Kent: Abuse of grassroots referees leads to call for action

The Kent FA has lost nearly a quarter of its referees since last season

Calls for grassroots football referees to be respected have been made amid a sharp drop in people signing up to officiate matches in Kent.

Kent Football Association development officer Nick Dunn listed a series of incidents reported in a single weekend.

They included a referee being punched and another being followed into his dressing room by a manager.

The Kent FA now has 24% fewer referees since the end of the 2020/2021 season, with many matches played without one.

"Given many grassroots competitions have now commenced, it is exceptionally upsetting and worrying that there is a severe shortage of match officials; not only a concern for us in Kent but one shared nationally," said Mr Dunn, in an open letter published on the Kent FA website.

"The number of games that appear to not have had a referee over the weekend in our county are, without doubt, at an all-time high."

Weekly occurrence

Mr Dunn said referees were facing an unacceptable level of physical and verbal abuse, as he called for match officials to be treated with respect.

"It is a weekly occurrence, and only builds to the catalogue of similar stories we have had in recent seasons; referees being hospitalised, an under-18 referee being physically punched by an adult player.

"This weekend one of our most experienced referees was punched in the face after 13 minutes of a game, and that's not acceptable."

Mr Dunn said two qualified referees and two trainees quit over the weekend because of the verbal abuse they received.

Nick Dunn is the Kent FA's referee development officer

"It's the first year we've really struggled to recruit referees for our tournament," said Dwayne Ellis, women's team manager at Aylesford FC.

"Even in the first couple of weeks of the season we've seen there are less referees than in previous years."

Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch, a former sports minister and a qualified football coach, said other local FAs should follow Kent's lead and take tough action.

"They need to sanction people who are badly behaved towards the referee, otherwise grassroots football is going to fail."

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