Just before setting off last week on a short break to Hackney Marshes in Devon, I watched, by coincidence, a recording of a television programme about football on the more famous London Hackney Marches. This is the largest recreation ground in the country with 20 football matches being played alongside one another. You may have seen the programme a few weeks ago if you watch BBC London television, It was not so much about the football being played there but the fact that they were
losing referees.
This lack of referees meant that over 40% of matches were without official referees which, it was considered, threatened the future of the game. The reason for the shortage was said to be the abuse and hassle that referees received from the clubs. Not just from players and officials but also from spectators and even at youth games, with abuse coming from parents.
Two referees who had been physically assaulted were interviewed and one had been put in hospital for 6 days after being
head-butted when he sent off a goalkeeper.
Hackney Marshes has always been a notoriously difficult place to referee, so how does it compare with football in and around Reading?
Reader Les Turner, who used to play for teams like West Reading, has recently been watching local football in the town. After my column on
'duty of care', he phoned to say that he had been staggered by the violence and abuse he saw. The Reading Sunday League reported recently that they have received probably the highest number ever of complaints about players and club official's behaviour this season.
As reported recently in the Evening
Post, the Reading (Saturday) Football League has launched another poster campaign after another rise in complaints from referee about the level of verbal abuse. The League is also calling in certain clubs to discuss misconduct by their officials. Even the South Chiltern Minor League, the largest youth league in the area, is not immune. They have sent out a letter to all clubs about misconduct and attitude to referees. I know they had one report, of an under-12 game, where a 14-year-old referee was verbally abused by a parent using the dreaded F-word.
Unfortunately we are not helped by the professional game. Anyone watching the Chelsea/West Bromwich Albion game last weekend will have witnessed referee Mark Halsey being harassed when he quite rightly sent off Arjen Robben for a wild tackle. The Manager's contribution was to stand on the touchline and sarcastically applaud the referee. The FA promised to stamp down hard on this form of behaviour so it's about time they stood by their word.
The problem is that what we see on televised football this week, good or bad, you see on the local park next week. So players and officials think that the harassment of referees is something they can quite legitimately do. The difference is that there will always be referees wanting to get into the top flight of the game but lower down, Hackney Marshes and Reading parks, the referees may feel that the relatively small fees aren't worth being abused.
Let me just say that it isn't all bad, I wouldn't want to put anyone off refereeing, which has given me personally many years of great pleasure and I might say relatively little trouble. There will always be disputed decisions but, as I referee and watch other games locally in my capacity as a referee mentor, I find most matches are contested by 22+ players, who honestly want to enjoy a game of football.
What spoils it for everyone are the big mouths and hotheads who think they can do and say what they like. They simply need to be taken out of the game at all levels. Let those who want to enjoy it do so, and that includes the referees.
Dick
Sawdon Smith