Quote ="Roy Haggerty"I reffed an U16s tournament yesterday. The vast majority of players and adults were perfectly behaved. There was one parent of one team, however, who decided to barrack from the touchline. The RFL guy running the comp went over and had some words, and he shut up after a couple of games. If he hadn't, I would have refused to referee any more of his team's games until he removed himself from the vicinity. The key, I've found, is not to get angry or distressed, but to simply hit the "calm and dispassionate" button. In that regard, I guess being a teacher is helpful, because the behaviour is quite similar to that you might get from an unreasonable kid in a classroom. In the past, I have sent spectators off, by halting play until they put themselves in the clubhouse out of earshot. However, it should never get to that. It is absolutely the responsibility of the management of the team in question to control their own "supporters". I'll be coaching this summer in the RLC, and if any of our fans/followers start abusing the ref, it'll be me who tells them to can it.
I ended up doing 18 10-minute games, so I was a bit knackered at the end, and most coaches and players came over and thanked me and the other ref after the final. There are some nutters who set pretty poor examples to kids, but they are a minority, at least in London and the south-east.'"
As an ex-referee, I concur that the overly abusive and vocal speccies are in the minority,both as parents in youth games and general supporters in open-age games. As a ref, I generally felt removed from most of it but could empathise with my touch judges because they were getting it right in their lugholes. I can count on one hand the number of times I had to speak with club officials to get them to clean up their act and I only ever once abandoned a game. That was a BARLA youth cup game and I abandoned it after a fight broke out and a non-playing member of one club decided to cross the rope and lamp an opposition player. I immediately blew and started walking to the dressing room, my reason for abandoning the game was simple: I had no problem with controlling the players, subs, officials etc. but once the public became involved on the pitch, it was no longer within my remit.
I once ran the line in a local (Hull), Open Age cup semi-final and had obviously irked one dipstick on the touchline. He spent most of the first half following me up & down the touchline, rabbiting in my ear. He even followed me on the other touchline in the 2nd half. About ten minutes into the 2nd half I noticed a well-known local nutter and took the opportunity to let him know that "the bloke with the golf umbrella had been slagging your sister off continuously". Now, the nutter may not have been the sharpest tool in the box but he was hard as nails and fiercely loyal to his family. A couple of minutes later I heard a strangled "aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh" and saw the golf umbrella drop to the floor, as the holder crumpled in a battered heap. We enjoyed a quiet game after that
