Italian kids go on strike to shut up pushy parents

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“Push up you t**t” “Chase it down you lazy c**t” “Oi ref you are a f*****g pile of steaming s***e” No, not a look inside Fabio Capello’s English phrase book, but the sort of thing you hear from the touchline of a local under-7s game every weekend as pushy parents attempt to live their footballing dreams through the terrified children. But not anymore, well not in Italy, because the kids have had enough. The Guardian takes up the story.

The pitchside behaviour of parents has become so bad, however, that teams at a club near Empoli have registered their disapproval by refusing to play. A one-day strike on Sunday gave the rival sets of parents something to think about.

“We have had terrible language used against refs in front of the kids for penalties not awarded, we have had pitch invasions, and even a punch-up between a father and a referee after a game,” said club director Michele Mango.

“The mothers don’t joke around either,” added Gino Chiorazzo, a second official at the Unione Sportiva Ponte a Elsa.

The mothers? Disgusting, women swearing, what has happened to the world? I say we all go on strike till they know their place.