Sir, – With reference to the article “We nearly lost our boy due to men who needed the under-12 win to make them feel they were great” (Health + Family, October 12th), I walk through the local sports fields every weekend. I hear fathers and coaches shouting aggressively at children during football matches. Quite often, I see children of the losing team crying in frustration all the way to their parents cars, being consoled by the very adult who wound them up. When we were kids we played football until the sun went down. We picked our own teams, we refereed ourselves, we came and went as we chose, and adjusted the teams accordingly. We were well capable of doing all of that ourselves. We lived for football. We loved it. What we didn’t need was aggressive fathers or coaches living their unfulfilled fantasies through us from the sidelines.
Left to their own devices, playing the game is much more important to young kids than winning. Why? Because to a kid there is always tomorrow. Aggressive adults should be forced to sling their hooks and let kids enjoy the game as it was meant to be enjoyed. – Yours, etc,
PETER McNALLY,
Skerries,
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Co Dublin.