Within the whirlwind of responses to my column last week revealing the millions being made every year from fining and charging administrative fees to amateur footballers for yellow and red cards were comments from the refereeing fraternity.
It turns out a great number of people disagree strongly with the concept of fining children playing football, yet I presumed if anyone was going to take exception to the suggestion financial penalties for bookings — or even bookings themselves — be removed from the amateur game, particularly matches involving children, it would be the referees. In fact, the opposite turned out to be true, and revealed another of the game’s mysterious elements that football authorities are reluctant to discuss: why referee body cameras are forbidden.
Where Lee Warren, the former Brentwood Youth AFC secretary of last week’s column, has tried — in vain — to get body cameras introduced by the Essex FA, Ref Support UK has gone even further.
Both Warren, a qualified referee, and Martin Cassidy, the Ref Support UK chief executive and a former FA referee coach, believe body cameras would virtually eradicate attacks, threats and abuse aimed at referees. Why would somebody do it, if they knew every second was being recorded up close?
‘They don’t want cameras – it would stem an income stream’
“It’s a deterrent, it’s an evidence gatherer and it’s a training aid for the referee,” Cassidy said. “None of those you can argue with. “They don’t want cameras for referees because that will stem an income stream for them. It will genuinely stop the abuse and attacks on match officials.”
The exact figure of how much County FAs are raking in from fining amateur footballers is unknown — the FA has not provided one — but a conservative estimate from the Covid-hit 2019-20 season is £8million. Would body cameras hit the bottom line?
It’s a bit like speed cameras: the UK government could create laws banning the manufacture of cars that travel over 70mph, so nobody could break the national speed limit, but it just happens to make HMRC millions in fines each year. In football, it could stop referees receiving broken jaws, eye sockets and noses, but would it solve a particularly lucrative problem?
Ref Support UK has approached FA chief executive Mark Bullingham and asked if the governing body can get to the bottom of why the game’s lawmakers — the International Football Association Board — enshrined it in the laws of the game that cameras are forbidden. “Referees and other ‘on-field’ match officials are prohibited from wearing jewellery or any other electronic equipment, including cameras,” rule 5.5 states.
Bullingham is making inquiries to Ifab as to why this is the case, but it’s unlikely anything will change. A source at Ifab told me that wearing body cameras could cause integrity issues, increase pressure on the referee, there were possible legal and data protection issues and that it would limit the communication between players and match officials. There are no plans in the near future to discuss it.
None of this appears to have been an issue in rugby union, however, where Ref Cam — a small camera attached to the referee’s shirt — has been used for around a decade. “They do it in other sports,” Cassidy said. “There’s no legal reason you can’t wear a body camera on a football pitch on public land. Even safeguarding doesn’t cover it.”
Child referees threatened
Cameras are even permitted pitch=side in amateur football. -n fact, many County FAs fully endorse them. Veo has signed deals with several County FAs to provide portable 180-degree 4K cameras to record games.
“Loads of teams are using it to show footage after the game — using it to slag off the referee, look you got this penalty wrong,” Cassidy said. “Why is it OK for the FA and County FAs to do deals with a company for a camera off the pitch, but you can’t use a camera on the pitch?”
The FA insists it is merely following the rules. “Under the current Laws of the Game, which are set out by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), body cameras are not permitted,” a spokesperson said.
Not that the rules stopped the FA when it wanted England to wear poppies on shirts in 2016. The FA contacted Fifa, argued their case that poppies were not a forbidden political statement, were denied permission, then did it anyway, taking the £35,000 fine on the chin.
Moreover, it’s particularly hard to argue against the better protection of referees when children are involved. You can referee from 14 years old — for some it’s a way to earn a few quid and take part in the game. There are thousands of young referees.
Over the weekend, Bridgend Referee Society announced it was withdrawing its referees from Under 15s junior football until “the behaviours and attitudes towards match officials change for the better”.
The society was made aware of a young referee being abused pitch-side, followed to the changing room, threatened, prevented from leaving the ground and then assaulted by parents after a game. Abuse of match officials in junior football from players, coaches and parents has been on the rise in recent months, the society said.
“When I wrote to Mark Bullingham I said it’s deplorable that if a 14-year-old referee gets threatened, abused and sworn at, you make money out of that,” Cassidy said.
“They should not be making money out of the abuse of anyone, but particularly children. When a child gets threatened by an adult coach, that should be a safeguarding issue, not a disciplinary issue they make money out of. They should be able to use body cameras to protect themselves. Even if they do a trial — they’ve even refused to consider a pilot, which is irresponsible.
“When you bring all these little things together you start seeing we’ve got a major problem here. They do not want referees to get on with players, because it benefits them from a business point of view.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3d4IYgc
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