Football referee survey

[number11]

Interesting article on the BBC about the verbal and physical abuse of football refs.

Referee abuse: Hundreds tell of safety fears at grassroots level

Of the 927 respondents:

• 98% had received verbal abuse
• 84% had been sworn at with 40% receiving personal abuse targeting their appearance, gender, race or sexual orientation
• 32% experienced physical abuse

I found this shocking but sadly unsurprising. I've spoken to a few refs who've received abuse during or after a game. I welcome the WRU's use of cameras for refs to attempt to combat this.

(Not sure if this is the correct forum, feel free to move).

 

[DocP]

I've always said there should be a 10 min sin bin in Soccer. That way, yellow card for verbals will be cut short very quickly if they are off for 10. Managers would have a fit to go down to 11 for something so silly. Not sure they will ever bring it in though. The attitude of the players is one of the reason I stopped following the round ball game.

 

[didds]

Interesting article on the BBC about the verbal and physical abuse of football refs.

Referee abuse: Hundreds tell of safety fears at grassroots level

Of the 927 respondents:

• 98% had received verbal abuse
• 84% had been sworn at with 40% receiving personal abuse targeting their appearance, gender, race or sexual orientation
• 32% experienced physical abuse

I found this shocking but sadly unsurprising. I've spoken to a few refs who've received abuse during or after a game. I welcome the WRU's use of cameras for refs to attempt to combat this.

(Not sure if this is the correct forum, feel free to move).

TBH i was surprised its as low as "

• 98% had received verbal abuse
• 84% had been sworn at

"

 

[Jz558]

l cant help feeling that the football authorities have ignored this growing trend for a long time now. I can't work out why the county associations haven't gone down the path of giving initial warnings to teams/clubs before refusing to provide referees if the abuse continues.

 

[crossref]

l cant help feeling that the football authorities have ignored this growing trend for a long time now. I can't work out why the county associations haven't gone down the path of giving initial warnings to teams/clubs before refusing to provide referees if the abuse continues.

I think it's right from the top .. they don't really care

 

[didds]

I came to the conclusion that the PTB actually at least at the top levels have effectively little power compared to the clubs. so at the top end players get away with it cos the FA et al are in thrall/fear of the clubs.

that then filters down and while presumably county FAs do have power over clubs it had become endemic in "the system".

I am happy to be 100% wrong!

 

[crossref]

Yes the PTB are the clubs and (to a lesser extent) FIFA .. and neither care about it

 

[menace]

Appalling!

And the most concerning bit of the article : "There is no independent referees' association for Scotland and the Scottish FA declined to send it out to its referees".

Nothing like a collegiate approach and backing your support! Pffft!

 

[didds]

thinking out loud...

we seem to generally be agreeing on a perception that football's PTB "don't care" - which would suggest football refs are left to themselves with these levels of abuse, but are not walking away in droves making the game untenable to continue.

So why would that be?

Is it because (perception?) all football refs get paid so there is maybe a (subconscious?) belief that

* they get paid, they can deal with it
* I get paid so I'll put up with it for the £££

?
pure conjection on my part.

 

[DocP]

But I don't think £30 would be enough for me to continue every week. Not if, as the article suggests, you get chased down the street and have to hide for an hour or someone jumps on the bonnet of my car etc and that is not including any of the physical & verbal abuse they get on the park.

What I would really like to know is why they are still refereeing? There has to be a bigger reason they all still stick at it than the £30 match fee.

 

[didds]

But I don't think £30 would be enough for me to continue every week. Not if, as the article suggests, you get chased down the street and have to hide for an hour or someone jumps on the bonnet of my car etc and that is not including any of the physical & verbal abuse they get on the park.

What I would really like to know is why they are still refereeing? There has to be a bigger reason they all still stick at it than the £30 match fee.

well Id agree - but who knows what motivations people have
perhaps its a sort of BDSM fetish?

maybe its just so institutionalised its just "what happens innit" ??

 

[BikingBud]

Action has to be against clubs, at the professional level deduct league points as cash fines do not make a difference to a multi million dollar business. At lower levels again the clubs know the players they select and how they tend to behave, applying a system of warnings and banning clubs from competitions when they fail to address the behaviour of their players. Abusive player migrating will quickly find that they are persona non grata at all the local clubs.

Anyone refusing to comply does not have the interest of the game at heart yet with effective and consistent application they will find like the dinosaurs they rapidly become extinct.

It needs firm decision makers to set in place the regulations but perhaps its too late.

 

[crossref]

Action has to be against clubs, at the professional level deduct league points as cash fines do not make a difference to a multi million dollar business. At lower levels again the clubs know the players they select and how they tend to behave, applying a system of warnings and banning clubs from competitions when they fail to address the behaviour of their players. Abusive player migrating will quickly find that they are persona non grata at all the local clubs.

