My tipping point, and a call for positive action to protect amateur referees

Game 33, 2021-22

For five and a half seasons this blog has been documenting abusive, insulting and disrespectful behaviour in and around the city where it referees amateur and youth football. At some point, though, merely describing what's going on - and it's not just in my games, it's universal - is insufficient. The time has conclusively come to take a stance. 

Myself and a small group of local referees are working on a list of demands and proposed actions to try and tackle the endemic problems in amateur football that have escalated to the point where every weekend brings some form of trouble, even in the quietest games. What can be done to curb the dissent, the tantrums, the threats and the all-round prevalence of unpleasant attitude and total lack of sporting enjoyment? One thing is clear - posters saying 'Respect!' and 'Thanks, ref!' are not doing the job, whatever their grandiose, committee-endorsed intentions.

After dozens of negative and hair-raising experiences, my personal tipping point came a week ago. A month back, I'd refereed a boys' U17 match which ended with a number of players on the losing team insulting me and screaming at me after the final whistle. I walked through the cacophony without reacting, but noted the numbers of the players and duly wrote up a disciplinary report that same Saturday evening when I would rather have been doing something more relaxing (they have to be submitted "within 24 hours" of the final whistle). As usual, I heard nothing back. The team in question didn't play for another three weeks. But when they did play, all three players that I'd named in the disciplinary report were in the starting line-up. There had been no punishments at all for 16-year-olds screaming indiscriminately at a referee, frustrated at their loss in a game they'd expected to win (with no intervention from their coach - a fellow referee, by the way).

So a week ago I fired off an email to my refereeing association, the league administrator and the state FA demanding to know why there had been no sanctions against the three players. What was the point in referees making the effort to urgently write up these reports (remember - "within 24 hours") if no one was acting upon them? Were they even being read? Due to this disgraceful inaction and ineptitude, I went on, I was withdrawing from all U17 and U19 games until further notice.

My refereeing boss followed up with a fully supportive e-mail pointing out to those concerned that "we're in danger of losing yet another referee for youth games".  Besides that, there has - predictably enough - been no acknowledgment or response at all. On Saturday I was supposed to take a boys' U19 game, but I pulled out. In exchange - you can view it as a punishment or a reward - I refereed a U11 game instead. 40 minutes shorter, but only €2 less pay, and no aggro whatsoever.

Of course I missed the challenge of a full-on, 90-minute game, and my body won't benefit from having run about one fifth of the distance that I would have covered on a full-sized pitch with almost fully developed teenagers rather than 10-year-olds. But I didn't miss that nagging pre-match fear about what could be waiting for me this time around. Which trifling decision might push a coach or a player over the edge? Which throw-in call will render a grown man ballistic? Will I make it back to my bicycle without being told I'm the shittiest ref in the history of the game?

Our nascent manifesto will outline what we think needs to be done to shift the current football culture in our city. Although the last thing I feel like doing right now is refereeing, I'm still not yet willing to give up, no matter how tempting the prospect of stress-free weekends for the rest of my life. We will be positive and constructive, but firm in tone, demanding justice, transparency and a concrete support network. We will summarise what needs to be done at all levels of the game to support football's sporting values from the bottom up. If we don't raise our collective voices now, the clubs will not pay any attention until, one day, they're forced to referee all their games with a parent plucked from the touchline, or a passer-by out walking their dog. Or even the dog itself ("Bloody hell, Rex, what's the matter - you fucking colour blind or something?") 

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, it's the winter break here, with no more games until 'friendlies' resume in mid-January. There's been a huge upsurge in visitors to this blog in recent months, and I want to thank you all for taking the time to read about my officiating woes and occasional moments of levity. I wish you all a Happy Pagan Winter Festival of Light, and hope you can take on 2022 with your heads up and your whistles sounding loud and proud.

Final score: 2-8 (no cards) 

Click here to order Reffing Hell: Stuck In The Middle Of A Game Gone Wrong by Ian Plenderleith (Halcyon Publishing), published on August 8, 2022.