Every parent who has ever taken a child to a Premier League clash or a kickabout in the park will recognise the problem. A bad tackle or “professional foul” leads to a confrontation and suddenly the expletives are flying.
Now the Northern League, founded in 1889, is to send out spies to report on players and officials who swear during matches, and identify the worst offenders in its “bad behaviour” table. The most polite club will win the most sponsorship money.
The league has 46 semi-pro and amateur clubs from the North East in two divisions. They include the famous old clubs Bishop Auckland and Alnwick Town.
With crowds in the low hundreds, barriers between player and spectator are minimal and the atmosphere is often intimate. Anything said on the pitch reverberates around the “tin shed” stands.
Mike Amos, the league chairman, believes that the “curse of offensive language and inappropriate behaviour” is putting off families from throwing their support behind their local sides. “We have to get it through to the managers that the crowd is a few feet behind them,” he said. “If they are swearing like that on a main street on a Friday night they would be arrested, so what makes it acceptable at a ground?”
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The financial incentives could be considerable. The league recently announced a five-year, £200,000 sponsorship deal with Ebac, a Durham-based manufacturer.