With or without you - the refereeing dilemma

SOCCER

There are currently 76 referees in County Donegal who are registered with the FAI. Of those, 29 officiate only at schoolboys level. Twenty of the registered referees are allocated to the Inishowen League, leaving the other 27 to go between the Donegal League and the Ulster Senior League.

“Our refereeing numbers have been fairly consistent over the years,” says Aidan Redican, Chairman of Connacht-Ulster Regional Referees Committee.

“That is registration numbers, now. The number is still very low for junior and intermediate football. We have guys who do the course and the only intention is to do schoolboys football. A lot don’t make the transition and a lot don’t want to make the transition.

“Back in 1995, when I did the course, as soon as I finished I was straight into it - the starting point for it was junior football.”

Soccer referees are graded on a category system, going from category one to category five.

The category one officials are those who officiate in the Ulster Senior League and are deemed capable of moving to a higher level.

Given the dearth in numbers, it has not always been possible for the appropriately graded official to be in a match of a certain level.

“For example, if we have two Ulster Senior League games on a Sunday, that causes a major problem,” Redican explains.

“We use the USL officials in both the USL and the Premier Division of the Donegal League. The USL try to use three officials in every game and we have been fortunate that a lot of USL games are played midweek.

“You can end up with a moral question - do you allow a certain game to be called off or do we facilitate them all? The moral argument wins all the time.

“Leagues are allowed to appoint their own officials. We then depend on officers to follow the grading structure. Because numbers are so tight, Leagues will appoint anyone at the expense of the grading system.”

An ageing workforce is also causing concern.

Of the 76 registered referees, Redican estimates that ‘easily’ 15 per cent are north of 60 years of age. The oldest official in the county is 69.

“Those officials were brought up in an era where if you’re supposed to be somewhere, you’re there, whereas younger people will pull out of things quicker,” he says.

“We have a number of people of a certain vintage who can’t move on as they can’t see a situation where they can hand over the reins. The pressure is on, but there has to be a time when we allow these people to step over.

“If you look at the thing overall, Covid did the FAI a favour with courses going online. The turnout is tenfold compared to when before Covid started, but we have the age-old problem, where people just want to do schoolboys games only. We are not getting a significant number in. Guys coming into junior football stay maybe one year, two, but that’s it.

“The onus is on leagues and clubs to sort it out. This year, we certainly have struggled like no other.

“I do feel that we are in need of going down a similar road to the GAA in putting that onus firmly on clubs and making them supply officials. We have too many football teams now.”

Two officials in Donegal - Richard Storey and Michael Connolly - are part of the senior League of Ireland panel.

Recent years have seen the League of Ireland stretch its own numbers to include Leagues at under-13, under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels.

“We would never have used League of Ireland officials as regularly in the USL, but we are fully dependent on them to remain,” Redican says.

“Leagues have also brought in more teams with no consultation with referees. No-one ever asks us what we think about more teams or a new division. It gets landed on the top of us.

“Between the months of June and September, you have national underage leagues, ladies football, underage football.”

In one week this summer, he points out, there were 96 games in one week alone in the Donegal Schoolboys League.

Redican’s jurisdiction sees him oversee referees from Galway to Inishowen and he sees the same issues in all Leagues.

“The whole thing can be very frustrating,” he says.

“The same problems are appearing everywhere: Not enough refs, too many games, appointments officers not respecting the category system, not enough women coming into refereeing.

“In summertime, if you’re the type of referee who wants to make a few bob, you’ll make plenty. You could be doing a match every evening and a couple on a Saturday and Sunday.

“The whole other area of abuse of matches and the level of it towards officials is unacceptable. If you look at the quality of a match, if a referee is doing well and gets abuse, that is just completely unacceptable.

“If a guy has an off day or is in a match that they shouldn’t be in, maybe doing a match between teams notoriously difficult to handle because of a selection out of necessity, then that’s a different matter.”

