Fights and usual sly ones, like ruining the magical football of the children

“But let’s get back to the point. This season we have participated in two championships. One from September to March. The second from March to June. Playing over three times without recovery. If you win two, you win two to one. If instead you win a half, lose one and draw the third, it ends 1-1. But I don’t want to dwell on technical details. But one thing is important: the referee is a manager of the club that plays at home”. Andrea continues: “We did well in the winter championship. Two teams emerged: our more technical one, but with children still physically immature, but we tried to get everyone to play to gain experience. The other team, let’s say the rival team, made up of more or less the same players. With a center forward already well trained for his age. And at that age he feels, and how if he feels. In shooting, dribbling, power. But nothing can be done about it. Babies sometimes grow up in six months. However, with these rivals we are narrowly lost both times. Our kids are naturally disappointed. We heartened them. A second place is already a great result, we told them. Sports are like that. You have to accept defeat and above all learn to improve by avoiding mistakes.”

“In the spring championship, things are better. The game begins to show. Let’s start from the bottom, with choral movements. It’s a pleasure to watch them grow. It means you have sown something. In the end we come to direct confrontation, with a two-point lead, always with the same team, the one that has already won the winter championship. A nice rematch to play on their court. We are wrong. When we get to Saturday afternoon there is already the first surprise: it will be played on another field, smaller, with cans and pieces of glass that we immediately remove, at least for safety. They don’t give us a real explanation, but the reason is very clear: their center forward, more physically structured, scores more easily in such a small field. He has a strong shot, it’s difficult to mark him. However you play without other stories. They win the first half, honestly. And the referee correctly blows the whistle at the exact minute”. “In the second half we took the lead and the referee, this time, continues beyond the 15th minute. I remember that in these games there is no recovery, but the match director, who is a manager of the opposing team, continues to drag on until, after our protests, the end of the second half blows. And in the third half the worst happens. Also this time there is no recovery. But the same referee, after a good match stopped at one to one, says that there will be another two minutes of play. We make ourselves heard, repeating that it’s not possible by regulation, but the referee goes on until the opponents manage to score. Our boys burst into tears, one of our managers entered the field saying that these wicked things are not done to eight-year-old children. At this point the referee, after accusing us of having left the pitch, forces our boys to play again despite being in shock, with tears in their eyes and not knowing what to do anymore”.

“When we entered the locker room, I had no more words. I wanted to console them, but what could I say? That the others had been better? No, I should have said they had been smarter, more disloyal, but I couldn’t say that either. They, the children, understood that there was an injustice, but I trained them to make them grow well, not to make them disloyal or smarter. Their world, at that age, is still magical. They accept that a better one wins, but not with these cheats. I know, I know, these things have always happened in the world of football, I’m not naïve, but a coach is also an educator: he can teach people to commit themselves more, to become better, because these are the things that count, and they make you better. However, in the end, a shadow will always remain in their heart: the one that doesn’t always win the best, indeed. Which often, unfortunately, other logics count. Which have nothing to do with sport and education».

Andrea’s bitter conclusion. “Others said don’t give a damn, that life is like that. To give them back tit for tat next time. To get smart too.No, thanks, someone else does it. It’s not the world I like and want for my children. I called the president and resigned.”

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