An interesting and actually quite depressing read on the abuse of officials in the #USA . It's such an issue that it's threatening the fabric of youth sport. We know this is a global problem, it's going to take significant cultural change to have an impact.
espn.com/high-school/st…

Un año de investigación con mi colega el Dr Tom Webb, presentamos el estudio a UEFA: conclusiones para mejorar el #arbitraje en Europa 🙂 ⚽ 👩‍⚖️ 🇪🇺 Gracias RFEF por el apoyo: 1drv.ms/b/s!AmJTH0blml…

Looking forward to presenting findings today with Iñaki A. following the submission of our report to #UEFA . Understanding #referee recruitment/retention is vital to the safeguarding of football across Europe - more to come in this space.
Coventry University Business in Society Coventry University Research

There seem to be a lot of developments around #VAR at the moment....now #FIFA are trialling the coaches being able to challenge decisions. It will be interesting to see how these trials evolve.
espn.com/soccer/story/_…

...and here's the problem with scrapping #VAR . Of course, no VAR in the #WSL  but in the #spurs v #chelsea match, an incident has created a talking point. How long before this happens in the #EPL if VAR is removed?!

Following Sweden, perhaps with the clubs there raising objections. It will be very interesting to see how the #EPL clubs vote. If #VAR is removed, it will have been an extremely costly experiment.
skysports.com/football/news/…

Some worrying examples from #Australia of #abuse and poor behaviour from parents towards young sports officials. It's good that #sports are acting and recognising that there is an issue, but clearly abuse towards young officials is a #safeguarding concern.
amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.ne…

An individual has now been arrested and bailed in connection with this abuaive incident in Welsh football. The police have moved quickly to respond to this.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-…

The police are already investigating this incident and trying to understand what happened. It has also emerged that the assistant referee who was allegedly assaulted is believed to be 17. The statement suggests the assistant referee was a Penrhyn player.
theguardian.com/football/2024/…

Just when you think you've seen it all with #referee abuse, something like this happens. A young official, learning the game, assaulted by a grown man. This is absolutely shocking and shows why more needs to be done around the safety of young officials. This shouldn't happen!

Interesting move. I wonder if other leagues might follow?
#VAR
thetimes.co.uk/article/41bde8…

Delighted to be doing a keynote talk on referee abuse, recuritment, and retention at Welsh Rugby Union 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Integrity Symposium at Principality Stadium. Lots going on in Welsh rugby attempting to tackle negative behaviour & improving environments.
Business in Society
Coventry University
Coventry University Research

The fast promotion of ex-pros is often promoted as a way to improve #refereeing . It's far more complicated and difficult to achieve though. There are big gaps in the amount of training and development required and time needed to do it, salary differences are also a barrier.

Dr Tom Webb Spot on, the expectation is 100% accuracy. Even subjective decisions.
The only team not allowed to make a mistake.
Fans don't even know how many good decisions are made weekly, and how high accuracy levels actually are.
No wonder we are losing so many refs at grassroots 😢

We've had #NFFC questioning #VAR integrity following the #Everton game, now have #FCBarcelona questioning VAR after #ElClasico with #RealMadrid . There was a successful challenge following a VAR error in Belgium and that seems to have set a precedent.
espn.co.uk/football/story…

This is a very slippery slope. The replayed game was in the Belgian league, I said at the time that it would lead to other challenges. Clubs are asking for games to be re-refereed. The introduction of #VAR has led to an apparent intolerance of any errors.
google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…

Great event European Handball Federation, with so many #referees and administrators from around Europe. Pleasure to be involved and contribute towards understanding of abuse, recruitment/retention.
  #EuropeanHandballFederation #refereeingconvention  Photo: Eva Manhart.
eurohandball.com/en/news/en/gra…

Not sure what Forest think they will achieve with this. I'm also not clear what role Mark Clattenburg has had in all of this, but surely the club should be dealing with these issues privately and keeping this sort of thing off the social media channels. Irresponsible is the word.