A referee has died a week after falling into a coma following a punch from a player that he had booked. The 46-year-old official had taken charge of an amateur league game in the US, despite having had problems with aggressive players in the past and being warned off by his family. His assailant was a 17-year-old goalkeeper, who objected to being booked for pushing an opponent and attacked the ref as his name was being taken. He's since been arrested and is being held in youth custody. I'm obviously not going to suggest that there's no fault here by the lunatic player, but it's time that something was done about the way that officials are treated in the game. I'll hold my hands up to being a constant critic of a number of our top-flight referees, but I think that the way that they're treated on the pitch is appalling. Most people don't want to do such a job in the first place, so alienating even more people is just unnecessary and not something that will attract gifted individuals to these positions. Rugby is a far more violent game than football, by it's very nature, yet everyone involved understands that they need to respect the referee, even if he does something that they believe is wrong. It would be simple to introduce the same system in our game, yet it's not done. I've yet to hear a convincing argument against it. Having our best players swearing at and confronting these people is a terrible example and of no benefit. Eliminate it and we may see less of this crap at an amateur level. It certainly wouldn't hurt.
Everyone sees the need for discipline in rugby. Rugby isn't a sport without it. So there is zero tolerance of indiscipline. How do you change the culture in football? By getting tough and suffering the unpalatable consequences for a while- even if it means games finishing with six players on each side and star players getting long bans.
Agree. I think players should be booked every time for harassing the referee and if they continue then they should be shown a second yellow, that would nip it in the bud
Tell you one thing - the kid who did that may well spend a large chunk of his life in prison. Recently a 16 year-old (?) who helped a guy who killed some people using fake craigslist postings got a life sentence with no parole. US like a nice, high prison population. Good bit of slave labour. Totally agree that abuse of refs should be zero tolerance. Why not? It's not exactly hard to not swear, shout or hit a ref. It's not a new thing, either. I remember being amazed as a kid watching Gazza on TV clearly shout "**** off, George Courtney!". I had no idea that players could get away with that and was sort of confused as to why they could.
The behaviour in pretty much every sport other than football is so much better. It's embarrassing. Rugby's a great example but take cricket. I don't watch it much but when I have I've been amazed at how a whole team will appeal for a decision but the moment the umpire shakes his head they just stop and get on with it.
I hate the idea that this sort of thing is caused by bad role models/films/musicians/video games I personally like the bad guy/girl type present in the above mediums but any aggressive behaviour/substance use was my own choice and not because I was a parrot
Snooker is a guiding light in sportsmanship! Players always own up to fouls, Hawkins did it early and even the slow motion replay didn't pick up on it!!!
Without getting too philosophical... Whilst I cringe at people blaming computer game X or pop song Y or role model Z for the cause of individuals' actions I do think you have to bear in mind that what is and what has formed "you" and what you can conceive as "your choices" has an awful lot (everything, arguably) to do with society at large. We are social creatures and each of us is a product of our society. Thing that gets people confused is that they think that ONLY computer games etc influence people. And not, say, every other part of society which is violent, destructive, sexist, shallow, stupid and cruel. Like, for instance, the Tory party. Or adverts for mobile phones. Easier to label hip hop artists etc as the bad guys and forget that society as a whole has a mostly-unspoken but highly ****ed up value system running right the way through it.
The problem is beyond football, it's do with society itself and lack of respect for authority or people trying to do their job as the Hazard/ballboy thing proved. It may be a 17 year old kid today, but tomorrow it'll be a Dad at the local 11 a side team. Generation of failed parents. Fans don't respect refs, players don't respect refs, managers don't respect refs.
Blaming the Tory party for British society's lack of respect? Really? They've been in office for 3 years... hardly long enough to influence an entire culture, if anything liberalism is to blame surely... Sexist and shallow I can understand, but could you please explain why you think the Tories are "violent", "destructive" or "stupid"?
Claptrap LP; Was there not violence under a Labour government? Was society not as ****ed up-during that thirteen years? The gradual erosion of family values, communities, a national identity, the lack of real replacements for the jobs lost in heavy industry since the fifties (not just under Thatcher) poor education, low expectations, a lack of social mobility, the inability of schools or society to control bad behaviour.. I could go on. All these things have been dumped on us by a liberal elite who, strangely enough, all still send their kids to private school, are members of gentlemen's clubs and are the sort of people who have a "house in Tuscany" or the like. In other words it doesn't affect them one iota. It's easy to blame the nasty tories, but its a lot more insidious than that.
