So my Polish girlfriend received a phone call yesterday from the organiser of her 6 year old sons junior football club. He has been attending their training sessions for the last 6 months.

She was told he is no longer welcome as his behaviour was a disruptive influence within the club. This has never been mentioned before and is quite surprising as either his mum or I have stayed on the touchline for nearly every session he has attended and have never seen any behaviour that’s disruptive or unusual from any of the 6 year olds there.

Three other Polish parents also received the same phonecall on the same day but were told their children weren’t good enough (at 6 years old) and were holding the Scottish kids development back.

As far as we know only Polish children were excluded.

How would you challenge this?
Although we’re not sure we want to put him back into this environment we can at least try to improve things for other kids.

Why bother? There are loads of kids football clubs out there. just get your lad in one not run by ****s!

Yeah, give in to those bullies! That’ll learn em’!

As a football coach of 26 7&8 year old boys,(despite the fact that I hate football, but that’s another story) I find this appalling on two levels.

Firstly on the level of picking out the Polish kids. Utterly unacceptable.

Secondly on the level of excluding any 6 year old kid because of disruptive behaviour. All 6 year old boys are disruptive. They can’t help it.
We have a few boys in our team with genuine behavioural issues but wouldn’t dream of ever kicking them out of the team.

At that level the official guidelines are for the kids to have fun and develop skills. There is no competitive element allowed in the game and certainly no assessment of skill levels to pick out kids who “aren’t good enough”

Report the club to the SYFA and whatever league they play in, if any.
Shocking.

Story for the local paper?

You could start with the club hierachy – if this is one racist coach then the club might not be aware and will want to be. Find out who the player welfare rep is, or just email the Chairman (it will doubtless be a man).

If they’re affiliated with a local league (even though at that age “your” team won’t be part of one yet) they may take an interest.

Above them, the FA – they should be very interested.

I expect these people will definitely be interested:

KickItOut

And failing that, the usual local press / social media disruption – just accept that if it makes it into the local rag, all the below-the-line comment will be in favour of kicking out anyone foreign, taking back control etc.

EDIT:

As far as we know only Polish children were excluded.

You might want to be more sure of your facts than that before kicking off however – you’ll look a bit silly if they’ve also excluded half a dozen “born-and-bred” kids as well.

Report it straight away. That sort of behaviour cannot be allowed to go on

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/
I think that I’d simply mention that as Poland are ranked 14th and Scotland a lowly 67th, that you understand their need for improvement and improvement from within, but are a little dismayed that they don’t want to take advantage of players from a far better footballing nation to lead the way.

and were holding the Scottish kids development back.

So there have been underachieving Polish kids in U7 teams for the last 50 years then?

yup local rag to voice your concerns, scum like this should be made an example of and then just move him to a different team. If the prejudice is that engrained you won’t achieve anything trying to keep him at that club.

Agree with EdLong. You need to get your facts right.

Kicking all the Polish kids out on the same day seems implausible. Wouldn’t a Xenophobic kids footie coach be a bit more subtle than that?

Suspect this will turn out to be a misunderstanding.

Wouldn’t a Xenophobic kids footie coach be a bit more subtle than that?

This is Scottish Youth Football we’re talking about here.

The entrance requirements to become a coach are spectacularly low. They even let me do it.

If you are prepared to show up and can pass a basic PVG check then it’s all good. There is no requirement to demonstrate that you know anything about football, don’t hate Poles or are able to demonstrate even a basic level of subtlety.

All the more reason for the OP has to check for himself. A 3 minute phone call would resolve this one way or the other.

Form a Polish plus any others team (Krakow Thistle Junior FC) and “smash” the other team on the pitch. Then invite the other kids to join the new team leaving the xenophobes isolated and in their place.

Double win.

Pop along to the next session and see for yourself if anyone else has been excluded.

If your theory is correct, go in all guns blazing – SFA, press, social media – and get the arsehole(s) responsible booted out on their arse(s).

http://www.theredcardscotland.org/

Are there any Polish internationals playing in Scotland who might come and support the kids?

outofbreath – Member
Wouldn’t a Xenophobic kids footie coach be a bit more subtle than that?

Probably not.

binners – Member

Why bother?

Because failing to challenge is as good as acceptance.

It’s probably why you’re so frequently able to inform us that your local pub is full of racists. 💡

Definite need for a fact check first, then go nuclear. If this is accurate then it is so wrong on so many levels. I can’t see anyone other than an individual coach trying to defend it. I suspect the SFA would be all over it, as would local council (who probably own the pitches they play on), as would local media, other parents of all nationalities etc etc.

and were holding the Scottish kids development back.

Scottish kids, football, development. Now there’s a contradiction in terms.

I’d take them to another club, defo don’t want them in that environment, but don’t let something like that lie, complain somewhere(i can’t help where though sorry, but i’d imagine they’ll be affiliated to something..).

