Abuse is not a zero‐sum game! The case for zero tolerance of match official physical and verbal abuse

Abstract

Emergent research has investigated the impact of abuse on the decision of match officials to leave their sport. The existing literature is largely descriptive and qualitative. Based on large surveys of football referees in France and the Netherlands, this paper investigates the factors that are associated with the verbal and physical abuse of the referees and also the association of this abuse with the intentions of referees to quit officiating. The associations are investigated by estimating the marginal effects from bivariate probit and probit models respectively. Bivariate probit estimation reveals a strong correlation between each form of abuse. Both, unsurprisingly, are also positively associated with years of experience of referees. Probit estimation reveals that both forms of abuse, as well as intimidation from refereeing certain teams, are associated with an increased consideration of referees to quit. As increased intention to quit is also associated with the experience of the referee it is likely that the effect of abuse on referee considerations of quitting increase through time. The main conclusions are that the alternative forms of abuse are not zero-sum and both should be targeted by governing bodies to reduce the decline in the number of football referees. The data show that support of referees, for example through mentoring, can offset stated intentions to quit. Highlights. This study looks at the factors that are associated with verbal and physical abuse of football referees and the association of this abuse with the intentions to quit. . The alternative forms of abuse are not zero-sum and both should be targeted to reduce the decline in referees. . Support of referees, for example through mentoring, can offset stated intentions to quit.

The Power of Sport. Evaluation of Projects in the Field of Physical Culture and Grassroots Sport

“…A number of analytical portals concept are dedicated to the "Sports for Development" concept, for example: Sport for Development 1 , and Sport and Development 2 , along with multiple studies by global organizations such as UNICEF 3 and the UN 4 . The impact of sports on the society as a whole can be summarized via the UN Sustainable Development Goals 5 .…”

“…Концепции «Спорт для развития» посвящено большое число аналитических порталов, например: Sport for Development 1 и Sport and Development 2 , а также исследований таких глобальных организаций, как UNICEF 3 и ООН 4 . Направления влияния спорта на общество в целом могут быть обобщены через цели устойчивого развития ООН 5 . In terms of the impact of sports on the economy, Europe offers noteworthy experience 7 .…”

“…One example is Roman Shirokov, former captain of the Russian national soccer team, beating referee Nikita Danchenkov during the Moscow Celebrity Cup amateur tournament 9 . Peter Dawson et al (2022) studied the effect of abuse on match officials' decision to leave their jobs. Based on surveys of soccer referees in France and the Netherlands, the authors ВВП в ЕС.…”

Influence Mechanism of the Home Advantage on Referees’ Decision-Making in Modern Football Field – A Study From Sports Neuro-Decision Science

“…According to existing studies, the home advantage is caused by the noise (cheering, booing) from the crowd, which influences the referee’s decision to make a decision in favor of the home team ( Nevill et al, 2002 ). The researchers analyzed 1,530 matches in the German first division over the past decade and showed that in matches with high attendance and noisy home fans, the home team had a significantly higher win rate than the visiting team ( Dawson et al, 2021 ). Another strong evidence is that after the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, the Euroleague held matches without fans in order to prevent the massive spread of the virus, and in the 841 empty matches played after the resumption of the entire Euroleague, the home team’s win rate was 54.68%, compared to the average of the previous three seasons 59.82% ( Sors et al, 2020 ).…”

The general and facet-specific job satisfaction of voluntary referees based on the model of effort-reward imbalance

“…Fewer studies have researched football referees from a managerial perspective (Webb, 2020). Some of those dealt with referee abuse (Cleland et al, 2018;Ridinger, Warner, et al, 2017b;Rullang et al, 2015;Webb et al, 2017;Webb, Dicks, et al, 2020a), and only two studies analysed its impact on retention statistically: Both, Giel and Breuer (2020) as well as Dawson et al (2021) revealed that verbal abuse predicts a negative referees' intention to continue. While referee abuse is a peculiarity of this volunteer group, it is of growing research importance, as it is associated with referees' discontinuation of their activity (Webb, 2020).…”