Football Food For Thought / Frank Gregan / 01 August 2008 /

Frank Gregan tells us about pre-season briefing sessions from referees and the steps taken by governing bodies to build relationships between referees and players and managers. One day, we may even discover that the men in black are actually human...

Prior to the football season beginning a referee normally visits a club and explains to the players and staff the law changes and league directives that will be coming into effect. These changes tend to revolve around the nitty gritty and are usually mind numbingly pedantic.

Examples are the colour of cycle shorts worn under the football shorts, how many staff are allowed in the technical area and how many can be standing at any one time.

Those are the kind of things that the referees are sent to the clubs with as messengers, real game changing events. The changes are met with a reaction that is a cross between anger and sarcasm. "Hey don't worry about the two penalties you've missed ref, just make sure our centre back's got his blue cycle shorts on and our physio is sitting down!" A ball has yet to be kicked and the dissent will already have started. Why?

Because footballers and current referees tend to be different types of animals with very little in common. How many kids did you know when you were picking sides at school and sorting out positions shouted out "I want to be the ref!" Yet when I have talked to current referees that is exactly what they say to me, usually it was always their ambition to be an official and they talk about watching Match of the Day and ignoring the two teams, instead focussing on the actions of the man with the whistle. Not many football people can relate to that.
The culture of the sport is another factor. It is accepted and occasionally demanded that refereeing decisions be challenged. I wish I had a tenner for every time I have been in a dressing room at half time and heard the statement, "The ref is weak, get on his case and he'll give us something!" I've played competitive volleyball, basketball, hockey and rugby and never during those team sports has challenging the referee been considered an option.

I used to play a good standard of rugby in Australia in front of crowds of up to 3000 people. The referee would get a decision wrong, everyone would know it was wrong yet there would not be one word of dissent. Throughout the game the referee would only be called one name, 'Sir!"

The following day I would play "soccer" as the Aussies refer to it for the local town. The ball would go for a throw in as the result of a block challenge and it's anybody's ball. Whatever team didn't get the throw in would be straight on the referee's back. It's the culture of the game and it is going to take a great deal of work to turn it around.

One initiative that is in place is introducing youngsters to refereeing, as well as continuing to play the game. My mate's lad has qualified as a ref and at fifteen years of age earns decent pocket money refereeing junior tournaments. He also plays for one of the local town's team and a few of his team-mates including the star player have qualified with the county FA as officials. That has to be good for the game, it demonstrates that referees do not have to be a different breed, they can play the game as well as officiate it.

Everybody has a role to play if we are to generate respect towards referees. Parents on the sidelines at youth games need to set a better example, supporters need to be more tolerant, managers need to cut officials some slack and players need to try to build a rapport with the man in the middle. But most importantly the game itself, the controlling bodies needs to supply us with officials that are worthy of our respect and of a similar ilk to those involved in it.

I was at a manager's seminar organised by the league that my club was competing in a couple of years back. During one of the sessions we were split into groups of four and allocated a referee with which to discuss any aspect of the game. He opened the debate and said, "Hello my name is Arnold. I'm 34, a traffic warden, not married but I hope to be one day if I find a girlfriend and as well as football my other hobbies are exotic goldfish and Mexican Architecture!" We cracked up. He was, of course, taking the Mick, but he was spot on as to how the stereotype is perceived.

Let's work hard to get the youngsters through and those that just miss out as professional footballers should be encouraged to try and become professional referees. That will certainly help to solve the problem.

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