A short while ago I mentioned that the FA were taking the unprecedented step of experimenting with body cameras to be worn by referees.
This was no small step and it had to be agreed with the International FA Board, the games law makers, before it could go ahead. 100 of these cameras were distributed to four different areas of the country to be worn at adult grass roots football matches.
It was hoped that these cameras would be a deterrent for the abuse, and even assaults that referees receive too often from players and club officials.
The early signs according to the FA are positive, as no user referee has found it necessary to activate their camera so far.
The camera is a clever piece of equipment. It does not record the whole of the match but when activated it will capture the last thirty seconds which will show the abuse.
The referee is not able to access the photos taken, nor can anyone else, so if any aggressor thinks they can open the camera and destroy the evidence, they will be disappointed.
The FA has said that referees wearing the cameras say it has made them feel safer and more confident and that players have commented that seeing the camera has made them withdraw from raising comments.
If it continues in this way, it will be extended next season. As far as I understand, these will only be used in adult grassroots football and will be allowed as evidence at any disciplinary hearing.
A great deal of problems also happens in youth football with an extraordinary amount of the abuse coming from parents and coaches. I often feel that if they too were recorded it may shame them into more appropriate behaviour.
However, I believe that in some areas, meetings are being held with parents about their behaviour. That I would like to see expanded.
I remember watching an American video where a basketball referee, dressed in his referee’s uniform, addressed a room full of parents about similar behaviour to teenage basketball referees.
Just goes to show that football is not the only sport that suffers from uncontrollable parents. I don’t know how successful that meeting was, but I remember when my nephew qualified for the Reading Schools under 11s team, my good friend David Downs in charge of the team, held a parents evening.
Tackling this same problem, he told them that if they abused the referees, he would ask them not to attend any more matches. If they insisted on coming to support their son, he wouldn’t pick him for any more games. Tough, but it worked.
