Shopping soccer sides for swearing

One of the world’s oldest football leagues is to introduce secret shoppers to spy on officials and players who swear during games, its chairman said.

The Northern League, formed in 1889, could then name and shame the worst offending clubs and provide financial bonuses for those who keep it clean.

The league, which has 46 clubs from Alnwick, Northumberland, to Northallerton, has led a number of high-profile campaigns against swearing, which is contrary to the laws of the game, and which puts off families from watching.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Next season the league will send secret shoppers to monitor games – despite the opposition of certain members opposed to snooping.

League chairman Mike Amos said: “If you go to a Premier League game with 50,000 people there and the players and management are effing and blinding, you can’t hear it, and so in a sense, it doesn’t matter. But if you are at a game with 100 people in the ground, you can hear.

“People say to me ‘it’s a passionate game’ and it is, but it is also a disciplined game.”

Mr Amos said the laws of football allow a referee to send off a player or manager who uses offensive language, but few do.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Match officials may be wary of being marked down by clubs if they tackle the issue – meaning referees would struggle to get promotion through the leagues.

Mr Amos, who has been league chairman for 16 years, said the FA could stamp out the issue if they took a stand, but it seemed reluctant to do so.

A previous attempt to tackle swearing by introducing a zero tolerance policy failed to win the governing body’s backing, after it was initially praised by the FA.

“We are not going to persuade the referees to act without the FA’s backing, so we have to persuade the clubs and their personnel not to do it,” he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

League chiefs know the worst offending clubs and the chairman said those with managers who swear from the technical area also had a problem with players using bad language. “If the managers are disciplined, then the players tend to be,” he said.