The worst (or best depending on if you are a TV producer)

matches are A vs B matches or the local expensive club versus the local bargain club.

In my locale, there's nothing worse than playing against the B team of the expensive club. The sidelines are populated with parents who think Susie or Billie was robbed of being on the A team and they are merely putting in time waiting for justice to be served.

I can imagine all of the parents of kids on the select team wanting their kids to get one over on the elite team when it is the same club!

I've long believed that the only solution to parental problems on the sidelines is a scorched earth policy. Parent gets out of line, team forfeits and kid of parent misses a game. There's not a single gunner parent who would make Bobby or Susie miss a future game. No more jawing. No more yelling at refs. All the nonsense would stop. Sadly, some of the biggest mouths have lots of power at the clubs, so the clubs protect them.

What's amazing to me is the way "new" parents aren't enthusiastically welcomed or the hurt feelings about who got brought up to A and who got sent down to B. I honestly think our club has the right idea. They train three days a week at both the elite and select level and the second day of any weeks training is a combined practice so the B team girls mix with and compete against the A team girls. In theory, the transition up and down should be easier. In reality, it is still difficult. We had a situation that made some elite parents mad last season and they were critical of the coach. The B team parents, being sycophants who want their daughter on the A team, supported the coach. Only two B team girls got moved up and no A team girls were moved down. Now, the B team parents don't love the coach. I guess they didn't get what they had hoped out of politically supporting the coach!