The Book of Values deals with topics such as tolerance, justice and respect. Here is a contribution to a young kicker who is struggling with a referee.
Würmtal - Sometimes the world is incredibly complicated. Even soccer. Especially children's football. How should an eight-year-old understand that he may only take the penalty kick after the referee has released the ball with a whistle. And because children play football and don't want to learn the rules, these small or even bigger tragedies sometimes occur, where we then have trouble explaining to the children that everything somehow has its meaning, even if we sometimes don't fully understand it ourselves . “The referee is always right,” we finally say. But notice that this statement does not really satisfy us or the children. Oh, what do referees know about the minor or major tragedies that they trigger. You stroke the crying child's hair for a moment and think that it will be all right again. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that.
Penalty decision gnaws at the F-youth player
The other day we sat by the boy's bed for ages and tried to find answers to all the questions he was pestering us with. He had mustered up all his courage and safely converted the penalty when the referee began to wave wildly and ordered that it must be repeated. Everything was ready, but the whistle was missing, the short whistle with which the referee had to release the ball according to the rules. We found the decision a bit petty, after all, it was an F youth game and not the World Cup final. The second attempt of course failed. And the shooter's fear of the seven meter, which he thought he had shaken off with the first successful attempt, was suddenly there again. Stronger than before. And now gnaws at the child's soul.
Big tears instead of bright smiles
Thick tears have rolled down her cheeks. Instead of beaming, he returned home with reddened eyes, full of doubts about the justice of this world and especially about the referees. And we too asked ourselves whether it really had to be meticulous to pay attention to the rules of the youngest footballers. What happens if a little goalkeeper slips the ball just over the edge of the penalty area on the smooth hall floor, what if the kick is not taken quite correctly, what if the seven-meter-long shot is shot a little too quickly by an excited child. Just let the children play.
Are the parents the problem?
But we have to protect the referees. Outside are the parents, for whom children's football is no longer child's play, who have delegated their offspring as representatives for their own unfulfilled wishes about football, for whom success is more important - even with the F-Juniors. And who would acknowledge a loose interpretation of the rules with angry protests. After the final, we saw fathers who were so enraged by a controversial decision that they almost became violent.
And while we were sitting by the boy's bed, we wondered whether it is not us parents who keep plunging the children into these small, sometimes larger tragedies. The pressure and expectations are great, often too great for the children. We adults have to understand children's football as child's play again, not making it a matter of prestige, a playground for our vanities. Have the children play soccer. They should win, they should lose. But don't come home with tearful eyes.
("Reinhard Huebner")
