Youth sports games are known for loud and obnoxious parents yelling at the referee, who receive all kinds of threats from parents and players during and after games.
Ontario Soccer is looking to change that when it introduced its body camera pilot project. Referees have already begun wearing the cameras in 11 districts across the province.
Ontario Soccer CEO Johnny Misley is determined to put an end to the abuse and create a safe work environment for all soccer referees in Ontario.
“We started to look at the referee numbers and there was a huge decline in registration,” Misley said.
Ontario Soccer saw referee registration numbers fall to 42 per cent for the 2020-2021 season compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
He said after seeing the decline in numbers they decided to survey many referees that left the game. They found the number 1 reason for leaving was referee abuse.
Misley said with all the work done so far, registration is now at 72 per cent compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
“We had an incident involving a female official, as young as 16, who was swarmed by parents and assaulted while waiting for her parents in the parking lot after the game,” Misley said.
Most of the referees in these leagues are under the age of 18.
After looking at the numbers and listening to some of the scary experiences that happened, Ontario Soccer decided to move forward with an initiative called No Ref, No Game.
The English Football Association was the only other organization that is doing a similar type of research and is about five or six months ahead of Ontario Soccer.
“We reached out to them to connect with them and to have some discussions before we embarked on our journey with the pilot project,” Misley said.
The English FA put Ontario Soccer in touch with a company called Reveal Media, which manufactures the body cameras. There are currently 50 body cameras available for about 6,000 referees in the province.
When an incident is caught on camera, the official procedure starts with the match official submitting an incident report that is then reviewed by Ontario Soccer.
Depending on the situation, the video evidence can and will be used as evidence when laying out criminal charges.
Luke Tasman is currently working as a soccer referee in Ontario for ages 10 and under.
He said not only did he receive abuse from parents, but players as well.
“There have been a lot of times over the years where parents and players would threaten me during or after games,” Tasman said. “I’ve had guys threaten to beat me up in the parking lot because of a bad call.”
He said abuse from players usually comes from older age groups but parents are always very bitter, no matter what age he is working with.
“I think that body cameras are a great tool that will come in handy for a lot of referees, especially ones with very little experience, however, I don’t think will necessarily stop referee abuse,” Tasman said.
It is still to be seen if body cameras will stop referee abuse altogether or just be a good tool when trying to punish parents for their actions.
“I see how other parents behave every time my kid has a soccer game, it’s wild out there,” said Angie Gallego, a soccer mom from Alliston, Ont.
“We should be role models for our kids, there’s no reason at all for parents to be acting like that,” she said.