FIGC’s Genitori+ asked Under-13 players which parent behaviours helped and which created pressure. An academy can start its own parent work the same way, by asking the player before it talks to the parents.

On May 31st, FIGC’s report from the Under-13 Pro final in Tirrenia placed the parent programme beside the football. Juventus won the national phase at the Olympic Preparation Centre with 11 points, and Genitori+ asked young players which parent attitudes support a positive sporting experience and which create “difficulty and pressure.”

Mothers and fathers then joined the discussion and chose to wear the Genitori+ wristband as a sign of their commitment to a healthy sporting environment, with FIGC describing the wider aim as an “educational alliance” among players, families, coaches and clubs. ¹

An academy can copy that sequence without scoring parents: ask the player first which touchline shout, post-match question or visible reaction helped, distracted or added pressure, then show families the behaviour the player named.

Conduct rules and feedback

Premier League academy parents and carers sign a Code of Conduct as part of registration. The Rights, Rules and Responsibilities page tells them to support targets without pressure, praise good work, avoid criticising mistakes, act as role models and tell academy staff about issues affecting the player.

The Games Programme Spectator Code of Conduct sets the matchday rules, telling spectators to stay calm, avoid distracting players, wear spectator wristbands, remain in designated areas and accept that breaches can lead to refusal of entry, ejection or a ban from future events. ²

The Academy Experience page puts parents inside the feedback route: it says the Player Journey, held in the Football Intelligence Platform, stores games, coaching, education, sport-science and medical data, with multidisciplinary reviews four times a season and regular feedback to players and parents or carers. ³

Parent education

Borussia Dortmund runs a Parents’ School for U9 to U13 families. BVB says workshops and seminars involve mothers and fathers in footballing personality development and sideline culture, with the academy acting as an adviser to families. ⁴

The DFL and DFB parent brochure builds the same role into national guidance, explaining academy opportunities, challenges, expectations, age-group objectives, school balance, accommodation and host families. ⁵

The readable DFL/DFB brochure text lists 58 acknowledged Youth Academies as of April 2025 and names parents’ contacts as first points of contact for general or organisational issues. It also gives parents questions to ask their child about sideline behaviour, support and when they want feedback after matches. ⁶

Measuring the parent climate

A 2025 Frontiers in Psychology study surveyed 876 football players aged 11 to 18 from 55 teams in Valencia. Players answered questionnaires on empowering and disempowering climates created by coaches, parents and peers over the previous 3–4 weeks.

The study’s cluster analysis found four profiles: empowering, disempowering, high mixed and low mixed. The empowering group was 32% of the sample and the disempowering group was 16%; the empowering profile had higher autonomous motivation, need satisfaction and vitality, while the disempowering profile had higher controlled motivation, amotivation, need frustration and physical and emotional exhaustion. ⁷

The study was cross-sectional, so it shows association at one moment, not proof that parent behaviour caused those outcomes. The authors also removed two parental disempowering items because of reliability and validity problems, so the parent scale still needs more work.

None of these clubs publish parent ratings, and the method here does not either. It asks the player which behaviour helped, then takes that answer to the family; it never scores the parent.

After parent meetings, academy staff can write down the player’s preferred sideline behaviour, the post-match feedback timing, the parent’s contact route, any matchday code breach and attendance at education sessions. The next meeting can start with the player’s answer to a simple question: which parent behaviour made football easier this week, and which made it harder?