We can look all the way back to the formation of the Football Association (FA) in 1863 and see that around this time referees were being abused and sometimes attacked by gamblers who blamed them for giving decisions that led to them losing their bet and also their money. So, the real questions become why have we not deal with this abuse over time and what can we do now to reduce this abuse?

There have been campaigns to reduce abuse towards sports officials. For example, in football, the FA launched the Respect Programme in 2008. However, despite recent promotion of the role of the referee in football, abuse towards referees is still a significant problem, with referees continuing to leave football. There are a growing number of matches that do not have referees because the numbers are too low. This will continue to happen unless abuse towards referees in football is dealt with. Abuse towards the officials also happens in other sports.

This abuse in sport tends to come from three different groups, players, coaches and supporters. This abuse also differs depending on the level of sport. We see abuse in elite sport competitions, such as the Premier League, and this abuse impacts upon the game at lower levels as players and coaches copy the behaviour they see on TV. We know that verbal abuse at lower levels is more likely to lead to physical abuse as there is easier access to the pitch at lower levels, less security and a referee or official who often operates on their own.

Because we know that players, coaches and supporters are the groups that are part of the problem, we also know that they can be part of the solution. Better understanding about the role and importance of the referee/sports official through education can help, but so can the idea that improving behaviour towards referees and sports officials can also improve the general sporting environment for everyone involved. We need a positive approach to referees and sports officials; we need to increase the numbers of sports officials across sport and to do this we have to improve the environment around sport.

This improvement can start with the treatment of sports officials. We can also focus on the behaviour of supporters/parents on the touchline or side-lines, the behaviour of coaches and how they operate on game day and these two groups will then help to positively influence the behaviour of players.

Officials are leaving sport, and abuse towards them is one of the main reasons. Without officials we do not have competitive sport. However, we need to improve behaviour across sport. This can start with officials but should impact upon the entire sporting environment to increase enjoyment for all participants.

As part of his research Dr Webb is currently looking at supporters and players and you can help with this research by completing the relevant survey below:

Players – https://portsmouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/sport-participant-survey

Supporters – https://portsmouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/sport-spectator-survey

Dr Tom Webb, Senior Lecturer Sport Management, School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science, University of Portsmouth has been researching and working with sports officials and governing bodies of sport for over 15 years. He works to reduce abuse in sport and improve sporting environments for players, coaches, supporters and officials.

In this episode Martha Lourey-Bird and Gordon MacLelland discuss sports parenting and specifically supporting our daughters and young females in sport.

Martha shares her experiences of being a sports parent to two high performing children and the different approaches they take in supporting their son and daughter.

She also shares all of her experience from working across a range of amazing projects around women and girls in sport allowing us all to take something away to help support our sports programmes and our daughters at home.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Drop out of sport in young females
• The major mental, physical and social benefits of involving our young children in sport
• The importance of fun, friendship and socialisation for girls
• Being innovative with the sporting programmes that we offer
• Giving girls a voice in the process to shape their programmes
• Making sure girls feel welcome and facilities are appropriate
• The huge challenges of gender inequality in sport
• If you can see it, you can be it
• Managing the car journey home
• Supporting our children to take ownership of their sporting experience as they get older
• The huge support network required to raise high performing athletes

Martha is a Sports and Exercise Scientist, a 15-year lecturer at the University of New South Wales’ Faculty of Medicine and has an international corporate career in women’s health. Currently, she manages the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup women and girls legacy programs.

Martha contributes her expertise globally to both the sports industry and corporate sector, always working to improve sports participation and/or physical activity levels. 

To find out more about Martha’s work click here.

Parents are often asked to step up into the role of coach; it’s a big step from watching on the side-lines to being responsible for the wellbeing of not only your child but also the rest of the team.

In creating this new book, CEO Gordon MacLelland has tapped into the world of the parent/coach viewing it from not only his experience but of that of some of the UK’s top sports personalities and other coaches involved at grassroots level.

Featuring interviews from 23 of the UK’s leading sports figures including Michael Vaughan, Stuart Lancaster, Liz McColgan and David Leadbetter.

“It is a great privilege to be part of this project alongside so many leading figures from across the sporting world covering such a wide range of sports. It is certainly enlightening seeing so many similarities across sports in terms of coaching your own child as well as some of the uniqueness that each sporting environment can provide.” Harry Redknapp

Author Gordon MacLelland says, “I am delighted to bring this unique product to the sporting world, inspired by personal experience and what I have heard and observed from so many parent coaches.

These parents are the bedrock of many sporting communities and I wanted to play my part in helping to support them on their coaching journey.

The feedback to the project has been astounding and I am humbled by the time and encouragement given by so many leading sports stars, across such a wide range of sports.”

