Kick it out

On friday myself and 2 colleagues ran an event for inner city primary school children at the City Academy to raise awareness about racism in football. Knowing nothing about football the day was quite enlightening to me! 7 schools (14 teams inc 5 girls team) took part in a morning of football games. and then in the afternoon we ran a forum theatre piece that looked at racism in football as well as touching on other issues, like pressure from parents, conflict of training over school work etc. Kick it out is a national organsisation that works with the FA to tackle racism within football.

Last week was their focus for the year, when lots of events take place including 30 community events (of which we were one!).
We had a great day - though I was somewhat exhausted after hearing over 100 9-11 yr olds scream all day! The one down side was that the theatre group had not checked out the venue in which we were running the theatre and due to it being a sports hall and other pupils at the City Academy were using it as well, we could not hear anything (not good) after a quick relocation though, the day was salvaged - big lesson learnt there - and the children seemed to get lots from the day. This part of the job I enjoy!
The one aspect of the day that seemed to really disturb me though was the parents that had decided to come along. They were not offically invited but apparently some parents always come along when their 'little darling' is playing. They were horrible - screaming at the children to run faster, kick harder, pass quicker and also screaming at referees (who happened to be 6th formers from the City Academy who are doing a qualification in Community Sports Coaching). The language they used was appalling (given they were surrounded by children). They complained it was not a knockout tournament and that there was no trophy (depsite the winners of each group getting prizes) I have to say not much shocks me - but this did! what happened to enjoying a game of football without making it so competative that children end up in tears and feeling like they are letting their parents down at every turn. I felt like the parents had missed the point of the day but thankfully the children seemeed to get it!