Would you be a referee?

Referee's do get a lot of stick and quite often its merited. Standards seem to have fallen to me and after reading what the Referee's Association head said it does make sense

I used to work in grassroots football for the club my Son played for and i've seen it myself, the abuse aimed at refs from coaches and parents is shocking. I've even reffed a few games myself and it was non stop moaning and it put me off volunteering to do more games.

The worst case i came across was a young lad of about 14 reffing an under 8's game and getting loads of abuse from the opposition coach who had to be pulled to one side by our coaches and told to pack it in. Not sure that lad ever reffed again and who could blame him?

What do we do to improve the standard? Do you get ex pro's taking it up when they finish their career? That may help in the pro game but what happens at grassroots level?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62792367

Not me. The verbal abuse is one thing, but refs are now being physically attacked, by both players and spectators.
They don't do themselves many favours at the top level though. With VAR to assist them, they're still getting it wrong, as we saw over the weekend.


Then again, there's HIM. But let's not go there. Let's stay calm. I am calm. Serene. I'm in the zone.

I once banned a parent of one of the kids from the touchline and he happened to be the shirt sponsor of one of the teams. All the other parents on both sides applauded but the dickhead was so miffed he took it out on the kids and withdrew his sponsorship. Some people eh?

wanderlust wrote:I once banned a parent of one of the kids from the touchline and he happened to be the shirt sponsor of one of the teams. All the other parents on both sides applauded but the dickhead was so miffed he took it out on the kids and withdrew his sponsorship. Some people eh?

It wasn't.......was it?

boltonbonce wrote:
It wasn't.......was it?

Yes.

Ken Anderson.

I was a referee.

Standards in the kids game are better than ever at the moment. Parents are simply not allowed to moan at the ref. Things aren't perfect but almost everybody abides by it now.

My best moments as a referee were the match I did at the then Reebok, just because it was at the Reebok and my personal highlight was running the line and flagging offside against a man utd goal. I got an awful lot of stick and abuse from the bench but the TV cameras proved me right. But you do feel the pressure at times.