Junior football strike to keep parents in line

Fistfights among spectators, pitch invasions, insults hurled at the referee, vitriolic hatred between rival camps: Italian football is no stranger to the curse of the hooligan - even when the players on the pitch are only eight years old.

The pitchside behaviour of parents has become so bad, however, that teams at a club near Empoli have registered their disapproval by refusing to play. A one-day strike on Sunday gave the rival sets of parents something to think about.



"We have had terrible language used against refs in front of the kids for penalties not awarded, we have had pitch invasions, and even a punch-up between a father and a referee after a game," said club director Michele Mango.

So scared had the boys become before kick-off they demanded action, and Mango announced the strike at last week's Christmas dinner for parents. In the stunned silence that followed, the boys filed on to a stage, holding aloft banners they had prepared bearing messages such as "No to bad language, Yes to kids having fun" and "Parents: don't argue, let us play".

Mango placed some of the blame for the behaviour on Italian television's obsession with replaying mistakes made by referees after Serie A games. "Fans think they have a licence to attack the ref," he said.