Soapbox Corner - with PembrokeshireSport.co.uk

Football refs are a bonny bunch - so leave them alone!

Football referees are much maligned all over the world and, sadly, this county is no exception because as well as the quality of their eyesight being queried and their mental state being questioned, they are sometimes branded as cheats and even have their parentage questioned!

It is true that they are a special breed and I often think, in lighter-hearted moments, that they need skins like a rhinoceros to put up with the verbal abuse week after week, match after match, for a paltry pittance dubbed expenses, but which is in reality a joke.

We can’t do without them!

No, it is not that they are an unfeeling bunch! It is the fact that they love the game of football so much that they want to be involved, some of the older ones because they want to put something back into a game they loved playing, and some of the younger ones because they are not quite good enough to make the grade as players but still want that feeling of anticipation that football brings every Saturday during the season. Some are better than others, inevitably, but that is the same with players and team managers! Either way, refs contribute much to the game and there is one thing for sure – love them or hate them – we can’t do without them!

Stop moaning – try reffing!

What would do some of the idiots who say that they are supporters of football a lot of good, especially at a local level, might be to go along to a referees’ monthly meeting and see a thoroughly decent bunch of fellers discussing their game with passion, looking at incidents that might have occurred and generally talking about football in all its aspects. They could even try reffing a game and seeing it isn’t always easy, and would certainly make a change from grumbling about every decision during a match that goes against their team – or deliberately trying to wind up players from the opposition in an attempt at getting them sent off, which is just as pathetic!

Is it time for action?

I suspect there will come a time that referees get so fed up of abuse from players and touch-line critics that they start sending the players off for dissent or supporters and managers out of the ground – and even abandoning matches if they refuse to go. Perhaps it is then that local footballers, and these so-called supporters, will realise that they are part of a brilliantly organised league with eager referees – and let teams go back to playing with total commitment within the rules and remembering that it really isn’t life or death!

PHOTO: Pembrokeshire referees do a thankless job.