In the past years a dangerous wave of discrimina6on and violence has been sweeping through amateur football, which has led to a rise in game cancella6ons. This ar6cle shines a light on the concerning development through the eyes of a referee and shows how the fair play aspect can once again gain more importance and integrity.
Personal hostilities and prejudice
“He doesn’t understand us anyway” or “he’s not from Germany anyway and doesn’t know how to behave here”. Those kind of insults and personal hostilities are nothing new to Jeromé Jecyk. Due to his Polish surname he has had to endure a few of them on the football field. Jecyk has been refereeing amateur football from the fourth to the second district level for 11 years and has also worked as assistant referee up to the regional league. He provides a personal insight into the dark side of his commitment.
He recalls one of his worst experiences after a football match: “They said to us as a group: ‘people like you would have been gassed in the past’. For me, that was extreme.” Those insults show the hard reality, that referees have to face every weekend. In spite of the shocking comments the resolution often fails, regrets Jeczyk: “The way it sadly goes in a big crowd, is that you can’t figure out who did it.” This example shows that even outside the field, respect and fairness are not always maintained. An end to this development is not yet foreseeable, elaborates Jeromé Jeczyk further: “Last year it was less, but what I’m hearing at the moment from colleagues [all over Germany], everyone is saying ‘it’s becoming more, including from the audience’.”
DFB situation picture confirms the problem
This view is confirmed by the German Football Association’s (DFB) current situation report on amateur football for the 2022/2023 season. First published in 2014 the statistic shows that last season 961 amateur football matches had to be cancelled due to violence or discrimination. That’s the highest amount since the first data collection. The numbers stem from the online match reports.
In comparison to the past two seasons the amount of violence and discrimination cases have risen as well. In the 2021/22 season 5.582 incidents were reported, a year later the number rose to 6.244. A similar picture can be seen in a direct comparison. In the 2022/23 season there were more reported acts of violence (3.907) and discrimination incidents (2.679) than in the 2021/22 season (3.544 acts of violence, 2.389 discriminations).
The DFB has created a leaflet where violence and discrimination is defined. This guide was created so referees can correctly complete online match reports.
Handling violence and discrimination incidents
If such incidents occur in a game, the referees must take strict action. If referees detect discrimination or violence, the officiating player will be sent off immediately. If it comes from the spectators, the so called “Drei-Stufen-Plan” applies according to DFB guidelines. The first step is a short break in the game and a stadium announcement. If there are any further incidents, both teams will be sent to the dressing rooms and if there is another stadium announcement. As a final consequence, the game is aborted.
Even if the referee didn’t notice it himself, it is important to “respond to the players when they say they were discriminated against.” There is little you can do about it other than enter it in the match report, some players however use this to their purposes: “You also notice that it is being exploited a lot, which I think is a real shame. Discrimination is a serious issue that should not be exploited for any gain,” says Jeczyk.
The DFB and the regional associations react and take measures to prevent violence and offer qualification and consulting projects. However, many referees are confronted with negative experiences and do not feel adequately protected.
A lot of referees quit
According to the amateur football situation report for the 2022/23 season, 2,680 referees in amateur football were harmed by violence or discrimination. And that’s not all: According to a study by the DFB in the previous seasons, 38.4 percent of referees saw themselves in danger. Jeromé Jeczyk doesn’t see himself in those statistics but “of course it’s not nice to have to endure stuff like that. I always think to myself that I’m just doing this as a hobby and sacrificing my free time for it.” The frustration of being constantly insulted during their hobby drives many referees to give up their job.
“If it happened to me, I would think about it. But in the end, I think it would motivate me even more to show the person that you’re not putting me down, I’ll carry on.” He sees a problem in the fact that the players are likely to make several mistakes and no one cares while referees are dealt with immediately from the first mistake on.
If this happens and players, spectators or supervisors attack the referee violently or insult them, Jeczyk advises taking legal actions: “I don’t have to put up with everything and I have to show that to people somehow.”
The clubs have to partake as well
Although the DFB has some protective measures, these are not implemented by all clubs. Because they “don’t see the need to allocate a supervisor when there are only a few spectators. But something can happen even with five spectators,” explains Jeczyk.
The clubs should also evaluate the players’ past: “If you know that you have a player who has already become noticeable, then perhaps you shouldn’t include him in the club just because he can play football.” According to Jeczyk, longer penalties and fines could also have a deterrent effect for players.
A message for fair play
Nevertheless, in the midst of difficulty, football creates a plattform for passion, togetherness and the joy of the game that transcends individual adversity. Jeromé Jeczyk concludes: “In the end, we all do it as a hobby. We are not professionals and even professionals make mistakes. Whether it’s referees, whether it’s players, in the end we should all be happy that we referees are on the field. Without us referees it doesn’t work.”
An appeal for respect and fairness on the field could not only preserve amateur football, but also the passion of the referees themselves.
The claim by “Welt” that 961 games in amateur football were canceled last season due to violence and discrimination can be classified as mostly true. However, the unreported number of 194,503 games was not taken into account, which leads to a distortion of the numbers given in the article. The claim that the trend has stopped and the numbers are stagnating at a high level can also be classified as mostly true. Due to the lack of match reports and the effects of the Corona pandemic, no precise statement, such as true or false, can be made here. Therefore, the article “Game abandonments in amateur football – DFB names shocking figures” from the online magazine “Welt” can be classified as mostly true.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE – Muriel Breisch and Felix Strickmann, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Germany
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