'We've got to create the right environment for players and refs' - how grassroots football is developing referees

But whilst there are issues in Yorkshire's biggest football association, West Riding referee development officer Mark Haywood says refereeing there is in good health, and the recreational game is doing things the professionals could benefit from.

Games throughout the country rely on volunteers’ love of football so every story of abuse – and even assault – towards officials hurts the sport as a whole. Fortunately they are rare in the West Riding.

"We have 2,500 games on a weekend so we're quite a big county FA," says ex-Football League referee Haywood. "We'll have a handful, maybe 10, serious issues and that might not just be abandonments, it could be issues with parents or something like that. But 10 is still 10 too many.

"We've got to create the right environment for players and refs, especially because the huge majority of new refs are young, inexperienced at life, not just refereeing. We're trying to put life skills into them and it's tough for a 14 or 15-year-old to ask an adult to calm down and stop making silly comments.

"The importance of winning is coming into it a lot more, even at grassroots. Kids just want to have a good time with their mates but losing is seen as a failure – it can't be in kids' football.

"I think behaviour since Covid has changed. I don't know if people have come back angry but I don't think it's just football. When we first came back it was a worrying trend but it seems to be coming down – not dramatically, but down.

"Influence cascades from the top – not just the bad bits, the kids want to play more, not just kick it and run after it. If we can develop that bit and an environment for everybody to learn it will help across the board."

And West Yorkshire is fortunate to have added another role model this season, with 30-year-old former Halifax Town player Sam Barrott making his Premier League debut in October, and refereeing charge of seven more games since.

"Sam runs our development group,” says Haywood, proudly. “We've also got South Asian referees doing well. It all helps.

"The pathway to the pro game is streamlined now and you can get promoted pretty quickly. Sam was on one of our development trips to Portugal seven or eight years ago.

"We have about 1,000 refs. Add in the retired refs who watch them and we've got about 1,100. We've done 10 courses this season and we've another seven, possibly 10, to come with 400 expressions of interest.

"It comes as a bit of a shock to some of the younger ones used to being sat playing Xbox but a lot of parents like them doing it because it gives them so many skills – managing confrontation, body language, knowing law, communication. At any stage of life if you can handle confrontation it's a great skill.

"Much as it can be difficult at times and we had dreadful issues last month like the incident in Turkey or even the one at Luton (where Tom Lockyer suffered a heart attack) that shocked us, we still seem to get the interest."

There are attempts to make the first steps easier, such as giving purple shirts to under-18 officials.

"If the referee's in a purple shirt it's a visual thing," explains Haywood. "When fines go out to clubs they'll sometimes say they didn't realise they were under-18 so we set it up to signify they're shouting at a child. It seems to work. Of course it doesn't stop everyone.

"We also have a yellow armband for inexperienced referees. Others are quite happy to just put the (black) shirt on and go."

Junior football in Bradford could see body cameras in 2024.

"We're waiting for dates because it has to come through the FA with permission from FIFA but we will have one this season," says Haywood. "The feedback so far is that younger refs feel more comfortable. The only issue would be cost.

"Education's key. We're all trying to work together, not just give fines out. Andy, Bobby and Sam still make mistakes, not just in the middle but as VAR (video assistant referee) in Andy's case, and it seems to be difficult for some people to understand a 14-year-old is going to make mistakes, just as the players are. They're both disappointed because they want to be the best we can be. There has to be a degree of acceptance."

Grassroots football is a world removed from the Premier League but late last year FIFA said it would extend trials of "sinbins" to the professional game.

"Sinbins for dissent helps in the grassroots game," argues Haywood. "In an adult game they get 10 minutes, in a junior game eight just to calm down. When they stand with their managers they let them know they have to tow the line. We don't seem to be getting a second sinbin – it's two before they're dismissed.

"I think it's an option for the professional game."