OFFSET YOUR WORLD CUP TRAVEL WITH GREENERTRAVEL
Date: 5th November 2024
A few weeks ago, I was quoted in the Sunday Mail on the subject of referee abuse. Following incidents where one teenager was taken to hospital after a post-match fight involving players and coaches and where a game was abandoned after a serious argument between a young lad and a spectator, record numbers of players being sent off and allegations of sexual assault and damage to changing rooms, the referees, unsurprisingly, had had enough. At one point, strike action was apparently contemplated, although this threat has subsided. However, it’s not just Glasgow where there are such problems.
In the past week, the BBC (and others) reported that referees in Cardiff have indeed taken strike action last weekend after an alleged assault on an official and a number of matches being abandoned and “deteriorating behaviour on and off the pitch.” Wales Online reported that the team involved in this alleged attack “has decided to disband, its chairman has said…Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident.”
Now, the SFSA understands that in Scotland, one of the Glasgow amateur leagues has taken firm action to try to help stem what we hear is an increasing tide of unacceptable behaviour towards match officials at every level of the game. Sadly, even girls’ football is seemingly not immune according to our sources. And, following up the story from the Sunday Mail, one of the teams in the Glasgow Amateur league concerned has now been slung out, while two players have been banned for 10 years, with their subsequent appeals against the bans being dismissed.
While we would normally advocate a judicious mixture of carrot and stick in dealing with such incidents, it must be said that in this instance the stick is being correctly wielded. The SFSA stands foursquare behind our match officials at every level. Without them, no-one has a game, whether that’s fans or players and, as I’ve written before, our ideal solution would be for referee abuse to become as unacceptable as racism. We are several light years away from that just now, but that was also the case with the racist abuse which pioneering black players like Mark Walters endured during their time in Scotland. That particular scourge has dissipated (even if it’s not totally gone), but we need to address the situation with referees and other match officials. As I’ve noted several times in the past, there is a shortage of referees in our country and it’s going to get worse if we don’t tackle the abuse (and violence) that sadly football seems to accept as the norm. The Glasgow amateur league’s action is but one step along this road.
Alastair Blair, Director of Operations, SFSA
Posted in: Latest News, Refereeing
Tags: Refereeing