Taryn Johnston, Executive Director of FCM Publishing says: “Having been a parent coach myself, I know first-hand the ways in which you can be pulled both emotionally and with your time. I wish that there had been a book like this when I set out as it explains, simply and easily the things to consider, before accepting the coach position.”

This book was created to provide a resource for anyone who may be considering coaching. With sport now back on our TV and schools returning this September, there will be a push to get children back involved in sporting activities, along with this, the vacancies of coach slot, which will inevitably, need to be filled.

“I think it’s really important for a parent to explain their plans to their children so that they understand where it is going and what the end goal is.” Liz McColgan

In Two Hats we look at mindset, psychology and family challenges – ensuring that home life doesn’t suffer when becoming a coach. It also offers tips on how to engaging other parents, keeping your head under pressure and gives amazing insights from professionals on the parts they enjoyed the most, and crucially, the things they’d do differently.

To order your copy now please click here.

Yellow for Yelling is the brainchild of founder Ken Willner and is a social Enterprise passionate about keeping children in sport, and through collaboration with international and local professionals, will provide a fresh approach to allow all young people to be inclusive and flourish in sport.

The program aims to increase the level of enjoyment, achievement and personal development. People who take part in the program will enrich their experience in junior sport.

The short term aim is to increase the retention rate in football in South Australia of children from ages 13-17 by 50% by 2025. This means 3000 more participants remain playing compared to 2019.

Together, the three pillars of the program form a framework of disciplinary knowledge. It develops young people’s intrinsic motivation, resilience, mental health, humility, courage & commitment. It fosters greater engagement between parents, coaches and players.

The program will later be expanded into school environments and other sports.

To find out more about what you should be looking for then click here.

We are often asked about how we feel about these events and our stance has always been that we love the concept and motivation behind running these but also feel that something needs to be done to help support the sporting parents on the side during the process.

These events are fantastic for raising awareness, but must also provide some positive channels for discussion and the opportunity for parents to understand why a certain type of support is more beneficial for their child’s development and enjoyment; this has not always been particularly well addressed.

In some quarters it has been seen as another opportunity to criticise and bash parents for displaying in what many ways are just normal human emotions.  Granted, some of these behaviours can be extremely misguided but what have we really done to address those beliefs?!

The issues that we face on the sidelines can be traced all the way back to Roman times.  Sport was always a release from the sterile nature of day to day life and an opportunity to let off some steam. People merely wanted to have fun when watching the gladiatorial games and in many ways sporting parents have continued this trend.

Life has become sterile for many and do we really want to take away the excitement for them watching their child play and being involved in sport?  Also, is silence a natural environment to be involved in in the first place?

Parents behave in a way that society perceives sport, the games they watch in stadiums or the matches they see on TV and merely fall into line with these environments when watching their children play.  It is not high on their agenda to be thinking about the ins and outs of sports coaching and child development.

That is the role for us as coaches and educators to help support them.

Sport is passion and we need to find new and engaging ways to support sporting parents and allow them to channel what quite frankly are normal emotions.  The weekend is a time for them to allow some of their passion out!

There is no doubt that local bragging rights can often be at stake and many poor behaviours are due to that fear of dented pride.

If that is the case ‘The Silent Weekend’ goes against all normal levels of human emotion and could we maybe try something a bit different that is far more natural and perhaps allow parents to adapt behaviours during the process.

Many parents are peaceable human beings (not all) who would be happy to be guided by clubs, coaches and other parents.

As a result, we all have a great responsibility to ensure the environments that we create are natural, but still crucially allow our children to flourish and develop.

So how does this sound as a concept? – We would love to hear your feedback.

‘The Noisy Weekend’ – parents are allowed to make as much noise as they want watching their children play, creating a wonderful atmosphere but we put against that the following set of guidelines:

1. You must not shout any instructions to your child or any other player on your team.
2. You must not shout anything aimed at the official.
3. You may not shout at an opposition player but you may praise them if they did something well.
4. You may not shout towards the opposition coach or parents.
5. You can be as ‘Noisy’ as you wish following the guidelines above.

With our work on the sides of some grassroots matches we have witnessed some absolute crackers.  Great games, great support from the sidelines, huge ovations for both sets of players for putting on the most fantastic, entertaining game of sport.  It can be done, that lovely mix however can be difficult to find and requires all parties involved in that specific match to hold similar beliefs and approach the contest in the right way.

We are not claiming to have found the solution to the problems on the sidelines but is it worth us being creative, trying different things that raise awareness but crucially create environments that are natural, that allow everyone to flourish and allow everyone to look forward to their matches at the weekend.