“The woman was assaulted by a man on the sidelines of a football match at Keith Hay Park at about 11.30am on Sunday 29 September. The woman was transported to hospital for checks and then discharged. Police inquiries into the matter are ongoing.”
Eyewitnesses say the man had been making threatening gestures, including throat-slitting motions, at Ellerslie spectators throughout the game. The attack allegedly occurred as the coach was on her way to the bathroom.
The violent outburst delayed the tournament’s final by 30 minutes.
Aktive (Auckland Sport and Recreation) sport development lead Simone Spencer leads Sport New Zealand’s Good Sports, which has a focus on sideline behaviour.
Spencer told the Herald the incident was “shocking” and “there’s just no place for that in sport”.
“That incident in particular was at the really extreme end and unfortunately it’s not isolated,” she said. “It’s not something just in Auckland, but unfortunately around the country, around the world, et cetera – and in a really broad range of sports.
“It’s a tricky time for lots of people in terms of things like cost of living and if you’ve got worries in your personal life. When [parents] turn up to the field on the day, potentially you end up behaving in a way that you wouldn’t normally.
“These types of incidents spoil [quality experiences] for young people and adults involved as well.”
Good Sports is a culture change initiative aiming to create positive sporting experiences for children by educating and supporting the key adult influencers in youth sport – particularly parents, caregivers, coaches, teachers and sport leaders.
The initiative initially designed by Aktive as a Sport NZ-funded Active Communities Project has developed over recent years becoming a national approach and is being expanded across national and regional bodies.
Spencer said her organisation had found a recent increase in inappropriate sideline behaviour.
“Our feedback is based anecdotally on what we hear from those organisations in terms of how much time they’re having to spend managing these types of issues and addressing these things, which is not where they want to spend their time.
“The other piece is around helping adults to really understand what ‘good’ looks like when you do turn up to support and there’s no manual on how to do that. So, in many instances, people are incredibly passionate and they turn up and they’re just a little bit misguided in terms of where they go and how they behave.”
Spencer said what they describe as “whistle sports” such as rugby, rugby league, football, netball, and basketball are particularly rife for inappropriate sideline behaviour.
”Which isn’t to say it doesn’t exist in other codes, but they do see a higher volume.
Volunteers in sport needed to be “valued and appreciated”, Spencer added.
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
