I think the problem is fairly serious in soccer, which is why they spent so much cash on their Ray Winstone campaign. I suspect the fact that it afflicts soccer and RL, but not RU and cricket has a lot to do with our respective demographics.



Fundamentally, the officials can't be left alone on this. It really is the responsibility of the clubs these people attach themselves to. If they cannot control their supporters, then the clubs should be penalised with points deductions, or even expulsions from the league. That sounds draconian, but I'm wearing two hats here, one club and one ref, and I feel strongly about this in both roles. If I can't get my touchline to stop unacceptable behaviour, then my team deserves to be penalised.



Ultimately, this is not hard to do at youth level. If you have a parent who is causing grief, you simply tell him that his lad is no longer welcome at the club until such time as that parent can control himself.

All too often clubs back their coaches and supporters no matter what. I too have 2 roles, ref and club chair (actually 3 as I also chair the league) and I feel that my club has to have the highest standard of behaviour. The coach who caused me problems yesterday wouldn't last 5 minutes at my club.



A lot of the youngsters who play RL in the Midlands have played Union, and there is a noticable difference in behaviour. Even when they haven't, the majority of the clubs have good standards and are happy to sort any problems out.

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

I must admit that I am amazed how much respect is shown to refs here in Perth usually. Even alot of the crowd address the ref as "sir" if they yell something at him! It is something that is bred into the kids at jnr level, always call the ref sir.



I have mentioned this before but the funiest thing I ever saw on a RL field was andy dannat (ex Hull prop) reffing an under 12's game in West Hull. One particlularly gobby father was giving all the kids a spray and Dannat blew his whistle to stop the game. Strolled over to the idiot and in no uncertain terms told him what course of action would occur if he didn;t keep his mouth shut. Needless to say the man never peeped another thing!



Maybe that is the answer, employ props as refs or touchies!

the behaviour of some parents is deplorable and it always ends up being those who should know better and who any other given week would behave like normal human beings should. the others just dont know any better and just get frustrated cos they have never held a ball in hand in real battle . either way all are knobs

Ive seen Tims reffing, no wonder he gets abuse





Only kidding mate, hope your keeping well , are the Sheffield lot still playing ?

No, sadly not. But I'm trying to start touch and tag in North Derbyshire, it'd be nice to lock horns with some of the old foes again!

my experience here in Australia is that the junior leagues are well organised and managed and there are teams of referees that are appointed to a days refereeing, as such they have peer support at the game... also the clubs themselves are held accountable and each team manager along with the ground manager is on hand to manage the attendees.