Respect is due

Could less backchat and abuse on the football pitch help cut gun and knife crime among young people? Last week, Gordon Brown urged players to be better role-models and called for them to respect referees, and a leading personal development consultant who has worked with Barclays Premier League teams is convinced that the Prime Minister is right - more discipline on the pitch would lead to less violence on the streets.

"Football can play an enormous role in influencing behaviour in our society," David Elliott, of David Elliott Associates, a leadership, change management and performance enhancement consultancy, said.

No doubt, kids in playgrounds across the country spend hours trying to copy Cristiano Ronaldo's latest wonder-goal; how about trying to replicate the winger's actions the next time he is calm under pressure or shows self-control in adversity?

Elliott worked with Arsenal after they had finished second three years in a row: "I told them - there are five world champions in the room, you are not a second-place team." He used a technique he calls Response-Ability to boost the squad's "emotional stamina" because their frustration was manifesting itself in large numbers of yellow and red cards and affecting their ability to compete. Their disciplinary record improved and in 2003-04 Arsenal became "the Invincibles", going an entire league season undefeated - and, almost as amazingly, winning the Fair Play league.

"Self-esteem is the fitness of the mind," Elliott said. "Confidence is a by-product of self-esteem and for many people as well as footballers, their self-esteem is attached to results. In sport, people think that when they're winning, and strikers are scoring, they're fine. But it's transitory. People believe winning breeds confidence but it's actually the other way around. I can't give anybody anything they don't possess - the ability is already within."

Elliott believes that if teams such as Arsenal can clean up their act by controlling their "reactive behaviour" and developing greater respect for each other and authority figures - referees - then so can teenagers sucked into a spiral of violence. Not only will the young people note the positive behaviour of their heroes on the pitch and look to emulate it - just as they copy the negative - but they can also learn techniques to give themselves a greater sense of self-worth, breeding confidence and moving away from these negative behaviour patterns to achieve higher levels of success in their lives.

The key to winning in life as well as sport for Elliott is to "develop psychological and emotional stamina, to avoid going into automatic reactive behaviour, to try to stay in control. Develop an acuity to notice when you're feeling negative emotions and replace them with a more positive emotion. Anything that can help improve reactive behaviour can only improve football and society. I believe we should teach these methods to children so they can become confident and responsible citizens."

Comments

[Rob]

Good Christ. An article on indiscipline on the pitch and you eschew the easy target: mentioning Chelsea.

Mr Samuel, I salute you.

[Alan Smith]

You might as well expect 'Big Brother' contestants to be better role models. Like anything else, I believe football only refelcts a self-obsessed individualistic society where everyone is encouraged to compete against each other rather than work with them. Thats where gang culture meets and accords with current social reality.

[James D]

At the age of 16, I have been going to football for the last 5 years, to the Hawthorns (to see my beloved Baggies), to Saints with my friends, as its close to my home, and occasionaly to Chelsea (who my foolish brother follows). My dad has always taken me on the understanding that what goes on in a football stadium stays in a football stadium, and although i am a regular home and away fan I would not describe myself as a loudmouth lout.

[Chris]

Jonathon L: this argument has been raised and debunked countless times. In the 70s it was D&D, and in the 50s it was rock music.

When video games become even more commonplace in 10 years time, what are you going to blame then?

[nick sanchez]

now they blaming football for gun crime, iv heard it all now!

if anything influences the young its music.

[Jonathan L]

I think computer games are a more likely culprit. Children spend a lot of time engaging in, often graphic, violence. The field clearly needs control. In contrast football violence is minor and generally well controlled.