Anyone refusing to comply does not have the interest of the game at heart yet with effective and consistent application they will find like the dinosaurs they rapidly become extinct.

It needs firm decision makers to set in place the regulations but perhaps its too late.

All that is based on the idea that the people in charge actually care. I am not sure they do

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Grass roots football, like most adult participant sport, is on its arse.

My mate used to referee football and retired about 4-5 years ago. We speak occasionally about our respective roles but I don't think he suffered too much or if he did it was water off a duck's back. I know as part of his PMB he said "I'll give you one warning about swearing at me and this is it".

To highlight my first point when he started refereeing in the late 80s there were 9 divisions of 14 teams in the Doncaster and District Sunday League. Today there are 4 divisions of 10 teams each. We were talking about it last week in fact.

Most of these teams run out of pubs and whilst the pub, I'm sure, is happy to sell a bit of beer on a Sunday they'll not give a toss if the team gets deducted points and/or folds or if serial knobheads go and/or play/watch somewhere else.

When there were lots of teams the local "Society" could never provide a referee right down to the lowest of the low so they had to referee themselves which always led to the inevitable shit-fest.

Now I've no idea whether they still have trouble supplying or not. I know my mate has often said he would never start now. He rode the wave of his own standards/reputation for years but eventually that reputation gets diluted as players retire and others take their place.

 

[Volun-selected]

Not defending abuse in any way at all.

Do they have a breakdown of how often it happens (every game or once a season) and how often it’s from the players vs. coaches or spectators? (Or parents who think Jr is the next emerging star?) It may be that they have enough games that they really enjoyed, where teams were grateful and appreciative they were there and that offsets the bad matches?

Without getting carried away and waxing lyrical about “rugby values” (after all, we’ve seen - and read on this board - enough to know rugby refs also get abused) why does it seem to be that rugby refs are not abused to the same degree?

How much of that is due to the fact that you don’t tend to see star rugby players swarming aggressively around a ref with seeming impunity when a crucial decision goes against them?

And how much of that could also be due to the fact that a YC in rugby has immediate consequences?

Or no matter how big or famous a player or coach you are, the various rugby administrators seem willing to penalize abuse, even for abuse off the pitch?

 

[crossref]

Without getting carried away and waxing lyrical about “rugby values” (after all, we’ve seen - and read on this board - enough to know rugby refs also get abused) why does it seem to be that rugby refs are not abused to the same degree?

culture and tools
we can
- give a PK
- walk back 10m
- give a YC sinbin
(none of those available I don't think for football referee)

Then if we RC or MOA (which a footbal ref could do) this is backed up by the authorities with a ban - which I don't think happens in practice at football (?)

 

[Volun-selected]

culture and tools
we can
- give a PK
- walk back 10m
- give a YC sinbin
(none of those available I don't think for football referee)

Then if we RC or MOA (which a footbal ref could do) this is backed up by the authorities with a ban - which I don't think happens in practice at football (?)

Yes, I think (association) football should use a sin bin - immediate impact on play would focus minds. (Cue uproar, refs ruining matches, death of the game, no-one wants to watch 11 vs 10, not like the good old days… etc)

 

[crossref]

Yes, I think (association) football should use a sin bin - immediate impact on play would focus minds. (Cue uproar, refs ruining matches, death of the game, no-one wants to watch 11 vs 10, not like the good old days… etc)

i think though even more important is that they don't have the PK and 10m options

1st thing we do in rugby is to give a PK -- this is even better than a YC as the oppo will normally immediately quick tap meaning that the offending team have got no time at all to argue about it, and the offender's team mates are immediately annoyed with him

2nd thing we can do (if it's already a PK) is the extra 10m

And we still haven't had to use the YC sinbin (which is why we rarely do use it)

 

[SimonSmith]

i think though even more important is that they don't have the PK and 10m options

1st thing we do in rugby is to give a PK -- this is even better than a YC as the oppo will normally immediately quick tap meaning that the offending team have got no time at all to argue about it, and the offender's team mates are immediately annoyed with him

2nd thing we can do (if it's already a PK) is the extra 10m

And we still haven't had to use the YC sinbin (which is why we rarely do use it)

PK leads to loss of territory, or more pertinently, 3 points.
A YC in rugby has a bigger effect than in football.

Short evrsion: rugby's on-field sanctions have a material effect on the game,

 

[Dickie E]

Aussie Rules doesn't have sin bin but they do march a team 50 metres for any dissent. That could work in soccer (10 metres, not 50 metres)