The Ref Stop

Strike?

Steve C

Steve C

The Unfit one!
As referees we are always on the receiving end of verbal and occaisionally physical abuse week in week out. However, without us, the game would not go ahead or a coach would referee which, would most likely present more bias than a neutral ref and they may not know the laws of the game as we do so it would be a worse game overall.

We provide a service to football by giving players, coaches, spectators a fair, unbias, well-ruled game of football.

To try and gain more respect, do you guys think that referees should go on strike for a weekend to show the footballing world how important we are to football matches, showing that if we walk out due to abuse, football would fall apart?

Opinions please!
 
The Ref Stop
I agree that this is what it might come to. Football needs to step back and take look at itself. It's becoming a violent and undisciplined mess on the pitch, on the terraces (or local parks!) and on the street. It's lost all respect for every part of itself, not just the referees. The referees are just the convenient and easy target for abuse at times.

There has been violence towards officials in this country. How long before someone is seriously hurt or killed? Beaten or stabbed.

It's an easy guess as to why referee numbers are dwindling in some areas.
 
A strike would also punish the better run teams and the good players. These are who we want to support. We already gain high respect from them.

A different threat is to turn down appointments to the poor teams.... When they are away, they have to have a home team person refereeing them, and when at hoem, one of their own...
 
Good debate.

At some grounds / clubs I do have not a bad word to say about the way I am treated, sometimes perfect, and I have been to some clubs (more Saturday District or Sunday league sides) where the attitude has been awful, however I have again experienced great treatment again from Saturday District and Sunday league clubs. Its easy to tar all with the same brush as good well run clubs with respect would get punished.

I would say for me, the positive experiences have far outweighed the negative ones, and if there is a bad one I trust my CFA to take action with hope the respective player / club learn by their punishment.
 
I personally know 3 referees who have been assaulted in the last 2 seasons .....

one had a kick swung at her between full time and extra time recently by a player she had sent off

one got punched in the back of the head after a match by a player he had sent off

The other after sending someone off .......the player as he was walking off gave the Ref the old shoulder in the body as he walked past him

Not really worth £28 when things like this happen

You will probably find all the perpetrators are still playing football somewhere?

This is the area where the local Fa s need to grow some testicles and start dishing out lifetime bans rather than 112 days and a £100 fine


Ridiculous ......WE NEED TOUGHER SANCTIONS TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS
 
I agree with @lincs22 it doesn't seem fair to punish the well run&behaved teams when it's (generally) the minority that cause the issue. Yesterday, I had a game involving one of the best run and behaved clubs in the league against another who are town to have no hesitation in putting themselves into a tackle and having a nice pop at the ref after you've given the foul
 
To avoid making the good teams suffer we could always just refuse to do the bad teams. We all talk, so know who they are in our area / leagues, so by refusing the appointment then the specific teams suffer.

Anyone has the right to refuse to work on the grounds of H&S, and this would affect both your Health, and endanger your safety .......

And if the league says its this appointment or you're off, well let them have a league without refs as they've sacked em all.
 
Mmmmmm, I agree in principle, but it's a fine line if you were to pick some games and not others to strike on.

For me it would be all or nothing, right across the country on the same day in every game up to premier league and organised by the RA, or nothing at all.

It has to gain support from all referees standing shoulder to shoulder regardless of ability or place in the football pyramid, that's the only way to get to every player, supporter and official in the football world.

On the flip side, would it really work?

Or in the reality work it have a big effect immediately afterwards, followed by a gradual return to the status quo? I personally think the latter.

But then what? What's next? What if it didn't work?

It's a tough one - it can't become an annual event or it would loose it's impact.
 
Totally agree - just need to get all those that aren;t member to cough up and join the RA.

Numbers dwinderling but they'd be the first ones asking for the support if it were them. And thats from the top down - 5 speakers that were coming to this years conference were not members and were forced to cough up on Sat morning before they could do their presentation!!

so, RA members strike then - rest can jog on and cover the gaps ..... (oh and would we be expecting full match fee or expenses for said strike, as per union rules).
 
I agree, but I have to wonder why anybody wouldn't join in the first place - you need somebody to help fight your corner for something or some advice it's paid for itself before any insurances etc. Bizarre!
 
Hence all the worthwhile advice on their Forum.

Oh, no hold on, it became a stomping ground for about 4 people, shut to be revamped and has never resurfaced. Hence why we are all here and loving it!

Have you actually been to Conference? I was the youngest in the AGM by at leat 20 years, and one of the first pre meeting announcements was that "Hearing aids can be tuned to T".

Makes you wonder......
 
HRW as the former lead moderator on the RA Forum I can tell you we had twice as many users as are currently registered to this forum. The forum closed down because the RA couldn't keep paying for it once the financial irregularities were uncovered at Head Office. I spoke at length with the members of the new board but they decided not to bother re-launching it. They just didn't get why referees would want to discuss things online.

As for striking, just take a look at yourselves. Service before self.
 
