Social Media......

[Padfoot]

Welcome to 2017. 2 matches. 2 misconducts, 3 reds, 13 yellows and a match abandoned.

The above statement was posted on social media by a referee......

Several of the referees colleagues liked the post, a few commented on it......nothing identifying players, teams or leagues involved. Nothing insulting or offensive.

The referee's CFA has contacted those referees who "interacted" with the posting to remind them of their responsibilities when using social media because there have been some "anonymous" complaints about what was posted.

Before anyone asks, I am not the referee who posted it, not even my CFA.

So....what does everyone think? Controversial enough that colleagues need reminding of their responsibilities?

 

[DanCohen17]

Pathetic from whichever CFA it was. This is clearly a referee venting frustrations at teams attitudes, without once naming a player, club or even league within which it took place.
How the CFA's justify this as their priority, further enhances my decision of coming out of the game. They're more worried about things like this, than they are about what matters (2 misconducts & a match abandoned, that's where he priority lies!)

As for the 'anonymous' reporting, any jobsworth official who dobs a colleague in for something like this, isn't fit to wear the uniform. There's enough people outside of the circle hating on referees, it certainly doesn't need morons within it doing the same!

 

[PinnerPaul]

At a stretch I suppose colleagues "liking" the post could imply that the referees enjoyed the fact that players were dismissed?

Agree its a very strange thing for a CFA to be getting involved with.

 

[OIREF!]

While the referee did not identify the teams was the referee him/herself identifiable from the social media statement. If so, it wouldn't be too difficult to work out who the teams involved were. Although the content of the post seems innocuous social media comments and feedback can easily escalate to an unpleasant situation. Social media comments by referees are a hot topic in Scotland at the moment with the SFA and RAs taking a very strong line with several referees in my local RA facing disciplinary sanctions.

 

[DanCohen17]

One of the things I have huge issues with is that it only works one way. I recall a Supply League I refereed, admittedly not particularly well, and was named on the club's Twitter alongside an extremely derogatory Tweet. I was actually sent this by a friend of mine who asked if I'd seen it. I hadn't, until that point. I forwarded the Tweet to my Supply League Ref Sec, my RDO's (yes, two) and the RDO of the team's registered County.
My Ref Sec did a reply all stating he'd deal with it, both referee & club. What then followed to me, with no-one else copied, was a message that essentially told me to man. Up, ignore it and that if I was better at my job, Tweets like this wouldn't happen.

 

[Mintyref]

While the referee did not identify the teams was the referee him/herself identifiable from the social media statement. If so, it wouldn't be too difficult to work out who the teams involved were. Although the content of the post seems innocuous social media comments and feedback can easily escalate to an unpleasant situation. Social media comments by referees are a hot topic in Scotland at the moment with the SFA and RAs taking a very strong line with several referees in my local RA facing disciplinary sanctions.

And what if the team's were identifiable? That's not an offence!

 

[RustyRef]

The potential problem is there will have to be a disciplinary hearing for the abandoned game, and potentially for any other misconduct. Whilst no details of teams were given, these days it isn't hard to find out which games a referee has taken charge of (e.g. Full Time, league websites). You then get potential problems at the hearing, and I've actually seen it happen where a team turned up with printouts from Facebook of the referee almost gloating about the amount of cards he had and explaining what had happened (which didn't exactly match his report ..!).

General rule of thumb is never post about anything that could go to a hearing, the FA will say it falls under the sub judice category. Certainly if you posted that at a senior level, and by that I mean L4 or above, you would almost certainly be suspended if the FA were made aware of it. I'm also aware of some leagues who forbid any social media posts from referees relating to their games, and indeed one PL Football Academy who will expel anyone who even so much as checks in on Facebook at their venue, referees included.

 

[GraemeS]

The potential problem is there will have to be a disciplinary hearing for the abandoned game, and potentially for any other misconduct. Whilst no details of teams were given, these days it isn't hard to find out which games a referee has taken charge of (e.g. Full Time, league websites). You then get potential problems at the hearing, and I've actually seen it happen where a team turned up with printouts from Facebook of the referee almost gloating about the amount of cards he had and explaining what had happened (which didn't exactly match his report ..!).

General rule of thumb is never post about anything that could go to a hearing, the FA will say it falls under the sub judice category. Certainly if you posted that at a senior level, and by that I mean L4 or above, you would almost certainly be suspended if the FA were made aware of it. I'm also aware of some leagues who forbid any social media posts from referees relating to their games, and indeed one PL Football Academy who will expel anyone who even so much as checks in on Facebook at their venue, referees included.

I'm very intrigued by this response, as I've always considered this forum to fall under the banner of "social media" and it's common (and even encouraged) for people to post their views about what happened and request feedback on how they handled it. And the conventions we use on here (refereeing to teams by home/away or shirt colour and player by number or position) offer about as much anonymity as this original post did....

 

[RustyRef]

I'm very intrigued by this response, as I've always considered this forum to fall under the banner of "social media" and it's common (and even encouraged) for people to post their views about what happened and request feedback on how they handled it. And the conventions we use on here (refereeing to teams by home/away or shirt colour and player by number or position) offer about as much anonymity as this original post did....

The difference between here and Facebook is most people use a user ID rather than their full name, so identifying them is much more difficult. Not impossible of course, but also you aren't likely to have irate clubs lurking on here after a referee has annoyed them. Whereas the same cannot be said for Facebook, especially if the referee hasn't locked his posts down to friends only.

 

[DanCohen17]

The difference between here and Facebook is most people use a user ID rather than their full name, so identifying them is much more difficult. Not impossible of course, but also you aren't likely to have irate clubs lurking on here after a referee has annoyed them. Whereas the same cannot be said for Facebook, especially if the referee hasn't locked his posts down to friends only.

Not in full agreement actually. I recall a thread being started last season by an irate club about one of our members, admittedly he is like me and uses real name and no alias. But, that's irrelevant for me anyway, as I feel if you don't post anything derogatory or name clubs/players specifically, you've done nothing wrong!