Abuse of Referees

You only have to listen to the chat in the background, No one seemed surprised by what had just happened.

Do you ref many games yourself?

Every club has someone likely to assault a referee? No they don't

I have said it many times, GAA is a scummy sport from top to bottom. I played it, I've supported my club and county, but people should call it as it is and the fact is that it is a scummy sport that rewards and encourages behaviours that would see you banned in most other sports.

We train and encourage players to go out and kick, punch, spit and drag their opponent down by any means necessary. We teach them that anything goes as long as you win. Get in their face, let them know you are there, insult their dead relatives, do what ever it takes.

Then we wonder why that attitude is replicated by the management and the supporters?

GAA will never be anything more than parish bogball until it starts to demand more from its members.

As for the scumbag in this instance, the GAA can shove any ban up their hole, if they don't publicly demand criminal prosecution then they should be ashamed of themselves.

Had a GAA ref park his tasty hothatch car outside my house every weekend for two years (we live beside a park with a multitude of pitches). Got talking to him about the car which was similar to ours, as the conversation went on he apologised for parking outside the house (not a problem, its free for all residential street parking). He explained he was fearful of damage to the car in the carpark!! I thought it was overkill. Clearly not. 😳

I have been in lots of videos but not this time big man 🙂

Reffed an underage game many years ago, maybe u10's or 12's. Two lads at each other whole game. Warned them repeatedly as every time I tried to follow play there was something happening off the ball. After ignoring last warning told them both to leave pitch, one team coach told his lad to go sit away from bench and think about what he had done, other said "dont let that c*nt of a ref tell you how to play". Like all sports / life there are idiots everywhere and more needs to be done to keep them away from kids sports.

If he did that on the street , he wouldn’t get jail!!

If he head butted ten people on the street he wouldn’t get jail thanks to the judges we have and the free legal aid solicitors coming up with yarns for criminals!

No law and order on the streets so not surprised to see it on sports fields either

It might come down to eye witness accounts as the crucial 3 seconds is missing from the footage.Could easily be circled wagons and swept under the carpet.

What I know is the guy strode out to confront the ref,the ref ended up on the ground,ambulance and hospital.

I wouldn't be an expert but there has to be some sort of assault there.

Please delete your account, honestly.

This is it starting now - His clubmates all coming out with the 'ah sure jesus it was just a shove'

Lot of pussies who moan about refs as well. It's time for people to shut the duck up, get over it and get on with Life.

Why even bother with the second sentence in that post?

The GAA has been in disarray around player discipline with years. This kind of thing is prevalent in the ladies' games even: https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40924841.html

Not serious when it comes to discipline

Its accepted and has been reported by folks at the match that a headbutt happened. Id imagine a hefty cash payment will be made to the ref in order to not press chargers.

Psycho is the guys nick name.say no more.

You’re borderline victim blaming here

It’s up to the GAA and County Boards to remove referees if they aren’t up to scratch

Stop focusing on ‘weaker’ referees here

They cannot act without a complaint unless they witnessed it themselves.

Has that not been changed? Like, they can investigate if it's in the public interest and there is evidence.

Either way, it won't be a quick investigation. Everyone that was there would have to be identified and a statement requested. Phone footage will need to be requested and viewed. They will need an injured party statement from the ref, if he's willing to give one (I'd imagine he will in this case). Once enough evidence points to a suspect they would then either arrest him or he would give a voluntary caution statement (usually only if they're admitting, saves the process/paperwork). A file would then need to be prepared, sent to the local Inspector/Super who would decide then if it requires DPP advice. This won't be over quickly if there is an investigation.

The stories of the manager headbutting the ref unconscious seems to be the actual truth going by what I've read so far, but as pointed out it is still all hearsay at the moment. Yes, the crucial 3 seconds are missing, you me and the crows know what happened, but that doesn't mean it can be legally proven. People would be surprised by what can cause a case to fail, and it's getting harder and harder these days with more and more loopholes and bleeding hearts making it harder. It should be simpler, more straight forward, but it isn't. It's why I always say that you had to be a Garda to really understand what it's like, and the files/paperwork is near the top of the pile of the worst aspects of the job, and the reason most things take aaaaaaaaaaaaages. (FWIW, it took me 18 months to investigate threats simply because I had 10K text messages to read and use as evidence...)

On the topic at hand, I don't understand how all refs are not treated the same as the rugby ones. I couldn't do it. The ones I feel for the most (albeit they're also probably paid the most) are the ones in professional soccer. The way these millionaires talk and act to some of them... I'd plant them! And they fall over easy enough so wouldn't be hard I'd say. Beyond me why lads do it unpaid or for a few quid here. There'll be no refs, then no matches, and the people at fault will then be giving out because they've no matches to go to.

Although, used to be quite verbal when I attended matches when I was younger. It's only after I lost interest in sport that I realised how horrible I was being, specifically to the ref and based solely on my own understanding of what happened. But it seemed to be the done thing. Everyone in the crowd did it. It was funny to a child, all these adults getting angry and upset and using curse words! Of course we were going to copy them. The whole attitude needs to change, and I can't see that happening.

Heat of the moment ? He calmly walked onto the pitch !

you def have to be on a wind up . The one thing I agree with is we dont need a media circus but we do need this to be dealt with properly

If you think an apology is sufficient then you are delusional

The soft on Crime Judges are allowing people be attacked on our streets with no repercussions so not really surprising officials at sports matchs get attacked as well.

If this guy was brought to court a free legal aid solicitor and judge will ensure nothing of any note happens him. The GAA will suspend him for a lengthy period but our courts will do nothing as usual.