Club Respect

Our guest is the man behind 'The Referee Forum', the internet's biggest and best independent resource for referees. He's an ordained minister and his website's hashtags #AbuseUsLoseUs and #NoRefLeftBehind sum up his muscular global advocacy for match officials, which includes challenging online trolls. It's great to catch up with Ant Canavan who joins us from England.

The incident begged the question. How did a professional sport get to the stage where respect is so deeply and intrinsically embedded, that criticising an umpire is considered a shock that upends the sport?

For some, the lack of umpiring capability is the primary cause of abuse whilst for many, there is a ‘blame culture’ in which the players can make many mistakes in the game but umpires are not afforded the same luxury to make mistakes, learn and grow.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics continued the honourable spirit of the Olympics providing great moments of inspiration and the athletes, guides, coaches, officials, media and volunteers all lived and breathed the International Paralympic Committee values of Courage, Determination, Inspiration and…

Whether we want to believe it or not, so much of how we view the game is by someone telling us how we’re viewing it and seeing it. If the commentators switched to neutrality or positivity, then over a small period of time, people would naturally think positively or neutrally about refereeing.

We are a small [sports] Association struggling with the behaviour of a small group of members who are part of a club which is aboriginal based. We don’t want this bad behaviour tainting the whole club or being adopted by the younger members of the club.

Here are 12 examples of the Olympic Spirit in which respect was shown and the world brought closer through the power of sport. #StrongerTogether

Putting on a front that says: “We’re a big happy family and side by side we stick together” and all of that pressure to get along hides and creates a reluctance to confront mental health issues at an individual level and confront real problems at an organisational level.

Include a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) plan in the strategic planning for your club committee. This can ensure your club is acknowledging the broader role it plays in embracing Aboriginal and Torres Strait, and have a sound framework to achieve goals around reconciliation and inclusion.

When a player is ‘working the referee’ according to Hatzoglou, there are two key factors at play. In addition to inviting abuse of the referee from fans who believe they are backing their player, the referee is denied the authentic feedback loop to improve their performance.