Drawing battle lines

"Come on ref, have you retired from the game?" and "Go on, get stuck in" is about the peak of loutish language during the final footballing clash of the season between Prees and Shrewsbury girls' under-14s.

But the line between enthusiasm and loutishness is a fine one, and at junior league football matches it has got a name.

It is called the touchline. Here, on a painted white strip 150 yards long, parents suddenly turn into Alex Fergusons and gather in their scores to bawl instructions and encouragement at their kids.

Unfortunately it's a line that, at some other games, can't prevent abuse being hurled and fists being thrown. Matches have been stopped and sometimes abandoned.

This weekend will perhaps see more "words of encouragement" than others. It's cup final day in Shropshire and Powys junior football leagues. Make or break time. Tensions will be running high.

While our children are out on the pitch playing their hearts out and trying to emulate Didier Drogba ("referee!"), the vocal exchanges among parents on the touchline could make all the difference.

But they are being advised to keep any yobbish behaviour to themselves. This is a children's game that is not to be invaded by their over-enthusiastic parents.

Paul Cooper, a children's football coach who co-founded the Give Us Back Our Game campaign in a bid to "put children first" at matches, says the problem lies in the fact that children's football is no longer about the kids that play it, but the adults who watch and run it.

He says: "The adults have completely taken over, and kids are playing to adult rules and for adult values. Those adult values mean normally mild-mannered mums can be on the sidelines screaming - that's what it does to parents."

Sharon Much, secretary of Shrewsbury Junior League, says: "You get it all the time because after every game each team fills in a fair play sheet and they have to give the team, the supporters and the managers marks out of ten. If it's three or below you have to put a reason - things like bad language.

"People will always be over enthusiastic at football matches, especially junior league. But there are laws of the game and they have to be adhered to.

"If parents don't agree with the manager - 'Why are you not playing my son?' - that's when it can kick off. There have been incidents where punches have been thrown and then you get players on the pitch getting het up."

So what's the solution? Have a parents' technical area? A fourth official to referee mum and dad?

"You haven't got the enclosures like you've got at big games, you've just got the line and then you're on the pitch so you've got to keep spectators as far away as possible. It needs some sort of fence or coning off two metres from the line, that would be a big solution. In a couple of seasons we might have plastic posts with tape."

But perhaps it's no surprise that junior football touchlines are so lively. After all it's the only place where you can shout at your kids in public without having to answer to a social worker.

Steve Humphreys referees Mid and North Powys Junior Football League games and, just like in a Premiership clash, has in the past been subject to choice words and unacceptable language from parents.

"You do expect better from parents, to support the kids," he says.

"I stopped a game last season because of the amount of comments I was getting from parents. I asked them to leave or be quiet. It's quite difficult at this time of year to get the balance between the competitive and fun elements. At the end of the day it's children's football - it should be more about fun and development."

However, Steve has noticed an improvement in parental behaviour, probably because the issue is being addressed and debated.

At the final whistle at Sundorne sports village, Prees girls' under-14s are defeated 3-2 by Shrewsbury girls in a game which clinches the championship for Shrewsbury. There's a "hip-hip-hooray" from the young players from both sides and handshakes between the parents.

They may be seething inside, but sportsmanship reigns. Nobody died.

Katrina Turner, whose 13-year-old daughter Lauren plays for Shrewsbury Juniors' under-14 side, says the rabble is normally just enthusiastic parents encouraging their kids.

She says: "If they are playing well, let them know. But it's not nice when you boo when they are not."

Mum Sarah Griffin shouts a few choice words of encouragement, but that's all they are. It can get heated sometimes though.

She says: "You do get some . . . I've experienced it with parents where it started off okay but they said our team was dirty because they lost."

Dad Grayson Page is cheering the Prees team, which contains his 13-year-old daughter Naomi.

"I've never seen fisticuffs - although once last season there was shouting at parents across the other side of the pitch, but parents are pretty well behaved generally."

Dave Owen, who helps out running the Prees girls' team and Wem Town Boys, says: "The FA is quite strict with parents, trying to keep the refs playing, because if they get a lot of stick they will pack it in.

"There's a fine line between supporting your players and going too far. My son started playing eight or nine years ago and I would go and know sometimes that it would be a hostile reaction in certain areas, but the FA has been stamping it out.

"There's a lot of emphasis to get parents to act politely and I've seen a huge improvement in the last eight years."

"If there's bad language at junior level the referee will abandon the game."

Remember, this is a kids' football match, not an adults' shouting cup final. As ref Steve Humphreys says, it's a children's game so let them get on with it.

The message is clear: toe the line. Or else he'll take his ball back.