U12s football match abandoned after 'worst set of parents ever seen' storm pitch (2025)

A Mirror investigation finds cases of violence, threats and a Nazi salute at grassroots games for kids, as the FA fines more than 350 under-18s teams in three seasons for out-of-control spectators

An under-12s match was abandoned after a foul prompted allegedly “the worst set of parents” to storm the pitch. The under-18 who was refereeing the match said he was scared to give a red and thought he was going to be attacked during the game in Nottinghamshire in November.

Trouble flared when a player from Eastwood Athletic punched one from Ilkeston Town “in the eye”. The ref said in a report to the FA: “Three different sets of Eastwood parents was swearing and shouting and the situation got really heated. I blew my whistle to try and get the situation under control again but none of the parents would listen.

“I was scared that one of the Eastwood parents may hit me whilst I was doing my best to resolve the situation. I did not feel I could issue a straight red card because I was worried what the Eastwood parents may do."

His mother added: “There were quite a few children crying whilst he was trying to deal with what happened. The Eastwood manager was brilliant [but] the Eastwood parents were the worst set of parents I’ve ever seen. They were shouting to the Eastwood players to ‘snap him’ before the incident even happened.”

Eastwood were fined £100, one of more than 350 under-18s teams fined by the FA’s disciplinary commissions after investigating the most serious cases of crowd misconduct in the last three seasons.

One irate parent jumped onto a referee’s back after an under 14s game in Merseyside in March last year and put him “in a sleeper position”. The ref described being “choked” as the parent called him a “d**khead”. The FA said: “He described the parents’ body weight over him as crushing … fearing that he was going to die as the parent was refusing to let go until pulled off by other bystanders.” The parent later apologised and agreed to being banned from watching his son play and the club, Quarry Green Juniors FC, was fined £200.

At an under 11s match in West Yorkshire, a parent threatened to "break the referee’s f*****g jaw", adding "I am going to get a hammer out of my car and smash the referee’s head in". The parent disagreed with an offside decision at the game in September 2023 and ended up with a lifetime ban from the club, Idle FC, which pleaded guilty and was fined £130.

An under 8s match last March was abandoned after a spectator threatened to “f*****g smash your head in I don’t give a s**t” towards a referee who was himself under 18. The club, Millstone FC, from Sheffield, South Yorks, pleaded guilty over the match last February and were fined £140.

Police were called to an under 14s game when a spectator - brother of the linesman - threatened to beat the referee “to a pulp, crush his skull and chop him up and put him in the boot of his car or similar”. The match referee said he was shaking two days later as he wrote his report to the Cornwall FA.

His abuser, described as well over 6ft tall and and “about 20 stone” stepped over the “respect barrier” and “quickly came right up to me body to body looking down on me saying he will beat me to a pulp … he was like a maniac I was scared for my life at this point”. The aggressor threatened to kill other parents too, who also later said how terrifying they found the situation last April. Threemilestone Tigers were charged with failing to control their spectators, but did not respond and were fined £100.

One dad was accused of doing a “Nazi-style” salute at the ref after being told to calm down at his daughter’s under-15s game. He denied it, claiming it was a “captain’s salute”, but added: “I have attended hundreds of games with my two daughters in the last seven year and these actions are totally out character for me, I can only presume that due to the tense nature of the game I have been swept up in the emotion at the time. I also understand that the referee’s job is a difficult one without having a parent to deal with.” But the Staffordshire FA disagreed and the club was fined £160 and 9 points.

We’ve analysed nearly 500 reports from the FA’s disciplinary hearings over the last three years, which reveal the abuse and anger which mar games, mostly played for fun by children, across the country, every weekend.

The FA told us there were 276 serious cases of crowd disorder last season, up 28% in a year. So far this season there have already been 177 upheld. Growing numbers of these are from matches involving under 18s. This was up 45% last year and so far this year nearly two-thirds - 62% - of the most serious cases investigated by the FA were at children’s matches.

An FA spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn any abusive or unacceptable behaviour, either on the pitch or from the sidelines, and we have clear standards of behaviour which we expect all grassroots football clubs, coaches and players to follow. This is a collective responsibility and we welcome and fully support action taken by leagues and clubs to help tackle this unacceptable behaviour in our game.”

* Have you experienced abuse at football matches? Email nick.sommerlad@mirror.co.uk