Jersey Portuguese FC are at risk of facing further sanctions after they walked off the pitch during their tie against Jersey Wanderers on Saturday (following referee Douglas Orr’s decision to over-rule the linesman on an offside call), while a Sporting Academics reserve team player had to be restrained by his St Brelade opponents as he tried to confront referee JP Martins after being sent off.
JFA chief executive Neville Davidson: “Why do we continue to allow this? None of us is perfect, but why do people who have been in this sport for a long time allow the minority to rubbish the game?”
Portuguese were banned from the Jersey Football Combination in 2006 after failing to respond to a misconduct charge, only to be later re-instated following a successful appeal. And just last Friday, following two separate incidents earlier this season, they were fined a total of £175 by the JFA’s disciplinary committee.
However, Davidson admits the latest punishment, which abides by the FA rule book, may be too lenient.
‘Nationally, in all of the FA counties, they’re coming down on this a little bit more heavily than before, but some of the guidelines lack teeth,’ he said. ‘The fines don’t look as though they’re working, so I’m going to look into it now, I’m not having it.
‘We must be the only sport that treats the officials like they do … why do we continue to allow this? None of us is perfect, but why do people who have been in this sport for a long time allow the minority to rubbish the game? Some of the things we are dealing with at the moment are totally unacceptable, and we need clubs to stand up and help.
‘I have people emailing me saying they pay their registration fees and still end up without a referee … whose fault is that? We can only do so much.
‘People’s perception of football looking in from outside can’t be good, and while I don’t want to stop anyone playing football, there comes a time…’
Davidson, who is asking managers to ‘buy in and be responsible for their players’, continued: ‘I’m trying to get all the stats on clubs from last season and this season to put together a discussion paper and see what we can do. The minority are spoiling it for everyone else, and we need people to help the JFA and JFC eradicate that minority so we can have a better game.’
Davidson added that he wouldn’t rule out club and player bans, but said further action would depend on the severity of the incident and the history of those involved.
JUNIOR league chairman Jon Welsh has voiced his support for the JFA’s stance on stamping out player misconduct in domestic football.
Describing the recent spate of ill-discipline as ‘completely unacceptable’, Welsh believes clubs, managers and coaches must take on more responsibility for the behaviour of their players.
He claims Junior League officials work extremely hard to encourage good player conduct, and says it is time for everyone involved in domestic football to ‘wake up’.
‘Clearly the clubs have got some responsibility, but everyone involved in local football has some responsibility as well,’ he explained.
‘We need to wake up to the fact that we can’t be abusing officials – as far as I can see, football is the only sport that allows it, and it happens right from the top of the game. It’s becoming a real problem.
‘As it is, we have a shortage of officials in Jersey and if the behaviour of players and managers is contributing to that problem, then clearly that needs to be addressed.
‘It’s unacceptable and, certainly, we need to stamp it out. We need to get football back to being enjoyable for everyone involved, including officials.’
Discussing player behaviour in the Junior League, Welsh continued: ‘We’ve not had those sort of problems.
‘In fact, with the hard work of Brian Oliver, and the Charter Standard programme, there has been a noticeable drop in dissent.
‘Discipline is on the agenda on a monthly basis, but thankfully we very rarely have long discussions – the clubs are responsible and I really believe that teams are a reflection of their managers.’
