On a football pitch carved into a hillside in the Sussex Downs, tempers are flaring. The opposition under-12s have scored against the run of play, and their coaches are at loggerheads over whether there was a foul in the build-up. The “home” parents, meanwhile, howl their unhappiness at the referee’s decision.

The official at the centre of the controversy is barely three years older – and hardly any taller – than the players he is officiating. But he is by a distance – at this precise moment on this bright winter morning – the most mature person present. At half-time, he beckons the coaches over, then calmly addresses these supposed grownups. “Unless you cut this out right now,” he informs us, “you won’t have a referee for the second half.”