Abuse of Referees

Problem is in a lot of cases people see the referee as an enemy before the game even starts. How many times have you heard "say nothing to that ref he's a prick" or "He done us the last day so be careful" It's bred into lads early on that a referee is there to annoy you and not actually officiate the game.

Are there bad referees? 100%. But lads tend to forget that without referees there would be no game in the first place. He's there to do a job as much as players and mentors are.

Whatever happened in the past it's not acceptable now.

Regardless if you agree with that or not. You can't operate the sport without refs.

Team I am involved with have had five championship matches this year, and in four of them, the opposition had at least one member of their management team encroach into our 'area'. One of the four matches saw us take up a spot on the sideline first and they planted down next to us, despite having the entire other side of the pitch to do as they pleased.

Now its generally been calm, aside from the usual baying for a black card or silly stuff like that, but I can see how it can get out of hand. Especially when very often we wouldn't get a neutral linesman.

I have two kids, daughter aged 10 plays football and son 7 playing football and rugby.

I am involved in coaching both without having played either sport in any majorly competitive way.

I can see a massive difference between the 2 sports. In rugby, there is respect for the referees and coaches too. It's instilled from day 1. The **** that goes on the GAA pitches is simply not tolerated on a rugby pitch.

At a an u10 rugby blitz last weekend, a coach from each club had to ref a game. Before each game, the coaches all discuss what we want to achieve in the game so we decide what rules are we going to focus on. The biggest issue for every coach was dealing with backchat from their own players. So they all made a conscious effort to hit the kids hard on it.

Neither of my kids are enjoying the football and both are on the verge of quitting. Given what we see and hear on a daily basis, neither my wife or I will be trying to change their minds. It's an appalling culture for an amatuer sport that prides itself about being all about the community. It's toxic in my eyes.

Interesting point.

You can of course say the same about a lot of things that were common place in the 1930s 40s 50s 60s up to whenever.

The thing is at some point it has to be tackled honestly. Because if its not, nothing changes. And usually with these things, there is one particular case that really jumps out - and puts the issue on the front pages, when it wasnt before, even though its been going on for a long long time.

Funny enough, I find the parents can be as bad as the opposing mentors, often a lot worse. We had parents shouting for frees and yellow cards last week - whatever about the Ref hearing it, its a pain in the hole for the kids to hear it (these were 14 year olds).

TBH, in the past two years we've had very few issues with opposing mentors hassling the ref and we dont do it ourselves. There was one yellow card given out to a mentor, that was it.

The bigger challenge in some ways can be getting the kids to respect the ref, mouthing back. A number of times I've thanked a ref after the match for giving our lads a yellow or in one case a red, purely for acting the maggot. Teach them a lesson.

Absolutely, I wasn't trying to down play it at all rather highlight that the problem has (probably) always been as bad as this... If it was a recent phenomenon then you might think swift action could quickly resolve it, but the issues are ingrained in generations imo.

What is the % split between the three categories?

This absolutely nothing to do with the current conversation.

Whether a referee is good, or bad, they dont deserve to be abused.

Fair point.

The other probably bigger thing that is ingrained is 'turning a blind eye' to it. Lads that have been shouting at refs for years, that the club and the parents let them at it, let them continue to mentor and coach. Same with players that are in effect dangerous and out to hurt people.

You mention it again, but cannot explain how your 'mechanism' would work.....

Some people enjoy it. It's almost like a vocation to the sport. It's keeps them involved in a game that perhaps they wouldn't be otherwise.

I assume.

I don't get how it's greed at all????