When is it ok to Shout at the Referee?

The new term is well underway.  The initial excitement has settled into a regular operation.  School teams have been selected, and have got a few games under their belt.  For some kids, the elation of initial selection has subsided into the smug complacency of a regular team place; others hang around the margins and hope for a chance of half a game as a substitute.  Still more have suffered the wounding humiliation of rejection and drifted off into other activities. 

The regular programme of matches ticks over week by week.  The predictable rhythm of practices, checking on fitness and availability, team sheets, match logistics and fixture day has been established.  In many schools, match day is the high point of the week.  An eagerly anticipated peak of the sports programme, relished by children and parents.  These are the games that fuel the proud boasts in Monday’s assemblies and a frenzy of social media activity. 

There is much for schools to be proud of in their sports provision.  Outstanding facilities, dedicated pupils, high playing standards.  But too often, there is an elephant in the room.  It’s not the behaviour of the kids.  Expectations of them are usually high, and transgressions seriously addressed.  The behaviour of the adults is not, curiously, subject to the same standards and scrutiny.

In too many school matches, coaches feel it is entirely acceptable to make loud, frequent and often disparaging remarks about the referee.  Often happy to ignore the fact that the beleaguered official never asked for the role, but is undertaking it slightly reluctantly as an unwelcome part of the job.  Sometimes on the margins of ability and experience.  A colleague in the collegiate world of education. Schools who proudly justify the primacy of team games in their capacity to inspire empathy, self control and teamship amongst participants allow their staff to shout, unchallenged,  at the referee.  Sometimes openly disputing authority.  In public.  At the top of their voice.  There is no other educational environment which tolerates this. 

It is an unedifying sight when middle aged adults, dressed in often ill-fitting shorts, are shouting at pre-adolescent kids, and showing open dissent to the referee.  And charging up and down the touchline.  Nothing about this improves the likelihood that the players will learn to love sport.  The industry would be much improved without this behaviour.

Parents take their lead from the conduct of the coaches.  Where the norm is freely expressed, dissenting opinions, the atmosphere quickly becomes adversarial.  Where touchline shouting is the adults’ communication method of choice, the tone of the game quickly sours.  These are not situations of which schools should be proud.  Neither should they be tolerated. 

Most schools are awash with policies, and obsession with them has become the industry norm.  In the frenzy for compliance, the touchline has been left behind.  In too many schools, the need for a policy for touchline behaviour – of coaches and parents – is overdue.  Industry leading coach behaviour could be identified and documented.  And then insisted upon. 

When is it ok to shout at the referee?  Quite simply, never.