Football is ‘off and running’ for 2023 and it was fantastic to see football back within the community last weekend, after a well-earned off-season to assist a recalibration for a way forward beyond a challenging year in 2022.
Sport evokes passion and while this is applauded, the words and actions that are sometimes used to display such enthusiasm when supporting a team/club, can easily cross the line and become abusive, disrespectful and unreasonable. Several instances of aggressive, rude and intimidatory behaviour, were unfortunately reported during various games last weekend. Examples of such behaviour, whether by players on the field of play (or from the technical area), team officials or from spectators, ALL add to unnecessary anxiety for match officials and potentially creates additional administrative demands, when formal reports are submitted to FFNC. Critically, such behaviour brings the game into disrepute!!
It is recognised that there will always be some individuals who are incapable of controlling their emotions. Nonetheless, the challenge for everyone is how do we collectively create an appropriate culture? There is no absolute fix, but one of the strategies is to have a high and visible club presence at games, by appointing duty officers. These are people who are identified by wearing a fluro vest (e.g. labelled as a volunteer or duty officer) and who actively mingle with supporters to temper the utterance of inappropriate language and behaviour that is aggressive. These are club representatives who can assist the promotion of a positive culture at your club, noting that every club rightly wants to be known as being a family club, so let’s ensure that such values exist by reinforcing sound values. Clubs are urged to promote a culture that requires your players/coaches/spectators to call out behaviour and language that is contrary to such expectations. People coming to your fields, are your guests and should behave accordingly.
The requirement in 2023 is that every team (home or away) must have at least one adult clearly identified as being the team/club duty officer.
In most cases, this will be a parent or club representative who is not already involved in an active role on match day (i.e. NOT a coach or a committee person or a person working in the canteen). We ask however, that these people are reasonably able to act in the role as a duty officer and be also registered in playfootball as a volunteer. Suffice to say that a person who acts as a duty officer, must themselves act in an appropriate manner, be reasonably mobile, age appropriate, vigilant and are themselves capable of actively responding to instances of inappropriate behaviour. Simply listing a name on a match sheet does not satisfy the requirements of having a duty officer and only serves to deflect the issues that regretfully arise too often.
An overview of what the role and purpose of a duty officer entails, is shown in the attachment above and via the link below that is found on the FFNC website.
Let’s make a conscious effort to ‘call out’ inappropriate behaviour, so that community football will thrive and prosper. Remember, the behaviour that you ‘walk past’ is the behaviour that you accept and no club is immune from the influences of the themes referenced above.
Please enjoy season 2023 and thanks in advance for your contribution to the community.
