Mike Riley: New IFA head of referees says managers and investment key to improving refereeing

Riley was launching a new campaign aimed at tackling abusive behaviour towards football match officials

Mike Riley believes more investment and communication with managers will be vital in helping him meet his aim of improving the quality of officiating in the Irish League.

Riley began his new role as the Irish FA's head of refereeing on Monday and held a briefing with club bosses and referees on Tuesday.

He also had a warning for the managers about the IFA's tighter disciplinary measures after an opening weekend in which four Premiership managers were shown yellow cards for dissent.

"The standard and quality of refereeing [in Northern Ireland] is good, but my responsibility is to make it even better," the former Premier League referee told BBC Sport NI.

"It is to bring my experience to bear, to talk to the IFA to bring the resource in."

He added: "It is typical of leagues throughout the world, you invest in the quality of the playing staff, you invest in the competition, and the thing that always has to catch up is refereeing.

"We are building from a good base but in order to keep pace with the development of the teams we need to invest in that support network.

"We need to look at how we can get the time for referees to train and develop, so that when they go out there in these really important matches they are as prepared as the players are."

Riley stepped down as head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for match officials in England, at the end of last season.

The 58-year-old was speaking at Windsor Park at the launch of a new campaign, called 'Catch Yourself On', that is aimed at tackling abusive behaviour towards football match officials in Northern Ireland.

He said Tuesday's briefing with managers went well and stressed the importance of communication between himself and the bosses being an ongoing process.

"What we said [on Tuesday] was they will all have my contact details by the weekend. Let's talk to each other," he continued.

"And equally, Gerard [Lawlor, Northern Ireland Football League chief executive} has a commitment to bring the managers together so that we have managers, referees and myself in a room at some point early on in the season, again so we can explore each other's views on how we make playing and refereeing better.

"We had a great conversation with the clubs. They have a stake in helping us to develop referees.

"The more we talk to each other and the more we understand each other the better off we all are. I saw some familiar faces, people I have refereed in the past who are now managers here and it is great to have those connections."

'Managers must understand where the line is'

New Ballymena boss Jim Ervin was shown a yellow card in his side's opening game

However, while stressing the need for a collaborative approach between managers and players, Riley also had a word of warning for them about tighter disciplinary measures they could face if they show dissent towards officials.

His message came after an opening weekend of Irish Premiership action that saw four managers across four matches shown a yellow card.

"We realise that passion is a good thing. Querying decisions is a good thing and having an understanding.

"But where you take it beyond that and show clear dissent, where you come out of your technical area and down the line to remonstrate with the referee or the assistant referee, or you get in the face of the referee, those are the behaviours that are not acceptable.

"They might happen in the passionate moment but when you take a step back, everyone realises that is not for the good of the game and the yellow card is the way to remind people that there is a consequence to that behaviour.

"Hopefully over time, if we keep those standards of match officials, the managers will understand where the line is and they don't cross it."

"It is, yes," he added when asked if a red card could be produced if managers do cross the line.

"The IFA have taken an awful lot of time over the summer to look at the disciplinary procedures and to say 'these behaviours deserve these sanctions' because we don't want people to actually do them in the first place."

While discussing the aims of the 'Catch Yourself On' campaign across all levels of football, Riley stressed his desire to see more female referees in Northern Irish football.

"Hopefully what we can do is grow the number of women officials because the opportunities for refereeing in the women's game are phenomenal at the moment."