Football Victoria aims to clamp down on ref abuse and anti-social behaviour

It comes as Football Victoria aims to stamp out anti-social behaviour on and off the pitch.

Interim chief executive Karen Pearce said the governing body was “drawing a line in the sand for 2024, saying enough is enough”.

“Referees are one of the most important stakeholders in the football community and without them we simply wouldn’t have a game to play every weekend,” she said.

“Anecdotally, we began hearing increasing reports regarding the verbal and physical abuse of referees after we returned to playing football following the Covid-19 lockdowns.

“We now have confirmation of that and we intend to explore every avenue to do something about it. Any abuse is completely unacceptable and we will protect our referees and our footballing community at all costs.”

Football Victoria’s 2023 annual report ­revealed it would zero in on abuse.

Offences against match officials were up a whopping 44 per cent last season with 169 incidents recorded across all competitions.

Cases of “offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures” were up 76 per cent on the 2022 season.

“All stakeholders agree that action is urgently needed to reverse the growing poor treatment of referees and the risks of young people not seeing football as part of their future, be that as a participant or as a spectator,” the report said.

“The Referee Welfare system that has now been used for (the) past two seasons has shown our match officials operate in one of the most hostile environments recorded.

“A concerning trend amongst the increase in red card and misconduct penalty numbers is that the number of offences against match officials is disproportionately high.

“Combating this trend will be an area of focus for the department in the next year, which is of particular importance as the total number of match officials registered to FV is on an upward trend.”

Bad behaviour across different competitions also saw more than $369,000 in revenue generated from fines and penalties across the state – a rise of 43 per cent on 2022.

“Aside from the trend of negative behaviour towards match officials, the increased level of scrutiny applied to clubs has also discovered an unwelcome decrease in the standard of behaviour displayed on the sidelines by spectators,” the report said.

“Fighting this slip in standards will form the second area of focus for the upcoming season.

“To curb anti-social behaviour, we are working to establish ways in which action and change can take place on the field and post-match by the introduction of extra education and sanctions to make the game safer for all.”

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Last year also saw a of 50 per cent increase in the number of female referees across the state with that figure only expected to rise.

In November, Football Victoria hosted a female only referee course, covering the cost participants, which had 90 potential officials attend.

On of the worst examples of bad player behaviour in 2023 was in May when a State League 5 men’s game between Mt Eliza and Barton United was called off after a player was struck in the back and forced to spend two nights in hospital.

Originally published as Football Victoria aims to clamp down on ref abuse and anti-social behaviour