Why are there So Few Football Referees in the UK?

Why are there so few football referees in the UK?

It is a six-figure job, with plenty of travel, free tickets for the family and a world-class support network. Frankly, it is almost as good as being a footballer, but English football’s attitude to those who oversee 850,000 games a year is damaging the refereeing profession.

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#premierleagues #thefa #kickitout

[froudaid]

I can say from experience that the FA does nothing to help young officials. I was threatened by a club with a reputation for violence when I was 16. I reported what happened to my local FA and their response? The club saw no sanctions and I was pulled from all games for 6 months. I got punished for being threatened.

[Fkiller]

Used to be a referee myself at the age of 16/17. The insults and abuse you’re getting from people for making a wrong call just isn’t worth it. I believe this is a global problem.

[tobysaunders]

I trained at like 15. Pay isn't worth it. Parents are irritating and travel isn't covered which makes it pretty difficult.

[LetsRaZe]

My brother is a referee in Belgium, he started two years ago and is now 17 years old. I played football myself until i was 15 in a smaller youth league and i remember my dad and several other parents from my teammates shouting at the referee for almost every foul against us. I didn't think so much of it as it seemed to be a normal thing in every game. I wasn't taught a ref was out there to disadvantage a team, but that was the vibe around the field. Referees seemed unqualified, but in fact they weren't. We just thought they were from a young age (6-15), the ages where you take up most info in your life for your future personality and habits.


When i grew a little older i started to do the same when watching a match, the referee wasn't a human being, he was almost an object. A troublemaker standing in the way of my team winning in a lot of matches.


Everything changed from the moment my brother started refereeing. The ref finally became a person. I went to his third match as i needed to pick him up after the game. I was stunned. Only 4 minutes into the game, he whistled for the first time. A clear foul (in my opinion even a yellow) just outside the penalty area. The things the parents said on the sideline were shocking. No one blaming the player for clearly charging in on an opponent from behind. I'll list some of the things said on the sideline to paint the picture (translated to English):

- Here we go again
- I heard this referee was born with a whistle in his throat.
- Ref, gonna be a long match if you keep on like this
- (insult i don't know in English), you have a license?
- ...

All this for a clear foul. In my opinion my brother officiated a good match, he made some small mistakes. But if you compared his level of refereeing to the level at which these teams were playing, it was shocking my brother was the topic in the canteen after the match. Almost no one talked about the performance of the team. I hate to go watch him just for the abuse i experience on the sidelines. He is a strong character and says he doesn't bother with it, something i wouldn't be able to do. He also said that in a small crowd he can hear every single abusive line a person says, which hurts him sometime as it can get really personal. My brother battled with anorexia. He heard people shout: 'skeleton', 'zombie', etc.

To conclude this long story: Imagine yourself being at work with 40 people standing next to you watching every move. Everytime you made a decision, wrong OR EVEN RIGHT, they shout obscenities at you.

But even better: Let your son, daughter, brother, father, etc. referee a sunday league match and stand in the crowd. Your vision on referees will change in an instant.


Thank you for everyone reading this shit through :p

[brendan]

As the captain of amateur team, I always make an effort to shake the hands ref before and after the game and make sure no one on my team yells at the ref (not always easy).

Refs love the game just like the players.

[Town]

Essay here:
I started at 14 back in 2011, I remember my first “big appointment” for a junior official, a county cup match (U11’s). I was so happy to be involved but ended up having the parents of the away team giving me death threats as the lost after extra time. Parents found out where I lived and were shouting it to each other “to organise a lynching.” I ended up being shielded by the home team for over an hour. I kept going and got pretty far, but quit 2 years ago as the abuse every game was unreal, the last match I did ended up being cornered by a few player who threatened to rape me for it.
And the punishment both incidents got? A written reminder of the expected behaviours of the game. I have zero faith in the FA as the really don’t seem to care.

[discombobulate]

Before being born, I originally appeared on The Athletic.

[jaymemcg]

Hi Everyone,
I am a rugby referee and I can tell you the difference and why I wouldn't referee football. It might highlight some areas in which football can learn from rugby.