I once worked with a man who was also the bailiff of a fishing lake near Reading. The lakes website said No Poles and in my general belief of the goodness of people I asked him why it was rods only. It wasn’t.
His reasoning was they eat the fish, they’re not like us, it’s a private club we can say what we want etc.
It’s not xenophobia it’s racism plain and simple, get your facts straight be sure it was targeted at the Polish children and go bananas.

btw name and shame the manager.

First thing I’d do is call and ask for clarification on what the kid actually did. Act concerned that you want to deal with the kid yourself. Press him for details.

Try here:

Show Racsim the Red Card

http://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/index.php/members-corner/complaints-management-system

And BTW who kicks a 6 year old off a team FFS. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.

I’ve just re-read the OP

Three other Polish parents also received the same phonecall on the same day but were told their children weren’t good enough (at 6 years old) and were holding the Scottish kids development back.

Did he actually say they were hold back the Scottish kids? If he made specific refernce to nationality then it would seem pretty clear to me and nuclear is the only option.

It is not very often I get properly angry about things but I would really struggle if my 7 year lad was treated like that.

“First thing I’d do is call and ask for clarification on what the kid actually did.”

That’s a side issue. The main issue is if this Coach is ethnically cleansing his under 7s football team. Question 1 is how many kids has he kicked out and what nationality were they. If he’s kicking out all the polish kids then action is required and there’s no need to debate the behaviour of one of those kids.

but were told their children weren’t good enough (at 6 years old) and were holding the Scottish kids development back.

This, in itself is massively out of order, regardless of any nationality issues.

At 6 years old?

We have kids who have been training twice a week and playing in games at the weekend for three years who can barely dribble a ball 10 yards. They train and play alongside other kids of the same age who are capable of launching a 30 yard volley into the top corner of the net and are being scouted by professional clubs.

At that age, at that level, this is perfectly normal and acceptable as long as the kids are having fun.

If the kids do lack skills and ability, that is precisely why the coaches are there to help them.

That’s the job. Any coach who bins a 6 year old kid because they “aren’t good enough” has failed utterly.

It’s not the kids, Polish or otherwise who are “underdeveloped” in the OP’s case it seems.

As everybody else has already said, check if it was just the Polish kids and then contact anyone you can. He needs naming and shaming. Absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Not so much football but I’ve been involved with my son’s rugby league team since he was 7. Never has a child been asked to leave for any reason. If a child was asked to leave on the grounds of ability then the North West Counties Rugby League would be all over it like a rash. Children’s sport is supposed to be inclusive regardless of background or ability.

Form a Polish plus any others team (Krakow Thistle Junior FC) and “smash” the other team on the pitch. Then invite the other kids to join the new team leaving the xenophobes isolated and in their place.

Double win.

I like this. I like it a lot.

https://www.syfaregistrations.co.uk/SYFATournamentsDocument/Player%20Protection%20Policy%20iss%204.pdf

Racism
Children from British minority ethnic communities (and their parents) may have experienced harassment, racial discrimination, and institutional racism. Although not formally recognised as a form of child abuse, racism can be emotionally harmful to children. Some racist acts also involve
acts of physical violence towards individuals or groups. SYFA will not tolerate any form of racism and appropriate actions will be taken to address this.

See advice sheet number 5 for further information

advice sheet 5.

http://www.scottishyouthfa.co.uk/images/Information-Downloads/Protection/Advice-Sheets/Advice-Sheet-5.pdf

not sure if that will be completely useful as I’ve not read it all, but hopefully some clue as to how to proceed in there.

Appalling really.

As long as you have all the facts correct I see no reason to first address the issue with the club mgmt itself and if no headway made then raise the issue with local league/FA/local newspaper. Though I guess you’d also want to ensure the other parents are happy for this to be escalated.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boO4RowROiw[/video]

Also, each team (by age group) within a club is supposed to have a named Player Protection Officer assigned to them within the structure of the team.

Find out who that person is and ask the question of them. They will either address your issue or they won’t.

If they don’t, this would be extra ammunition in a complaint against the club with the SYFA.

Either way, I think i’d be looking for a new club.

Might be worth getting the parents of the affected kids to ask for it to be put in writing.

And BTW who kicks a 6 year old off a team FFS. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.

Not just a Scottish thing, I know of it happening twice to kids in my son’s age groups at the local Football club.
They never say “we’re booting them because they’re rubbish” they wrap it up in “we think he might be better off at a club where he’ll get some playing time”.

It’s a hateful sport by in large run by knobs.

At the Rugby club I coach at on the other hand, we will great any prospective player with high five and “welcome to the family”.

some people just canny resist a bit of oneupmanship, I guess.

They never say “we’re booting them because they’re rubbish” they wrap it up in “we think he might be better off at a club where he’ll get some playing time”.

At 6 , playing time shouldn’t be an issue. The only sanctioned format for 6 -8 year olds is Fun Fours, four a side, no goalkeepers, no keeping scores. Just like street football when you were a kid.

All kids should get equal playing time regardless of ability.

The clue is in the name -Fun Fours – it’s all about the fun.

The clue is in the name -Fun Fours – it’s all about the fun.

Might want to tell the coaches (and some parents) that!