Referee "Strike"

[annacotty]

This post should probably be placed under general or some such heading, but as this referee dispute seems to be limited to Limerick, I'll try here.

Question - Does anyone know why the referees have withdrawn their services resulting in no schoolboy soccer in Limerick ?

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well perhaps this is not specifically the Limerick situation, but referees in schoolboy football the Length and breadth of the country complain about the abuse they get from the sidelines, not from team officials , but parents of the players on the park. A lot of the time it is strictly verbals. Some clubs in Dublin have already had to ban certain parents from attending their games.
In one particular case a player banned his father from attending games
he was playing in as he felt the referees were antagonised by his father's sideline antics.

Referees tend to be on their own in these games they are therefore more vulnerable than Eircom League officials and some referees have even been assaulted by parents and spectators at schoolboy matches in Dublin and in Cork. I can only surmise that something similar has probably happened in Limerick too, given that the city is a soccer hotbed and is up to speed on many developments in the game , good and evil. And the strike is being undertaken by the referees in an attempt to get some action taken to stamp out this particular nasty development in the game.

[inexile]

got the whole low down last night from a member involved in the proceedings what happened was an elderly referee got seriously abused outside in corbally refereeing a schoolboy match from a parent not even a mentor or a player so seemingly the referees leds by the biggest pr1ck of the lot dave weldrick and the b1tch imelda o hanlon have decided that the only way to go it a wildcat strike,which i feel is ridiculous as the are punishing the children as opposed to the clubs and withdrawing their services. Fair enough the referee in question is a gentleman and shouldnt have been abused but surely there is another way to sort this out? Interesting also to note that the above 2 referees have great notions about themselves but are 2 of the worst around Limerick

[annacotty]

Absolutely agree with you that it is the children who are suffering.
Hope this parent realises this too, along with the all the referees who I assume were given a chance to vote on their current course of action.
With re to ability of referees - as a schoolboy team manager, I havn't had the pleasure of either of the 2 mentioned refs being in charge of my boys, so can't comment on their performances on the field in a schoolboy match. My daughter played in an U16 cup final under the auspices of Imelda and I have to say that she (Imelda) had a good game.
The 2 main problems with refs as I see it are -
firstly, there are not enough due to the fact that some parents, players & mentors are too quick to abuse them (verbally & physically). How would these people react if while going about their daily work, someone walks in off the street and screams and shouts abuse at them. Secondly, referees are being paid a standard fee dependent on grade of match, but the quality of service is inconsistent which can lead to some hot heads reacting. Hence we go back to the first problem. Going round in circles then...
However, I must admit that from what I have seen, soccer refs have it easy in comparison to those involved in GAA.

[LFC in Exile]

Fair enough the referee in question is a gentleman and shouldnt have been abused but surely there is another way to sort this out? Interesting also to note that the above 2 referees have great notions about themselves but are 2 of the worst around Limerick

Isn't it funny that even though you are not at a match just sitting at your keyboard and still you throw abuse at referees? You imply that if the referee in question was not a gentleman then he should have been abused.

I'm not a referee and I have been booked many times for getting frustrated at bad referees - or should I say when they gave decisions against me. There is no excuse for abusing a referee at a schoolboy match. None. End of story. You talk about the kids suffering - well, how much do they suffer when people are put off refereeing by apes on the sidelines, many of whom are too lazy to do the job themselves. I am not convinced that a strike is the way to go but something has to be done. The clubs will not do anything so what's left. Maybe fines and bans might be the way to go instead or else allow referees to call off matches if the abuse gets too much and award the game to the other side.

We need solutions, not further abuse at those that are actually doing something.

[deise deserter]

LFC in Exile:

I hate to be throwing in with the mob but judging on my experiences with Mr Weldrick he has no place to get stroppy about this behaviour. The hassle he gave his son when he played with Limerick was incredible.

Pot-Kettle.

PS: Its a disgrace that this is happening. The simple solutioon is to ban certain parents, involve the gardai for these parents if it persists and place another official at games which are trouble hotspots.

The children may be younger but it seems clear who is the most childish party.

[inexile]

LFC in Exile i wasnt for one second implying that if a referee isnt a gentleman he should be abused i was trying to say that it makes it worse as the ref in question has been around refereeing schoolboy football for about 200 hundred years and is well know in all circles yet he can still get abuse
as for my opinions on weldrick and o manlon they are as people and nothing to do with them as referees