Brian Barwick, Chief Executive of the Football Association, has launched a personal crusade the newspapers reported last week. ‘I have taken it upon myself, as one of my missions, to improve the behaviour towards referees and I will do it.’
His plan is three pronged. ‘
1. Only team captains will be allowed to approach the referee during the match.
2. Parents and other spectators will have to stand in a roped-off area at the side of the pitch, managers and substitutes will be on the opposite side of the pitch.
3. Players, parents and clubs will have to agree to a code of conduct which will be rigorously enforced.’
Let’s be clear that what we are talking about is youth football, boys’ and girls’ games. These are the only ones that parents watch. As a mentor of new referees often starting in youth football, I have witnessed atrocious behaviour by coaches and spectators towards referees, some only fourteen years old.
A few weeks ago I refereed a youth cup game myself. ‘Hope it’s not like last week,’ they said, when apparently the two opposing coaches started fighting on the touchline.
The plan is to be tested in nine areas from January .Much as I agree that something has to be done about behaviour at youth matches, I have to say that this plan seems to be a bit of ‘a dog’s breakfast’. I think the suggestion that only captains can speak to the referee is contrary to law and unhelpful in controlling a match. It will just give captains the idea that they have the right to query (i.e. dissent) any referee’s decision.
In law the captain is not treated differently from any other player and it should remain as such. In fact, in youth football the captain has little authority, often just a title bestowed on a player to toss up.
Greater problems in youth football come from coaches and parents. Last year I wrote of a referee phoning up to discuss what he should do about parents at his match fighting on the sidelines. Will roping off the spectators stop this sort of thing?
I have refereed at the Reading FC academy for boys and their centre of excellence for girls, where this already happens and find that abuse from the touchline is kept to a minimum but their’s is a different situation. I am all for pitches being roped off but it may be more difficult for clubs that play on park pitches, and at other grounds it will be another job for hard pressed club officials. Signing a pledge of behaviour is similar to what already happens at clubs who have been granted charter status from the FA. This means extra funding and therefore an incentive to keep everyone in line. What now will be the rigorous enforcement?
Brian Barwick’s stance is backed by England coach Steve McClaren who says ‘in my opinion this has to start at the bottom’. This is nonsense of course. Young players in particular, copy their role models. They see Premiership players harassing and mouthing obscenities at referees and so believe it is quite legitimate to abuse them. As one young player said to a local referee recently, ‘if you can’t stand it, you shouldn’t be doing the job’. And what an example for captains, John Terry snatching a red card out of the referee’s hand. Coaches too feel that they can follow professional coaches and hurl abuse at referees.
I sure Brian Barwick means it when he says he wants to help referees. But remember this is the same Brian Barwick who took 25 days to charge Terry for lying about his sending off by Graham Poll and did nothing about the behaviour of the Chelsea coach and management in the affair. For crusaders, sir, actions speak louder than words
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007