theaccidentalmanager

What really happens at junior football? This book delves into real life, first hand accounts looking into the harsh reality for managers, officials and players.

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

A massive thank you to the football legend, @RealRomfordPele - Ray Parlour for supporting the book. Thank you also for the positive feedback and messages from so many who have bought it. All over the UK we are hearing about the same issues - your support all helps raise awareness

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The perfect FATHERS DAY gift to all FOOTY DADS!

For anyone who has played grassroots football or loves their footy- this will resonate- the highs, the lows, the good, the bad and the ugly!

The violence, intimidation, cheating, politics and corruption - this is the very uncomfortable truth about junior football

Get your copy of the highly rated, Amazon best seller, The Accidental Manager while stocks last from

https://t.co/3BrqeC99LJ

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The Perfect Christmas gift to all Football Fans!⚽️

Last week to order in time for Xmas !

Order your copy of the highly rated best Amazon bestseller @accmanagerbook from

https://t.co/4qGHftaXBm

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Is it time to ban parents from junior football?

Part 2!

The response to our recent post asking the question of whether Parents should be banned from grassroots football games pretty much summed up many of the problems in the junior game and was entirely predictable.

As we write about in The Accidental Manager the inability to have any reasoned, balanced debate in all things football, is very common. Most parents are great but the obsession of some football parents to live out their unfulfilled football career is so common and any suggestion to improve anything, is immediately met by hostility and the ongoing unshakable belief that things have to stay the same way they have done for decades. When you combine this this with the leagues, FA and general football establishment turning a blind eye to the obvious problems we all know about - which go on every Sunday up and down the country, nothing will ever change. Children will just have to put up with too many parents who should know far better behaving terribly, setting a terrible example to the same children who will often go on to behave similarly.

In @accmanagerbook we wrote about our experiences which were very familiar to hundreds of other parents who got in touch, putting the emotion of football to one side and focusing purely on child welfare, we defy anyone to read about our experiences and maintain nothing needs to change. Adults would not and do not get away with this behaviour in any other sport or walk of life.

Some of the comments missed the point completely, we ALL agree, it is good to have parents watching their kids play and obviously the problem parents should be ‘banned’, ‘fined’ etc rather than all parents being punished but that is the whole point, this does not happen and has not happened for decades. If miraculously this started happening after all these years, happy days! but we all know it not going to happen. We inevitable got attacked for even suggesting it as an option which is fine. As we pointed out, we have no personal involvement in junior football, it make no difference to us personally but we do think all options are on the table in the absence of any action to date, if it means children can be protected more.

Worryingly a couple of comments referred to concerns about leaving kids with their coaches and club officials and one comment referred to it as a ‘perverts charter’, for that to be first conclusion from this debate is very sinister, we can only advise they speak to their CWOs if they have any concerns about their coaches etc, that does not sound good at all.

But most of all, the recuring observation from any of the comments was all about the impact it would have on themselves as parents, the inconvenience to them etc, with very little reference to the actual children and improving things for them.

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The perfect Christmas present for all the footy mums and dads ⚽️

The only place you can buy the paper back is from us directly

https://t.co/3BrqeC99LJ

Highly rated, Amazon best seller - get your copy in time for Christmas - last date for orders is 20th December.

Thank you for all the amazing support 👍

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

@snowboy18 We completely agree - winning and losing is important - but adults scream abuse at kids and around kids is completely different issue

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Is it time to ban parents from junior grassroots football ?

YES!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

In what other sport or any part of society would it be normal and accepted to have thousands of children exposed to abusive adults every weekend. You would get arrested if you started screaming abuse at kids in public anywhere else.

Abuse against referees and players gets worse every season, parents abusing other parents, every week we all see the horror stories.  Walk around any football pitch on a Sunday and you will be lucky if don’t witness bad language and aggressive behaviour in front of kids within a couple of minutes.

The leagues don’t care, the FA don’t care, most of the time offences are not even reported because everyone knows nothing will happen, it’s a joke. In the 2025 reprint of the Accidental Manager were added a chapter which talks about the utter frustration in dealing with the FA, the complete refusal to do anything whilst claiming they have ‘robust measures’ in place, does a single person involved in junior football believe this?