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GAA

The volume of abuse towards officials in Donegal GAA in 2021 was ‘crazy’, it has been said. One referee in the county told of being phoned at 2am over a game.

“I feel we really need to realise if we don’t have them we won’t have games,” Donegal GAA Referees Administrator Michelle Bennett says. On Monday-week, Ms Bennett will present her annual report to the Donegal GAA Convention.

A concerning level of abuse on various mediums has been raised

“Not only do referees receive abuse coming off the field of play but they can now also be awakened as they sleep at night by some social media surfers who having lost a game decide to vent their anger/have a laugh, as they make their way home from the pub, night club or the late-night party,” she says.

A ’tirade’ against a referee on a live broadcast of a game was ‘unfair and uncalled for’, she says, adding that ‘belittling’ comments, made either on social media or broadcast media, have had an adverse effect on some officials.

At the outset of 2021, there were 72 referees on the books of Donegal GAA.

Eight of those stepped back before the start of the 2021 campaign, leaving 64 active referees. Of those 64, around 10 officiate solely at underage level.

A similar strain, due to a sheer volume of games and a lack of adequate numbers, is seen in Gaelic Games as in soccer.

One referee has taken charge of around 100 games this year between senior football, senior hurling and underage games.

“The 64 we have on our books are covering everything: adults, underage, women, hurling,” Ms Bennett says.

“I have one referee who took charge of five games in seven days.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t have refs you don’t have games.”

In 2019, 17 new referees were recruited with nine of those still active. Of the 12 referees who joined in 2020, only four stayed.

“We are in bother and we do need to recruit,” Ms Bennett says.

“There is never a weekend where you have any spare officials. Guys give their availability on a Sunday and they’re allocated to games from there.

“One weekend this year, we were down a total of 19 referees and we had the whole fixture list to cover.

“The commitment from the referees is exceptional. They have lives too, work and family commitments. They have shown themselves really well in the last two years and they have had a lot of cross-overs too.

“We all know what clubs need to do, but it’s hard on clubs too. There has been no recruitment for nearly two years now so it’s not completely their fault.”

There were ‘a few’ adult games cancelled due to non-availability of a referee in 2021, Ms Bennett notes.

Similar concerns over the ageing officials persists in Gaelic Games, while eleven clubs have no active referee at present.

Other counties have regulations in place where clubs with no active referee either have no home games or lose home advantage in Championship fixtures.

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BOXING

Peter O’Donnell, the President of the County Donegal Boxing Board, says that the situation in the sport with officials is ‘very, very bad’ at the moment.

This weekend, he notes, the whole province of Ulster is unable to supply five officials for the start of the National Schoolboy and Schoolgirl Championships.

“We are only able to send four officials down the road,” O’Donnell says. “It’s mainly because of a lot of expense and effort. People are having to take time off their work, travel to Dublin, sometimes also needing to stay a night. It’s an awful lot of time and effort for people who are working.”

At present, there is just one active referee - James McCarron - readily available for club shows in the county, O’Donnell says.

“We haven’t had a boxing show in Donegal since March 2020, but it is a big problem.

“We see a big problem where a lot do the tests, advance themselves and get themselves up to one or two-star officials and they aren’t seen again.

“It’s a lot of time and effort for people who are working and is really a task for people who aren’t working.”

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ATHLETICS

Former Irish Athletics Team Manager Patsy McGonagle says athletics is ‘very fortunate’ when it comes to stewards and officials for events.

“Host clubs have a lot of work to do in terms of setting up courses and then either stewarding or officiating,” McGonagle says.

“There are some big events in Donegal, like the North West 10k in Letterkenny, the Cara in Bundoran and the Ballyliffin Coastal Challenge, which are held on roads and are always very well stewarded.

“A lot of that comes down to local clubs being fortunate with the good will of locals and members.

“At track and field, it is the same. There is never an issue with officials and bear in mind some events could last five or six hours so the demands are serious,

“Then again, there is no abuse of officials. Officials officiate and there is no abuse levelled at them. That is a starting point for some other sports.”