Beyond the Whistle: Confronting Abuse and Safeguarding the Future of Refereeing

For years the question of who would want to be a referee has been on the mind of fans. The abuse of referees is constantly on the rise across England which goes unnoticed each year the number of incident’s increasing making the job even more difficult than it already is. Can the FA do more?

Today I spoke to Northern League Referee Ben Higgott who tells me about his experience being a referee and also Reece Gaines FA Qualified Referee who explained what the FA can do to support referees’ more across the country.

Northern League Referee Ben told me about one of his earlier experiences “I was in charge of a Under 11s game parents were screaming on and on at me and at half time I told the manager to tell parents to calm down and then they didn’t and then they got asked to leave but refused which meant the game was abandoned and it was left with the FA to deal with.

“Sunday League games were a lot harder to officiate compared to semi-professional games as semi-professional there is more on the line for the players compared to Sunday League.”

He also feels that the training to become a referee is poor. “The training isn’t useful and doesn’t teach the laws of the game which leaves many referees going into their first game a bit clueless although there is few online courses now.”

“The cost of becoming a referee is increasingly expensive as it costs £100 for a one-day course which affects the number of people able to become a referee.”

However, Ref Support UK is charity in England and Wales which believes that outside the support of The FA and the county FA’s there is simply not enough support given to the majority of match officials particularly in the Grassroots game where we currently have approximately 28,000 referees operating every week throughout the football season.

Ben has worked his way up the leagues starting at grassroots officiating then moved up to the officiating Alliance level games and most recently moved up to officiating Northern League matches.

However, he seems to think a lot of people are doing it for the money. He said: “A lot of 14/15 year old kids doing the course and just officiating the game for the money rather than the love of the game and believes that’s where some of the issues come from.”

“The FA need to do more to help referee’s deal with abuse it seems they are more focused on coaching programmes. They done one programme on participants behaviour last year. Pushing a lot more for sin bins and focusing on keeping coaches in technical boxes.”

“Being a referee has it’s positives as it allows me to keep involved with football and there is always opportunities to progress up the leagues and it allows me to have transferable skills.”

The FA carried their annual Grassroots Disciplinary Review which is now in its second year it covers step five and below in men’s football and step three and below in the women’s game. The total number of serious offence allegations against match officials, which include verbal abuse/threats as well as physical assaults also rose 17% from 1,451 to 1,716.

There were 95 allegations of assault and attempted assaults on official in 2023-24 compared to 72 during the previous campaign.

The FA are clapping back as they said this year had featured “record sanctions” – charges for discrimination alone resulted in bans totalling 5,510 matches with an average ban of seven matches.

A recent trial of referees wearing body cameras in adult grassroots football which began in February 2023, has had a positive impact on behaviour with only one allegation of misconduct against a match official wearing a camera.

New rules were brought in before the start of last season were designed to tackle abusive behaviour towards players and officials with grassroots clubs in England being deducted for repeated offences of serious misconduct.

No points deductions were made which the FA said showed the potential punishment was working as a deterrent and is helping referees officiate game.

Reece has told me about the ways the FA are tackling abuse against officials across England. He said: “The FA offer a variety of FA courses and mentoring programs to help the development of referees.”

“The FA does provide ongoing support at certain levels and I believe the FA does observe and evaluate referees’ performances to help them improve.”

“They also have a report service for referees which can report any issues during fixtures. They do send out messages via social media or signs at games to respect the referees.”

“Referees now have the power to call games if required due to abuse and people now can be banned for abusing referees during games.”

Credit: James Young

The Football Association do offer various courses to equip referees such as a course for grassroot football, the FA Centre of Refereeing Excellence for developing referees and a new initiative with FIFA to enhance refereeing workforce capabilities.

Many believe steps are being made towards making officiating more appealing and more support is being offered to help referees deal with abuse but the main question is, can the FA do more?