In the absence of any improvement for decades now and without any commitment or indication these matters will be every be taken seriously, we believe it is time to ban parents from football.  In many sports parents drop their children off and leave them to it, why has football got to be different? Until such a time parents can be trusted (which is not going to be anytime soon), why don’t we finally and genuinely let the children play.

We know many parents don’t cause problems and would be very unhappy about not being able to watch their child play but far too many parents simply cannot be trusted - children have to be the priority – finally.

Not sure what other people think, as with all things football, it will firmly split opinion……

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The perfect Christmas present for all the footy mums and dads !

Buy your copy of @accmanagerbook whilst stocks last.

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The perfect Xmas present for footy mums and dads!

Get your copy whilst stocks last

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The new Junior Football Season has started!

If you have ever played junior footy or have kids who play, you will relate to so much of this.

Get your copy of the new edition of the The Accidental Manager while stocks last from

https://t.co/3BrqeC9HBh

This is the very uncomfortable truth about Junior Football ……

@accmanagerbook

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Got to say it just seems more dumbing down and excusing bad and violent behaviour. As with so many problems in the grassroots game, the issue would stop overnight if players were booked and then sent off, change the culture and enforce current laws and no need for these initiatives

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

What a cowardly person to attack a coach like this- did they find out who sent it? Was it one parent or several. Surely a conversation is always better if not happy with your coach! There are two sides to any argument, we would always welcome criticism and open debate - perhaps a parent does have a point but getting personal and going about it this way is rubbish.

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

This is the very uncomfortable truth about Junior Football @accmanagerbook

5 star rated, number 1 Amazon best seller featured on the BBC, get your copy of the new edition, complete with bonus chapter, while stocks last from

https://t.co/4qGHftapLO

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

What is the book about?

We have had a few questions asking about what the book is actually about.

We were both junior football managers for years - we wrote about our own experiences and the ever increasing problems in the junior game caused by adults - who really should know better!

The good, the bad and the ugly….

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

The reprint of The Accidental Manager (complete with bonus chapter) is out today!

The only place you can buy the new paperback edition is from us directly.

Thank you for all the pre orders- we really appreciate the support. All orders received are being dispatched first class today. All new orders will be dispatched within 24 hours.

“Eye opening”

“Unbelievable read”

“The reality of grassroots junior football”

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

By popular demand, the new edition of The Accidental Manager- with bonus chapter is available from Thursday 28th August.

Get your pre orders in, all orders will be sent first class on Thursday.

The only place you can get the new paperback is our website

https://t.co/3BrqeC99LJ

Thank you for all the support - enjoy the book ⚽️⚽️⚽️

“Football Book of the Year”

“This is a must read for anyone involved in junior football”

“It shouldn’t resonate as much as it does….but it does!”

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Back by Popular Demand!

After a year off (much needed after being driven to exhaustion by the FA!)and after selling out of the first print - we have relaunched the @accmanagerbook

The reprint is coming out very soon. We will let everyone know the date in next few days and you will be able to preorder your copy.

The new print contains a bonus chapter telling our story over the last two years in our dealings with the FA since the book was published.

Thank you to everyone for the amazing support - please share and follow - much more content to come. If you have played grassroots football or have kids who play- or are a coach you will love it ⚽️⚽️⚽️

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Usual form after a weekend of footy, countless other incidents. As the post says when did this become normal.

The truth is that it is completely normal now- we are no longer shocked or surprised, completely normalised. But it’s ok the FA assure us, “robust measures” in place!

[Paul Kirton @PaulKirton_]

Another weekend goes by where we receive 2 messages, one of a 14 yr old boy abandoning a game due to being threatened & the other a 15 yr old girl in floods of tears due to the behaviour of coaches and parents on the sidelines. When did this become OK, it didn't. So STOP it.

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Away from the doom and gloom of adults behaviour in junior football, we have received some lovely feedback from readers on some of the accounts and experiences we write about.  One part which has been very popular is in the first chapter where we try to describe the joy and emotion after winning a trophy for the first time.  It might have been the lowest division of the league but to us “it was for the Premiership title and World Cup rolled into one” the boys (not men in their 20s still talk about it now!), here is an extract from the that chapter.  If you like it and have not got a copy get yourself a copy of @accmanagerbook

“And the greatest part of the day was that my son and his friends had experienced something special that he could look back on forever. That is what football does; it is magical, completely illogical, but in many ways truly is the beautiful game.

