Statement in full
"It is with deep and heartfelt sadness we must issue this statement.
We have waited 8 weeks without commenting in the hope that a resolution could be found. Sadly none to date.
On March 19th following a cup game our member had to endure an unprovoked attack on his person. Firstly as he made his way to the exit gate from the pitch after the game ended he was verbally abused and brushed against by a spectator then a home team player who was in front of the referee turned back and verbally abused him also. He identified this player and showed him a red card.
Then in a cowardly act he was punched from behind to his right hand kidney area and as he turned around to see the culprit he was spat on the face from the left hand side. Eventually he made it to his car in the car park and after a while left the ground.
Thankfully he was fit to drive despite being in shock for some time and made his way to a Garda station to report the incident. He submitted 3 reports to the Management Committee (MC). 1 spectator assault. 2 red card of player. 3 assault from behind.
Our response was to protect all our members by advising them not to referee this club on their own until the culprits were identified and dealt with by the MC, As a way of allowing the club continue to fulfill their fixtures we offered to officiate them as a trio again until the matter was resolved.
This action was taken to protect the safety of our members. The club’s response was to try to discredit the referee by calling some players “names” and red carding the wrong player. He denied this and was certain he got the correct player for abusing him as the player was in front of him.
The MC sent the assault report to the DCU to be heard but was returned to them to deal with as the season had already commenced since the new changes came into force. The MC dealt with reports 1 and 2 and we have no issue with that but the handling of the assault report 3 that is our concern.
The club produced the name of a player whom they said had owned up to them that he committed both offences ( punching and spitting). The MC on again reading the referees report agreed that it was feasible that the individual could have committed both offences despite the report saying they came from opposite sides.
On receiving this decision we again contacted the MC to state that the referee was clear that he was assaulted by two persons. No resolution was found and eventually it was agreed to hold a meeting on May 7th between members of our committee the league committee and FAI reps.
The league again ruled out our suggestion of a trio to get games played and the FAI stance was that the FAI legal dept. had endorsed the league’s handling of the report. We have since requested a copy of this endorsement but it has not been forthcoming.
We then advised both parties that the assaulted referee had been contacted by the Gardai and informed that the young man named and suspended by the league had gone to the Garda station and put on record that he had committed neither assault. This evidence was dismissed by the FAI reps who insist that the case was dealt with.
In the end a proposal was put on the table to carry back to our members to decide on. It was agreed by all to give us 48 hours to call a meeting. The following night the MC decided to hold an information night for the clubs. Why this was done while a proposal was on the table baffles us as they were aware they would have no answer from us for another 24 hours at least. We were not invited to make a statement or have any input to their information night.
Led from the top table this turned out to be a referee bashing exercise. Remember a referee was assaulted and a comment from the top table of "if you sneeze now there’s a report sent in"was not in he least helpful.
Another comment from the top was “we will split the referees branch” which has had the opposite effect. Many delegates made insulting and hurtful remarks about our members. In fact some have come back and written an apology for what they said and we accept that.
This anti referee sentiment was fueled from the MC to garnish support for themselves. As you can imagine this was not appreciated by our members at our meeting which was deferred to Friday night where it was decided by all the members to make themselves unavailable to referee Youths and Junior Football in the Desmond Football League until the culprits are found and dealt with by the league. As it stands the MC have 14 names from the match card for the game in question and 2 of those players assaulted a referee so why can it not be dealt with?
If we return to referee this club’s Youths A or B teams we may be facing the people who assaulted our colleague and we don’t believe this to be a safe situation to put our members in.
We feel sorry for the clubs awaiting cup finals and seeking promotion as this is not of their making but as we enter the 9th week since the assault a stand has to be made and feel sorry for the senior referees in our branch who may now have retired from Junior football, but we must protect the upcoming young referees or nobody will take up the hobby.
We must acknowledge that the club did write to the assaulted referee to apologise albeit some 6 weeks after the event but we acknowledge the apology. The history of our branch will show that we have never been disruptive and always had a good working relationship with the league until that ill-advised information meeting.
Limerick West Branch I.S.R.S."
What a terrible rambling statement
Does this fall under the whistleblower protection legislation?
I had to abandon reading it.
What club?
Abbeyfeale
I feel very sorry for the ref involved. Without them there would be no games.
Bullet points??
The refs are in the right here.
The MC, instead of trying to find the culprit should fuck Abbyefeale out of all adult grades for the year.
Easier said than done I suspect.
That’s a terribly constructed statement. Even though they are absolutely right to take the course of action they have this statement is akin to a “he said, she said” episode - gets bogged down with a bit of waffle when a short, sharp, precise statement was merely required.
To be fair I can’t ever remember Abbeyfeale being involved in an incident like this before as a club. Wouldn’t associate them with having a particularly knacker-ish element.
I suppose the club would lawyer up alright. It’s a mess.
The refs are right though.
GAA 3-11 Soccer 0-0
They’ve abandoned the desmond league altogether due to lack of interest.
The Desmond League is cancelled for 2018/2019 apparently
The mediation meeting last night saw no resolution, the clubs haven’t been formally told yet however.
Was there already a deeper problem between the refs and the league? Surely one incident did not lead to total breakdown.
How much does a ref in Desmond league get for a game these days?
Think it’s €50.
They get more than GAA refs I was told.
They do and no tax.
100 a week is s big drop for the refs