And this, as I discussed at length with Paul at this years conf, is why numbers are falling .......

Even trying to get the Local RA to understand why no-on, except the "usual suspects", is able to attend the Wedensday afternoon Golf Sessions that have been organised. Apparently it means that us members that don't go are not interested, are a waste of membership places, who obviously only want to see our RA go belly up like so many others.

Apparently....

Think it's more the fact that of of the 40ish members, the Ususal suspects are the treasurer, Chairman, Vice Chair, Secretary and 3 others who are all retired, and members of the golf club. The rest of us are, suprisingly, at work as we have mortgages to pay and are not on final salary pensions.

Service before self? Please - we're not in phase one now. If you pay me enough to take abullet for you I will, but £30 ain't worth it for those that have been on the receiving end.

Just to ask - I was a member of the RA Forum, and got posts with many likes but then passowrd reset failed and no-one ever came back with a reset - despite messages, emails and even a phone call! Must have cheesed someone one off !!!
 
HRW said:
And this, as I discussed at length with Paul at this years conf, is why numbers are falling .......

Even trying to get the Local RA to understand why no-on, except the "usual suspects", is able to attend the Wedensday afternoon Golf Sessions that have been organised. Apparently it means that us members that don't go are not interested, are a waste of membership places, who obviously only want to see our RA go belly up like so many others.

Apparently....

Think it's more the fact that of of the 40ish members, the Ususal suspects are the treasurer, Chairman, Vice Chair, Secretary and 3 others who are all retired, and members of the golf club. The rest of us are, suprisingly, at work as we have mortgages to pay and are not on final salary pensions.

Service before self? Please - we're not in phase one now. If you pay me enough to take abullet for you I will, but £30 ain't worth it for those that have been on the receiving end.

Just to ask - I was a member of the RA Forum, and got posts with many likes but then passowrd reset failed and no-one ever came back with a reset - despite messages, emails and even a phone call! Must have cheesed someone one off !!!
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HRW, you make a very valid point which is why our local RA formed a Youth section, drafted 3 delegates under 25 on to the committee and have around 75% of our members are active (i.e. still referee). There is too much of an old boys club in a number of RAs. I attended 1 a couple of months ago and only 3 of the 10 in attendance were active and 1 of those was newly qualified!

As for the RA Forum, the Moderators had no control over passwords because the site was administered by the Boardmaster on behalf of the RA. My own emails and private messages were ignored for at least 6 months before the board finally died. the frustration the users had was minuscule compared to that of the Mods who were trying to turn it into what Ross and the gang have here. RIP the Forum, long live Refchat.
 
I was never able to join the RA forum. Enjoyed reading it. Tried a few times to join, chased it up with a lot of emails. Eventually told they looked into who was able to join carefully and this took time. Never accepted!

That might be because I am with the welsh RA, but then who knows. I told them that in the email and they didn't note it as an issue. They never got back to me.

Then joined up here instead. @Ross has far lower standards!! :D
 
SM said:
I was never able to join the RA forum. Enjoyed reading it. Tried a few times to join, chased it up with a lot of emails. Eventually told they looked into who was able to join carefully and this took time. Never accepted!

That might be because I am with the welsh RA, but then who knows. I told them that in the email and they didn't note it as an issue. They never got back to me.

Then joined up here instead. @Ross has far lower standards!! :D
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Haha, thats to imply that there were some in the first place that could then be lowered!
 
Rather than strike, wouldn't it be nice to give it back a bit? Shout "foul throw" at every throw. Any time someone jumps for a header blow the whistle and tell them "in the back". Player misses a goal "That was shocking player. What are you even doing on this pitch?". As soon as the goalie picks up the ball shout "How long then?" When a player goes down after a tackle run the best part of thirty metres shouting all the way "Are you f@£king joking. How the f@#k is that a foul?" And clap slowly at him until he gets up. When a player asks how much a longer run across to them, push them hard on the shoulder and say "Do I look like the speaking f@#king clock?". Don't forget to remind the teams that there are two teams on the pitch (three if you have NARs) on a regular basis. When the teams complain about your behaviour, remind them that this is the sort of crap you have to put up with every week. If they don't like it maybe they shouldn't do it in the first place!
 
I have thought about this and a strike is not the way to go.
Beezer said:
......WE NEED TOUGHER SANCTIONS TO GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS
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This.

Plus let all referees start applying the laws of the game to the letter - any dissent = guaranteed caution. Offinabus = no matter how minor, no more benefit of the doubt, off you go. All referees start to actually send in cautions and red cards (all of us know a handful of tossers who don't do this because teams apologised after the game :devil::poop:)

One thing teams hate is fines. The number of times I have had teams moaning about referees handing out cautions (before I have reffed them :rolleyes: I look forward to being their source of their moans the following week...) which teams say is killing the leagues.... You highlight "perhaps your team could behave more appropriately on the pitch?" And it lands on deaf ears.

Having to pay 5 or 6 caution fines, plus whatever misconduct fines every game would soon get boring.
 
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