ABUSIVE behaviour towards football referees in Jersey is to be tackled head on this season with new strategies that will address poor attitudes from players and parents.
It means that captains may be the only players able to talk directly to the referee on the pitch, and it may also include rules for roped off areas for spectators, and the encouragement of feedback from players and officials alike.
The initiatives are part of football’s RESPECT campaign, which has been trialled by the English FA in 20 select leagues and looks set to be introduced nationwide.
The Jersey Football Association will launch the campaign here soon in an effort to address bad behaviour in grassroots football, which is said to be the number one problem with the game nationally.
• Picture: Russian referee Valentin Ivanov shows the red card during a World Cup group match between the Netherlands and Portugal in Nuremberg, Germany
4 Article Comments
The rules won’t work
A Dictatorship sport just became worse (IE one man runs it in the middle of the park). You can’t say or do anything on the park? What next; put your hand up to get permission to kick the ball?
Maybe every player should where a gimp mask so they won’t be able to say anything.
Referees should get respect but not speaking is not the way to go.
Improvement in the quality of ref would be a good start.Train the refs better so they make better judgements. They are human and make mistakes but all to often you know the good ones and the poor ones by name.
First off people need to understand that the reason why we don’t have many refs at this moment in time is due to abuse, name me one person that wants to ref in jersey? personaly as a coach i’m thankful when a ref turns up no matter who it is! let’s be honest having a coach of the opposition or ref urself is a nightmare you get called a cheat more than ne1. yea we might have a few bad refs in jersey….but name me one ref who you think is perfect that gets every call right. the ref might think so i doubt i agree with the ref for EVERY decision in one game. It’s what keeps football interesting, Human Error
Next thing to keep in mind is no matter who you are squad player, coach or captain once the ref has made his choice 99% of the time that is it. I can never re-call the ref changing his mind becuase of a player or coach arguing the matter.
Cutting out the abuse will get more refs involved which is what we need in Jersey. This is a GOOD descion and i think many coaches (especially at youth level like myself) will agree. I always tell my kids b4 a match “the referee is right and if he’s wrong…he is still right”
“A dictatorship sport ….” What planet are you on? No wonder the referee has to come across as heavy handed when he has objectionable, abusive oiks screaming abuse at him, criticising decisions at every moment. RESPECT is all about ensuring precisely that. By limiting queries/concerns about the game and communications via the captain it will help to regularise the balance and assist in the referee making better decisions. I hope they go one step further by making it the responsibility of the captains to ensure the game is played in the correct spirit and that his players show not only respect for the referee, officials and other players but for the game in itself. By sticking your head in the sand and saying the rules won’t work is just foolish. You get the game you deserve which frankly at the moment is a shouting match with sinister undertones of malice and indiscipline. It supposed to be the people’s game, so bring it back that way, allow the referee and officials to do their job (as best they can, for right or wrong) without fear of intimidation and abuse, get responsibility for how the game is played back into the hands of the captain and club - impose sanctions as a last resort. It won’t change overnight but it has to be better than the current shambles.