Crawford Allan: Scottish FA ref's chief says abusive culture getting worse
- Published
Crawford Allan's refereeing team is working with grassroots football associations to try to improve conduct towards match officials
Scotland is losing as many referees as it trains, in part because of abuse, says the Scottish FA's head of referee operations Crawford Allan.
A BBC survey of more than 900 referees in England showed almost all had suffered verbal abuse, and about one third had been physically attacked by spectators, players or coaching staff.
"It's not just an English problem," Allan told BBC Scotland's The Nine.
"Clearly it's something that affects Scotland, affects football globally."
The SFA did not take part in the survey since it coincided with one its officials helping facilitate for Uefa in January - the results of which have still to be published, Allan explained.
However, he recognised the increasingly aggressive behaviour towards match officials in the BBC Radio 5 Live survey findings
"The culture has developed over many, many years and it's something we are aware of," added Allan.
"If we were to put out a survey similar to that, we would expect, sadly, similar results.
"It's five years since I stopped refereeing. I came through grassroots football. I refereed for seven, eight, nine years through the various levels. I have seen a difference in the last five years, post-Covid as well.
"We're working with the various amateur FAs, youth FAs, to look at the behaviours on the sidelines.
"In youth football the players want to get on and play football - it's the coaches and it's the parents. They're enthusiastic and they want to give their kids support. Sometimes it goes that little bit too far."
Allan said while referee numbers are holding steady, they still struggle to increase the pool of officials.
"We did a survey and, over the last three or four years in terms of recruitment, we still get the same numbers coming through into refereeing, but we're losing the same out the back door.
"When we ask referees why they stop, they say they're moving house, changing job, life has changed.
"But a lot of them say, 'I knew I'd get shouted at but I didn't realise it would be as bad'."