– It is very difficult for me to understand how a grown man can behave like this.
The mother’s voice is full of excitement, even shock. Several days have passed since the match where the Vantaa Football Club met the junior team of the Vaasa Football Club on their home field.
It was a match for under-18s, which ended with a clear victory for the home team.
It started happening right after the match. The man, who reportedly supported the away team and introduced himself as a photographer, started shouting obscenities at the boy who played for the home team.
The man is not an employee of the Vaasa team.
– Several people heard from a close distance when the man shouted to my son, for example, “go to sleep next to your mother’s pussy”. After this, he behaved threateningly and shouted at my son right next to him. So the man had already been removed from the field once as a result of interference, but he forced himself back there.
The mother appears anonymously in this story, as publishing her name could lead to the identification of an underage player. His name is known to the editor.
The coil burned on the judges
has seen a video where a man dressed in a blue jacket approaches one of the players after the match has already ended. The man is on the side of the field at this point.
It is not possible to distinguish speech or what is said from the recording, because the music is playing loudly. The video shows that the referee of the match guides the man off the field and away from the players.
The Finnish Football Association confirms that the referees of the match have made a report on the events, which will lead to disciplinary proceedings. It can be seen from the video that the referees of the match are in close contact when the man shouts at the player.
caught up with a man from Vaasa in a blue jacket who had been photographing match events as a hobby. He says that he was irritated partly by the refereeing of the match, partly by the fact that, in his opinion, the opposing team, which was in the lead by three goals, was trying to play for time.
does not publish the name, because publishing it could lead to smearing the person. His identity is also known to .
– I shouted to the opposing team that you shouldn’t play like that, because you are in a clear lead. In addition, in the final stages of the match, I think there was a clear refereeing error, which I reacted to.
After the match, the events escalated. He is sorry for his reaction, but denies that he used the word pussy.
– I shouted to one of the players to fall asleep on your mother’s lap. That was not a good reaction from me. In any case, I used language that doesn’t belong in fields. I’m sorry for how I reacted to the events, the man says.
The mother also filed a criminal complaint about the events. He says that the police will not investigate the matter, as there was no physical contact or threats of violence in the incident.
– Nowhere, that is, absolutely nowhere, has anything similar ever happened before. It has hit the boy really hard now.
The boy, who was already enthusiastic about the sport even before elementary school, has had time to play at the international level as well.
– It seems that in Finland this is a phenomenon that cannot be helped. The only option is for a group of parents to silence the whiner. We are numb to this, mother sighs.
Company: The man no longer films VPS matches
The person who spoke inappropriately to the player is known to the Vaasa Palloseura, but is not part of the junior team’s personnel.
Sports director Petri Vuorinen says that he had a conversation with the man about what happened. He emphasizes that the behavior has been completely against the club’s values.
– Generally speaking, if something like this happens, I always have that conversation. I can say that the man has been sorry.
The club has now decided that the man will not film VPS match events. The decision applies to both adult and youth matches and is valid until further notice.
What about in the future?
– We cannot exclude people from the club’s events. However, the person must be able to demonstrate that such behavior will not be repeated.
A place of learning
Responsible coach of VPS-J’s age group team Henri Sillanpää does not approve at all of the behavior of the man in the blue coat.
Sillanpää stresses that there is no place for similar behavior in his own team. He regrets that he had already left the bench when the events on the field escalated.
– If I had been there, I would have taken him off the field myself.
He thanks the Vantaa Football Association for the fact that the conversation has been very good and there is a common understanding of the events.
Sillanpää has drawn attention to the fact that now it seems that it hurts and happens too often on Finnish fields. He thinks it’s good that the matter is now public and discussed.
– These events are a place of immediate learning. This cannot happen in the future, he says.
Each case is too many
Rules, regulations and disciplinary expert of the Swedish Football Association Matti Räisänen is aware of the incident.
Räisänen does not comment on individual match events.
Räisänen estimates that approximately 100,000 under-18 football matches are played in Finland annually. Of these, 70,000 are official.
– I’m sure I’ll look into the matter quite deeply when I make this my job. If there are 400–500 disciplinary cases a year, it is not necessarily a large number, he says.
However, according to Räisänen, each case is too many. He calls for the responsibility of adults in children’s and youth matches.