Canberra Referees Quit Due to Hostile Behaviour, Officials Say

Canberra local soccer match officials say increasingly hostile behaviour by spectators, players and coaches has led to more than 40 per cent of referees leaving their roles after just a year.

Capital Football's Delfina Shakespear, who served as an A-League match official for 13 years, told ABC Radio Canberra referee abuse was "a systemic problem across all codes" of sport.

"In terms of match officials across the ACT, our churn rate at the moment is 44 per cent every year," Ms Shakespear said.

"On your day job, if you're sitting at your desk and you do something incorrectly, someone's not going to go and stand behind you and abuse you for doing that — so why do we think it's okay to do that in a sport context?"

Twelve-year-old soccer player Henry Penhaligon, who is refereeing for the first time this year, said part of his training was preparation for possible abuse from the sidelines.

"They tell us to stay calm and get the linesman to come, then get the match official or the ref to try to sort it out," he said.

"And then if that can't help, we'll stop the game, and if that doesn't work, we just abandon the game."

The young match official said while he had not experienced any abuse while refereeing himself, he had seen it in other games, and felt it was "not needed from the parents or coaches".

Ms Shakespear said it was important to remember that local referees were involved "because they love the game" — and that just like playing a sport, umpiring took practice.

"Players are out there, they make a mistake — they might kick a ball or do a throw that's not quite right — and we don't berate them," she said.

"We want to see that translated in the way we treat referees."

Parent and spectator Sally Jeffery said she brought lessons learned from her previous experiences as a netball umpire with her when she watched children's games.

She said at age 17 she was physically assaulted while umpiring a netball game, with a spectator unhappy with one of her calls picking her up by her clothing.

"I did experience abuse direct from players in seniors comps, which was pretty hard to deal with when you're 17," Ms Jeffery said.

"As much as nobody wants to confront someone who's being aggressive, these kids are 12, 13, 14 [and] it's their first job. It's hard."

'They're doing their best'

Molonglo Football Club vice president Richard Jalland said often referee abuse boiled down to emotion.

"The players get emotional, and more so the parents and supporters can get emotional as well," he said

"Especially the junior ones that we have here — some of them it might actually be their first year, and everyone expects them to be the best referee going around."

Mr Jalland said as well as it being "really disheartening" to see match officials receive abusive treatment, it also cost clubs the referees needed for games to go ahead.

"So we have to look after our referees as much as we look after our players, our coaches and everybody else."

"They're doing their best. If you're cheering for your own team, cheer for the referee too."