The time is perfect for radical reform

Games 34-37, 2021-22

Is change in the air? Coaches keep thanking me for showing up to referee their games. On Saturday, one coach was particularly grateful that I'd turned out "in this awful weather". Several spectators have been thanking me too. It makes me wonder if the state FA has issued a circular to all its clubs during the winter break, reminding them of the referee shortage and asking them to be extra nice. Nothing wrong with that, though such reminders don't tend to have much stamina.

Meanwhile, myself and four fellow referees took the time off during the winter break to take stock and draft our manifesto. The response from our referees' association was nothing but positive, and genuinely enthusiastic that we cared enough to go to so much effort. Outlining concrete proposals, rather than just moaning, has turned out to be the best approach. Not all these ideas fall under our refereeing body's remit, but the idea is to fire up a discussion and have them put their own modified list of suggestions to the state FA. Much of our focus is on the role of youth team coaches, because that's where the problems begin - the consequence of bad education. Here's a summary of the main points:

- an intensive campaign to protect all young and newly qualified referees from abuse, inspired by the Worcestershire FA's #seemysocks initiative. Goal: to improve awareness among clubs, and to improve long term coaching and mentoring of young refs

- transparency throughout the disciplinary process so that referees know poor and disgraceful conduct has been duly punished

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).