Slightly odd article, but raises again the question about how the FA approaches these incidents.
Guardian link: referee attacked
Guardian link: referee attacked
Another referee assault makes the news
- Thread starter Martiju
- Start date
Arrest made after referee left with horror injuries following horror assault
A 24-year-old man has been arrested following the serious assault of a football referee during a South Lancs County game in Wigan at the weekend.
www.wigantoday.net
One of the incidents mentioned above the injuries suffered by the Official are outrageous and hopefully the Police will deal with this as a serious assault
All the FA can do is gather evidence and then issues charges, and the seriousness of it means it will be taken off of the CFA and handed to Wembley for any hearing. They can't comment publicly on it until after hearings have been concluded as they are effectively the prosecutors, just as police will never comment on anything other than facts before a court case.
Dirty Harry
New Member
I'd be interested to hear if Lancs CFA have a particular problem with assaults or if this really is an isolated incident? The news article suggests the player either acted 'out of character' or they were a recent signing and any previous history of violence was unknown to the club. As for body cam trials, I would have thought they were far more important than 'buzzer' flags at grassroots level!Arrest made after referee left with horror injuries following horror assault
A 24-year-old man has been arrested following the serious assault of a football referee during a South Lancs County game in Wigan at the weekend.
One of the incidents mentioned above the injuries suffered by the Official are outrageous and hopefully the Police will deal with this as a serious assault
It's time for a more comprehensive sharing of local 'intelligence' regarding players/clubs among officials/referee associations, regardless of any data protection issues. In my opinion, personal safety far outweighs any privacy concerns that might be involved!!
Yes, we know these incidents are (fortunately) not happening during every single one of our games, but they do appear to be increasing year on year. We have a variety of league tables published in this country, why not referee assaults by County FA? If the national authorities are really serious about reducing the problem, what are they hiding from?
Some time ago, I attempted to investigate the official statistics of referee assaults in the UK, but came up against a wall of silence from the national FAs. I wonder if any information is actually published about this somewhere? If anyone knows where I could find it, I'd be very interested!
Here's some links to articles about referee assaults statistics that I've found so far...
https://www.grassrootspost.uk/2022/03/28/referee-abuse/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54838892
https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2019/may/referee-abuse-in-football-mojtahedi-huddersfield/
https://blog.pitchero.com/is-there-a-refereeing-crisis-in-uk-grassroots-football
I don't know whether they are increasing or just being reported more. 10 to 15 years ago no one would ever find out against them, unless it was very serious assault it would never make the press, and social media didn't exist or at least was in its infancy. Now if a referee even gets the most minor of assault it is all over the Internet, and quite rightly to.
A challenge is they aren't always serial offenders so it isn't necessarily easy to identify them. A player local to me assaulted a referee and it was a real shock to me when I heard as he had always been very friendly and chatty to me when I'd refereed him. And a player tried to attack me after I sent him off, I'd refereed him loads and never had a problem, really never saw it coming (luckily I saw the punch coming and got out of the way).
A challenge is they aren't always serial offenders so it isn't necessarily easy to identify them. A player local to me assaulted a referee and it was a real shock to me when I heard as he had always been very friendly and chatty to me when I'd refereed him. And a player tried to attack me after I sent him off, I'd refereed him loads and never had a problem, really never saw it coming (luckily I saw the punch coming and got out of the way).
Rusty are you trying to say that they shouldn't be punished since it was a one off or am i just misunderstanding your second paragraph?
You are completely misunderstanding me. What I was saying is there isn't an arrow above a player's head saying potentially violent, and in my experience it isn't those that you would expect to be violent that will be. Everyone kind of assumes it will be the usual suspects in games, i.e. the ones that are moaning about everything and getting themselves sent off for OFFINABUS, but I'm not sure that it is.
Agreed - out of the few assault cases we dealt with in the four and a half years I was discipline officer at a CFA, from memory none of the assailants had any more than one or two red cards and a handful of cautions in the five seasons leading up to the assault occurring. I think that generally the ones who get themselves sent off more frequently tend to release their safety valve early, and avoid building a head of steam and doing something really daft.
Agree with this as well - the player who always chirp away know when to stop if the ref is getting sick of it or when they get carded. Not ever been assaulted fortunately, but the players who respond badly to a card are usually the ones where the reason for the initial card have come out of nowhere.
Probably as not to jeopardise any future criminal or disciplinary proceedings.
The police put out a statement to say that that a man and their age had been arrested in relation to assault of a referee.
That's really all anyone can say at this time?
Well, seeing as in England all assault cases at Step 5 and below are investigated by and charged by the County FA, and until a couple of years ago heard by disciplinary commissions appointed by the County FA, it's really a question to ask the CFAs.
Generally speaking, I was referring to the strong likelihood of the FA covering up the true frequency of 'reported assaults' in their desperation to uphold the image of the game. Common sense is such that most organisations would act in such a manner
This assault was covered in great detail on the White & Jordan show on TalkSport today. They were very much on the side of referees, saying that this has to stop. Several referees phoned in telling tales of woe, including the referee badly injured in this assault, Dave Bradshaw.
Whilst I agree with the presenters that it was brave of him to talk about it, I can't help thinking it was very ill advised. It probably won't affect a discipline hearing too badly, but if the player is charged and goes to court it could have huge ramifications. The police always tell people when they report a serious assault not to talk to the press, any defence lawyer worth his salt is going to drive a bus through the prosecution case, saying that the public perception of his client could have been adversely impacted before being able to defend himself. It might even mean the CPS won't touch it due to the decreased chance of getting a conviction, you just can't have the alleged victim effectively giving his evidence on a national radio station.
Whilst I agree with the presenters that it was brave of him to talk about it, I can't help thinking it was very ill advised. It probably won't affect a discipline hearing too badly, but if the player is charged and goes to court it could have huge ramifications. The police always tell people when they report a serious assault not to talk to the press, any defence lawyer worth his salt is going to drive a bus through the prosecution case, saying that the public perception of his client could have been adversely impacted before being able to defend himself. It might even mean the CPS won't touch it due to the decreased chance of getting a conviction, you just can't have the alleged victim effectively giving his evidence on a national radio station.
santa sangria
RefChat Addict
Argh that’s annoying. I listen to a fair bit of TalkS*** for my sins and they are normally smarter than that.
Anubis
RefChat Addict
I know nothing of the show but absolutely the referee has royally f'd up
And not very supportive of the show, to be in the refs side, yet basically ruin any prospect of criminal charges.
You'll definitely know Jim White given where you are from, and he presents with Simon Jordon, the former Crystal Palace chairman.
Anubis
RefChat Addict
I have heard of those two yes if thats them
I keep harking on about it, (and whilst there's more to it than just my tuppence worth), the biggest contributory element in terms of root cause, is what's seen on TV. Until they set the precedent on the box, nothing will change. Yes, societal behaviour problems are only going downhill, but what chance is there when the culture is all wrong at the pinnacle of the game? Hence, nothing will change until something happens that threatens the only thing the game cares about at the top.... revenue
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