of behaviour is communicated to everyone involved in the game.
We will be instructing referees to take a very hard line on this in games that they oversee, but request that clubs also take this opportunity to reinforce with their members, coaches and players that we are all passionate about the game, but that bad behaviour is having a very negative impact on our sport.
I am looking forward to a less fraught second half of the season.
Kind regards
Lisa
Lisa Jones Operations Manager |