We play it, we watch it, we talk about it for hours and weeks and months and years of our lives. Those rare moments when it goes perfectly, you remember forever. It is like a drug; there is no sense to it, completely illogical yet addictive and capable of giving you the highest highs and lowest lows.

But that day and that game was not at Upton Park (or rather the London Stadium) or any other professional club with a proper stadium. It was on a field in Essex, on a pitch that we had to mark out and with goals with nets that we had to put up, with numerous holes in.

It was not for the Premiership title or any professional title; it was also not for the Sunday league premiership title. It was the sixth division of the local league, the bottom division of that league, probably the lowest standard of any form of league football in the country. Yet to me, the players and many parents, it was for the Premiership title and World Cup rolled into one, and when our number 4 scored that thirty-five-yarder to win the game (which to this day I know he meant, whatever his teammates say), I had not felt that good since Marlon Harewood scored the winner for West Ham in the 2006 FA Cup Semi Final, eleven years previously.

There must have been 150 spectators that day, the most I have ever seen for a junior football league match. Not bad for a division six game. Some semi-professional teams don’t get many more fans on a cold evening kick-off. Again, it shows the power and passion of football; it was a big day for everyone. There were tears from players and parents. It was dramatic, emotional and wonderful”

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

Long Post alert but worth reading if you are have kids playing or involved in junior football

We have not posted for a few months. We have been overwhelmed by the book sales, support and kind messages, thank you all, it really has been appreciated. ⚽️👍

Obviously, the book selling well is wonderful but the most important reason to write the book was to raise awareness of the huge issues and challenges in the junior game caused by the conduct of adults to hopefully bring about some change. We have to admit, on this front we have failed miserably.

It has not been through lack of trying.  We tried for over a year to simply obtain some basic figures from the FA of how many fines and bans have been issued to parents and coaches. They have assured us they have ‘robust processes’ in place. But refuse to provide any evidence of how these processes are working under their own code of conducts.   They have repeatedly misled, lied, ignored and frustrated us to the point of exhaustion/insanity – that we gave up (which is exactly what they want). But we are going to give it another go and with enough support we can get some answers and start holding the FA to account, they are failing our children, and it MUST be time for change.  A good start would be finally releasing the figures on how the current procedures are working which they claim are ‘robust’, there is a huge disconnect the whole of the grassroots football community knows there are huge problems, but they think there is no problem. 

Why are we not allowed to see these figures? – surely, they would back up these repeatedly claims that the existing code of conduct procedures are working and are indeed robust.

We will be requesting information again and will share on social media and provide updates.  As we have seen the only way they will even reply – let alone answer any questions at all is if there is pressure from a wider audience.  After being ignored a dozen times for details of the first Disciplinary Grassroots Review and whether it included children’s football, they only provided a statement when asked for a comment from the BBC because were on the radio (and even then, they lied!).

THERE WILL BE POSTS COMING OUT EACH DAY THIS WEEK.  FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN JUNIOR FOOTBALL THIS WILL BE OF INTEREST.

PLEASE FO FOLLOW AND SHARE

This season has already seemed worse than last season and season before, we have seen many reports of horrific behaviour from parents’ week after week.  Full scale punch ups at U9 games, U12 games being abandoned for parents storming on to pitch, referees being assaulted and hundreds of similar examples.  What part of any of this correlates with an organisation that has robust procedures in place and don’t see there is a problem.  We have sold thousands of our book to parents, coaches and league/club officials, we have had hundreds of messages telling us how relatable our experiences were and how they have experienced the same from all over the UK.  Not a single person has ever disagreed with a thing we have said, our kids deserve so much better.

More to follow !! ⚽️⚽️⚽️

[theaccidentalmanager @accmanagerbook]

As a new season starts - this is a million miles from our millionaire superstars playing in front of millions of fans. This is real football, if you have ever played grassroots football or have kids that play, you will relate to every word.

Amazon best seller, highly rated, get your copy of @accmanagerbook today from

https://t.co/3BrqeC99LJ

This is the very uncomfortable truth about junior football …….