There’s a correlation between disputes at local football matches & what we see in games on TV – it needs to end

ABUSE towards match officials is becoming an increasing problem.

Premier League side Nottingham Forest recently shocked fans with a bombshell statement after being denied three penalties in a 2-0 defeat to Everton.

They slammed the choice of referee Stuart Attwell as an official on VAR for the game.

He was said to be a supporter of fellow relegation battlers Luton Town. 

Sky Sports commentator and former Manchester United star Gary Neville said Mark Clattenburg must resign from his  Forest ref consultant role after the club’s “embarrassing” statement.

Meanwhile, closer to home, an Oireachtas sports committee in 2021 heard how referees face physical attacks, intimidation and threats in the course of carrying out their duties at games across the country.

The FAI revealed two-thirds of refs leave the game within two years due to abuse.

Here, QPR fan and Fianna Fail Senator Shane Cassells, Seanad spokesman on media and sport, says there is a direct link between the abuse at local football matches and what happens at big games on our TV screens.

CRIMECALL on RTE used to be the only show in town when it came to the use of CCTV crime scene footage.

Not anymore, as the number one show for close-up action replays is Monday morning’s Ref Watch on Sky Sports News.

The only difference is that this show’s focus is on “crimes on the pitch”.

Well, at least the Sky Sports pundits would have you believe they are!

The show, which features Dubliner and former Premier League ref Dermot Gallagher, goes through all the dodgy referee decisions from the weekend’s action.

The boys in the studio had an absolute field day last week following the surreal official tweet by Nottingham Forest FC in response to what they deemed a trio of poor referee calls in their game against Everton, which they lost 2-0.

The tweet, which has the backing of former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, who now works for Nottingham Forest, stated that they had warned the league beforehand that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Stuart Attwell was a Luton Town fan.

The implication being that he would be biased against Nottingham Forest because Luton Town are in the middle of a relegation battle with them.

So here we had a former referee accusing a current ref of clear bias against a Premier League side when it came to three big penalty decisions not awarded.

'Bizarre beyond belief'

This was bizarre beyond belief. Especially considering Clattenburg was once a top world ref who would know full well the pressures associated with making big calls.

The FA looks set to throw the book at Forest over the statement, while Clattenburg could also be in hot water.

But the question is whether Clattenburg is guilty on his own or if the whole game is guilty for how they have allowed such a focus to be put on referees in the first place. Leaving aside the rights or wrongs of Clattenburg’s bizarre tweet, the whole issue of the microscopic focus on the performance of the referee is what is interesting here.

It is, in fact, providing the fuel that leads to people, and in this case, actual football clubs, believing they can make whatever accusation they want about the decisions of referees.

In one sense, is it any wonder that we have crazy tweets coming out from clubs about referees when the very broadcast partners of the leagues see them as fair game every Monday morning and produce an entire programme analysing their performance?

Smallest decisions replayed

They go back over the smallest of decisions in super slow motion and then, from the comfort of their armchair with a coffee in hand, they deem that the decision was wrong. Try making that call in front of 40,000 roaring fans as you run to keep up with 22 elite athletes.

In fairness to the main panellist, Dermot Gallagher, he is a rock of sense each Monday and he is not prone to making outlandish statements.

But the Premier League knows full well that football in today’s age is a TV production from beginning to end — and that to keep the punters hooked, it is about filling each day with news about the game.

So they are quite happy that their broadcast partner shows these programmes because it keeps the public talking about their product.

Abuse of officials

Last year, in my work as a member of the Oireachtas sports committee, we produced a report on the abuse suffered by officials across all sports in Ireland.

There were some pretty harrowing tales told to us during the course of our work, and they ranged from online abuse to verbal abuse and, in the worst case, actual physical abuse.

It came on the back of referees in the Dublin School Boys League going on strike because of the abuse they were receiving on the sideline.

There is no doubt that there is a direct correlation between the abuse that happens at local football matches and what happens at the big games on our TV screens.

New tipping point

When top people in the game feel it is alright to openly accuse officials of corruption, we know we have reached a new tipping point.

The FA will undoubtedly come down hard against Forest for the comments.

However, they are not blameless, and they have helped create the 24/7 media monster that now covers the Premier League because it is the cash cow for their revenues. When they take a cold, hard look at themselves in the mirror, they will realise the comments are a by-product of the animal they have created.

But I don’t expect they will be looking in that mirror anytime soon.