Every now and then I get a telephone call on a Saturday or Sunday evening. These are usually from newer members of our refereeing fraternity, who want to talk about something that occurred at their match that day. They might want a little advice about completing a misconduct report, or checking whether they have made the right decision when faced with an offence or perceived offence. It is very different from passing an examination on the laws of the game to actually applying them on the field of play. Or it could be an incident at their match that they want to discuss.
I had one call earlier this season from
a relatively new referee, who had refereed a junior game that day, in one of the many leagues around these days. I think
from memory it was an under-12 game. He told me that he had abandoned the match. The young players were fine, no trouble at all but what had forced him to take this drastic action was that the parents started fighting one another. Sadly not an isolated incident. There was another occurrence reported locally this season, where it was the mothers who were battling it out in front of their embarrassed children.
Any referee who regularly takes control of junior gamers will tell you that it is seldom the players who create the difficulties but rather the adults who come to support them. It is almost certainly the single biggest cause of young referees deciding not to continue.
Referees can start as young as fourteen. David Elleray, the famous ex-Premiership and FIFA referee, was one who started at this age. Just imagine how threatening it must be for someone, probably little older than their own children, to be verbally abused by parents. And someone, who after all is learning his trade.
This abuse is not suffered only by young referees. I was talking to one referee who felt he was perhaps getting a little old to continue refereeing on adult leagues on the area, but he was happy to put his experience to the benefit of youth games. It wasn’t long, however, before the behaviour and abuse of the parents made him decide to put away his whistle for ever.
This is of course not a problem restricted to this area, to the shame of British parents it is some thing that happens across the country. Now in football-passionate Liverpool, there is a campaign trying to do something about it. I stumbled recently on its excellent website,
www.dontxtheline.com.
It was formed by Malcolm Lee who has been involved with junior football for many years, during which, he says, he has witnessed the abuse, aggressive behaviour and
comments which plague junior leagues. Children crying because parents are involved in fighting with rival parents, referees abandoning games and walking away never to referee again because of threats and abusive comments directed at them. Committee members standing down because of the aggressive behaviour of so called friendly parents.
He started the campaign after walking across a local Liverpool park one Sunday listening to abuse by parents, which made him decide it was time something was done. He has signed up clubs, leagues and individuals to the campaign, with even a special membership for mothers.
One interesting demand of the campaign is that parents refrain from shouting criticism at the referee during the game but instead complete a form afterwards on his performance. Full details on
the website.
Will it make any difference? At least it might make parents more aware of their behaviour. As Malcolm Lee says, ‘There are three good reasons why this campaign is needed. We must protect our children, protect our referees and bring back sportsmanship and fair play within junior and youth football’. If it spreads as he hopes and becomes successful, at least it could save some phone calls.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007