I don't mean that the Tories have ruined society overnight! I meant that perfectly "respectable" organisations do harmful things that add to help the millions of factors that result in distrust, fear, violence, whatever. Can't believe you picked me up on the Tory party but not mobile phone ads! I'm just saying that it's a much more nuanced thing than "that computer game with the guns in is what dun it". People today are told over and over that what they wear, what they buy, what they drink etc is what makes them THEM. And then we get all confused and horrified when a bunch of idiot kids want to smash into shops given half a chance to grab some plastic/electronic **** so they can live the dream whilst having the right sort of badges on their shoes. Just one thing on how "destruction" is related to the Tory party: privatisations that did NOT ONE person in the UK any good except for the shareholders and executives of the new companies. Take trains. Fares have increased up to three times faster than inflation since privatisation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21056703) whilst at the same time the private companies running our national infrastructure are receiving MORE taxpayer money, bearing in mind inflation, than the old British Rail cost! (http://fullfact.org/factchecks/taxpayer_subsidy_train_network_nationalisation-3391). All the time making profits and paying their shareholders and bosses huge bonuses. All that money is not re-invested in the train system but sits in off-shore bank accounts. The train infrastructure was built by a nation and owned by a nation. Now that nation is just it's captive customer. If some of the acts of privatisation are not "destruction" I don't know what is. Listen - I could use those words to describe any of the main political parties to be fair. Thatcher, after all, said that her greatest achievement was "Tony Blair and New Labour". But at least Labour's very raison d'etre isn't to keep rich people rich and keep the plebs in their place whilst opposing every step of progress in history (which side of the debate do you think the Tories were on regarding race, sexuality, human rights, women's rights, universal suffrage, workers' rights over the last couple of centuries? Yep - the wrong one). Anyway. Sorry to take this off-topic. Anyone want to hear why I blame mobile phone ads?
I agree. As I try to say above - I am more likely to see Tony Blair as a culprit of why society's messed up as David Cameron. But even then I do not think one person, one party, one (or two) (or three) parliamentary cycle(s) can be blamed. All politicians nowadays just give people what they think the people want anyway. They take their lead from us. Or rather us via the media, polls and focus groups - it's all pretty messy. The fact that political leaders now have to be relatively young and televisual and good with one-liners pretty much makes it a fairly stupid business all in all. Though still important, unfortunately. People talk about political corruption in other countries but if they actually knew about the merry-go round of how the elite move from government positions into top industry positions to the very committees that are supposed to regulate industry they'd see pretty soon that a bunch of wealthy mates in London run things in an pretty self-interested way. Whatever party they're in/support. By the way - whilst I cite all these reasons as to why society's a bit messed up it is still my belief that, despite everything, the world is getting less violent, if you take the long view. That's what research suggests, anyway. The 20th century was pretty damn violent. But less people died violently then than they did in the 19th century. And so on. That's what Stephen Pinker reckons anyhow. I can see that. (Though I do believe that the progress that is being made is despite the influences of organisations such as the Tory party but then I would, wouldn't I?).
I regret this getting too party political. All I'm saying is: We live in a society where we are told that we can literally make the world the way WE want it and be the mega-being that we COULD be if only we all get smart-phones (to take one of potentially thousands of examples). And the incredibly rare raw materials for smart-phones get to us via war, poverty, child soldiers, child slavery, pollution, political corruption, assassinations. We could all do without phones but choose not to. I have one - it's ****ed up. Wars are literally fought on our behalf, hundreds of thousands killed, so that we can all enjoy this ridiculously comfortable life that we live. Society as we know it is like it is because of violence. Real people getting really killed somewhere else in the world, and our sub-conscious knowledge of it, has as much to do with issues of violence in the UK as kids pretending to kill each other on Call of Duty.
Actually, forget all that - I blame Luis Suarez. The man really is a king-sized ****. If he was older I'd blame him for WW2.
Actually, discipline in Rugby is not as stringent as it used to be - believe it or not. In the days I played, you were not allowed to even speak to the referee - that could only be done by your captain. The referee was always addressed as "Sir" Any hint of dissent or argument would see you dragged up in front of an RFU disciplinary commitee and banned. I got 3 weeks once for arguing with a referee after some kind soul had trodden on my face necessitating several stitches.
Whilst I agree that players should respect the referee (as a person-if not as an official) - I do not think that football referees help to endear themselves to players and fans alike by their inconsistency and 'selective' vision ! Officials will gladly award a foul for a slight nudge if outside the penalty area - but nothing inside the box. Collectively the officials will fail to see handballs, shirt pulling etc etc, when the whole crowd can see these events. just what use is the 'official' behind the goal ? Perhaps if football were to embrace technology to assist the referee in making the right decisions it would not antagonise fans quite as much..... players shouldn't treat referees like a clot*** ,but referees shouldn't be too surprised at the reaction of some players if he acts like a clot*** in some obviously bad decisions. *** really hoping this won't be 'fixed' !
On the flip side of that, referees might not make so many mistakes if they weren't under pressure from abusive players all the time. I wasn't making a point about improving society or football being a bad role model for fans in their off-field lives, though there's certainly an argument for that. I just feel that officials at all levels would suffer less abuse of all kinds if respect for them was ingrained in the system throughout.
Dying while trying to earn a living is the worst way to go. And he was doing it for free just so the game could be played. So sad. I notice Sian Massey doesn't get a lot of abuse. Maybe that's the answer - all female officials. Or go the way. All officials need to be 8-foot tall lumps of meat, with face tattoos and scars. Or robots.
