Soccer Official 1, Obnoxious Parents 0.
A Beverly Hills youth soccer referee has called it quits because of “disrespectful” and “entitled” parents whom he has come to “despise.”
In a scathing, goodbye letter to soccer moms and dads, New York native Avery Krut announced his decision to step down from his referee administrator post at the American Youth Soccer Organization’s Beverly Hills branch.
“This will be my last year as your Referee Administrator and I will no longer be the Game Scheduler,” Krut wrote in the missive, obtained by the Hollywood newsletter, The Ankler.
“And there’s a reason, I have come to despise so many of you and I hold so many of you in contempt,” Krut wrote. “Your behavior on the sidelines has, for far too long, been disrespectful and you are damaging the children. You have said nasty things to and about too many Referees and it must come to an end.”
Krut continued: “I can no longer be involved with so many people who feel so entitled. People threatening to write up a Referee because he was wearing a protective boot was the last straw. The behavior on the sidelines has been despicable [sic] too often.”
The soccer ref noted that “the vast majority of you are wonderful people but I need to depart the land of entitlement where too many of you think that everything has to go your way and you take every comment or email I write as a personal attack on something you hold dear, when all I’m doing is trying to get your attention that you have an obligation to volunteer.”
“So, I’m done…and it’s your loss… You may not like my tone but everything I have written is the truth,” Krut wrote before ending the note by saying: “Let’s enjoy the play-offs and let’s be respectful.”
Krut said he will continue to referee through Dec. 17.
He has been a volunteer with the soccer organization for about 15 years, according to local reports.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Krut told The Guardian: “The idea that parents have the right to yell at referees, what kind of message are they sending their kids? People are channeling their inner Donald Trump. They have no filter. Something has to change because we are damaging the children.”
The soccer league’s regional commissioner, Alex Grossman, sent a letter to parents in response to Krut’s letter saying that the board does not hold the same sentiment as Krut, according to ABC News.