Twenty-three officials, both active and non-active, discussed the current poor behaviour in Island football at an extra-ordinary general meeting at Springfield Stadium last night, called by the Jersey Referees’ Football Association, and they were reminded that if they feel threatened there is no reason why they should not contact the police.
Strike action was raised as a possibility, and quickly ruled out, while several referees outlined their wish to work in teams of three, as part of a match official group, to get more enjoyment out of games – the vast majority of Jersey Football Combination games played on Saturday afternoons have just one official due to a shortage of whistlers.
JFA referee development officer David Brunton: “We’re not for one minute suggesting referees are the problem in this, but we can be part of solution … if there is dissent we must act on it”
Teaming up could also help match-control and potentially reduce some of the poor incidents seen recently, where no match official was present.
Although working in teams would result in far more games only having a club volunteer to officiate, it was not ruled out for future use.
The JRFA say they are hoping to see match officials lowering their tolerance levels to acts of misconduct such as dissent, both on the field, in the technical areas and beyond.
Referees development officer David Brunton said: ‘In taking this stance we are anticipating the full support and backing from both the Jersey Football Association and the JFC to allow the majority of participants to carry on enjoying games with a qualified match official.
‘I would never strike, I enjoy my football too much. It’s not my job, it’s what I do for enjoyment, and if we were to strike we’d be spoiling it for the majority who turn up just to enjoy playing football. It was discussed last night, but it was very quickly taken off the table.’
On the lowering of tolerance levels, Brunton added: ‘We’re not for one minute suggesting referees are the problem in this, but we can be part of solution. There is a bit of a grey area though, as my tolerance level may be different to other people, so what we have to be careful of is deciding not to book someone this week and then making it harder for our colleagues the week after, because players may then think it’s OK to act in that manner.
‘It is difficult to enforce, but if there is dissent we must act on it, and if benches or spectators are misbehaving we must deal with it rather than ignoring it. And we can then point out to the Combination who the persistent offenders are, as these guys are spoiling football for everyone.’
