Soapbox Corner - with PembrokeshireSport.co.uk

page revision date: 24th September 2008

Please show ‘Respect’ to all local football referees

Much has been made in the national press of the ‘Respect’ programme to be brought into football at the highest levels so that when referees make a decision they are not made to feel like convicted war criminals or discovered drug peddlers.
The idea is that these magnificently paid professionals stop living in their own bubble of self-importance and realise that it is not life or death, merely a form of entertainment where they should be honour-bound to observe the laws of the land. Whether it works or not will be interesting to see but this column remains sceptical until the punishments become so severe that players dare not jostle officials.

Look at other sports

The proof of what can be done exists in test cricket where players are hit in the pocket, and even suspended, if they dare show dissent when they are given out by the raided index finger of the umpire. Even a few moments’ hesitation at the crease, or a shake of the head means a player risks appearing before a match official for punishment, a situation far removed from a decade ago when dissent was commonplace, with stumps kicked over or the bat thrown miles!
In rugby, a hasty word to the ref means the team is marched back ten metres and sometimes means a kickable penalty becomes the option, with players cited for serious misdemeanours or acts of violence missed by the match officials.

Laying down stricter laws

So what can football do? Perhaps it should start by not asking for respect but laying down very strict guidelines about who can speak to officials and the manner in which it is done. Then there should be no way that players are allowed to cheat by diving in the area to gain a penalty or get an opposing player sent off – with a match official studying the tape of the game and there being a ban for the ‘diver’ or ‘shammer’, or anyone who cynically fouls out of sight of the ref or assistants.
But I have to say that I can’t really see what can be done because there isn’t the will amongst the managers or club chairman because winning is everything and the case of Joey Barton sums that up. Newcastle HAD to play him because to them he is an investment, rather than a pumped-up bully, and other clubs kept him before, even though he had assaulted team-mates.

Local louts

What about at local level? The dissent and constant pressurising is endemic there, too, with youngsters aping their famous ‘heroes’ and local officials apparently ham-strung by appeals to West Wales and then the Welsh FA. I have said for a number of years that local football also needs to tighten up on gratuitous bad language but have been told that the directives need to come from up the line – and there is no doubt that refs need skins like rhinos to survive sometimes. I was heartened to hear about ‘Respect’ but then when the local referees society called a meeting and invited clubs to send delegates to the meeting – only one club showed up!

Some hope of change

When I watched the opening first division match of the new campaign between Goodwick United and Hakin United I was pleasantly pleased by the way that the players reacted to one another and to referee Phil Gale, who is a very experienced official whom the players know will stand no nonsense. Even when he disallowed a goal for Goodwick and awarded them a goal where the Vikings felt the ball might not have crossed the line, there were few hostile reactions from players or supporters.
It was a pleasure to watch the game and so perhaps ‘Respect’ will have a benefit for the local game – and I hope that we can shed forever the stupidity of players and supporters badgering the match officials and simply play the game for fun after a week in work!