In Gironde, departmental level meetings are the scene of inappropriate behavior from spectators, starting with parents. The 320 matches of the weekend will therefore be played behind closed doors.
“Funny” weekend for Basketball fans in Gironde. Saturday and Sunday, parents, friends and usual supporters of players playing at departmental level will not be able to fill the stands. And for good reason: the department's basketball committee decided to react to the 38% increase in disciplinary files opened after an incident during matches since the start of the school year, i.e. 51 files processed by the Aquitaine Regional Basketball League between the start of the school year and november. This “empty stands” operation reproduces the conditions of a closed session. “But it’s not a sanction”immediately insists Cécile Doumax, the vice-president of the institution, “It’s a prevention operation to create an electric shock, calm the stands and get everyone to think.”
Contrary to what one might expect of them, parents are the first targeted by this measure. “They need to realize that being behind closed doors is no fun and that it’s not fun for the kids to see a referee being attacked on the pitch by a dad who pulls the pins”she explains to us, thus confirming information relayed by South West . During a match in September, a father actually went onto the field to push a referee and threaten him with death. The next time, a rookie referee, aged 15, was insulted because she had not started the clock early enough. “It is already not easy to motivate young people to become referees, we must do everything to protect them”reacts Cécile Doumax.
-Call to order
Very involved, sometimes too invested, the parents, spectators and friends who accompany them are invited to remember that basketball is above all a game and, even more so at this level, that it is above all a question of taking pleasure. “The public's only role is to encourage their team. We don't ask dads, moms or players in the stands to coach, shout instructions and referee from their seats.recalls Cécile Doumax. Flyers were published by the Gironde basketball committee to alert the public and make this punch action useful. They were distributed to relatives of licensees deprived of the stands on Saturday and Sunday.