My first point is that abuse of referees from players is close to non existent because of the on field sanctions. Shouting for something to saying "f**k sake ref" can result in a penalty. Repeated again and the player is likely to be sin binned or red carded depending on the severity of the offence. Example if you look up Dylan Hartley (England captain at the time) his red card in the premiership final. He said "f**king cheat" in the referees direction and was promptly sent off in the seasons biggest game. IN my opinion that is the way it should be and the FA would do well to advise football referees to take a tough stance and then back them when they do.

The second point is on sideline abuse, this includes substitutes, staff and fans. I live in Scotland and the SRU use a system called "whotheref" to fixture games and report scores. Also inside this system is a reporting tool for abuse from the sidelines. Once reported there is a hearing with the club and having signed up each year a first offence come with a 4 figure fine. This is enough of a deterrent for most clubs to stop staff or fans from abusing referees. I have been abused by staff and once reminded of this reporting tool the abuse has stopped and has always been followed by an apology post game. This heavy handed approach works too with fans in bigger clubs where a member of the club usually reminds fans of their responsibilities and the damage their abuse of the referee can have on the club.

My third point is the support network. I cannot comment on this aspect from a football perspective but i can advise from the rugby perspective. We have monthly meetings, assessments, mentors and regular training and pathways to progress open to everyone. We also get a generous travel expenses and are widely welcomed and given feedback by senior members of both clubs and referees.

Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but if anyone would like to ask any questions ask away :)

[owenglover]

I personally think that football should look at rugby and the way the grass roots are ingrained to respect the officials. It's the only way that you can change the culture around football referees for the future. In game penalties for abusing the referee like moving free kicks further up the field might be a good way to inforce this

[sophieorourke]

The issue isn’t recruitment, it is retention. I was a very young referee who was given no support or opportunity for development. Instead, I was left isolated to deal with people triple my age hurling abuse. The children themselves were always respectful, it was parents and coaches that were often the issue.

[barry.mccockiner]

These referees originally appeared in the athletic

[miguel_aquatico]

Historians have recently discovered that life on Earth didn't really start in the oceans, but actually originally appeared in the Athletic

[ICULooking]

All team sports have this huge problem: parents live vicariously through their children and think they can boss about the refs and coordinators. Entitlement through the roof.

[peteroreilly]

I'm a basketball official in the USA and have quit doing any youth games. The parents are just awful and it isn't worth losing my weekend to get yelled for $25/game

[iggy]

I did a paper on this at uni and concluded that it’s largely a result of academies and clubs remarketing themselves as elite pathways instead of social clubs and thereby changing the culture at amateur level to one of competitiveness and results-based. Parents now expect clubs to be a pathway to professionalism and therefore react negatively to anything that hinders their kid’s opportunity, particularly results. The culture is now toxic and it is not just referees being impacted but also coaches who don’t play a player enough or don’t win enough.

[tomralph]

I completed my referee course when I was 14. I lasted about 2 years before quitting. I often couldn’t travel to games and when I was able to get a lift, the abuse wasn’t worth it, being told to ‘F*** off you blind t**t’ by a player and that players parent actually adding further insults instead of admonishing them made it totally unpalatable. I was 16 at the time and this was 15 years ago.

[SuperBeardWill]

Never thought I'd see 'Hide The Pain Harold' in a Tifo video

[Robi]

Abused referee should stop the match, give his cards and whistle to the guy who yelled the most and say: "Here, you do it if you think it is so easy"

[dannyc]

As a Ref myself, I think the saddest thing is how I and everyone else just has to accept the abuse as part of the job. The thing I've learned to think about is whether their criticism is valid. If it is, then there is something I can build on and get better with, and if it isn't, I can disregard it. The abuse they shout is not only out of place, its also often misguided and incorrect.

[vincenzodanello]

Well as a referee in youth categories, I've learnt to live with the abuse on the field. I know that when I'm about to referee a game, I'll be in a hostile zone with arrogant players, frustrated managers, and angry parents, who all think they would do a better job while drinking their beer in the stands.
Sadly, it is the reality of football, and very few people actually care about our job, but I still love refereeing and I'll keep doing it whatsoever.