Home News Columnists Neil Farrington

Referee shortage threatens football

Sep 20 2009 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

AS my eldest son takes his first, unsteady but excited steps in kids’ football, I’m learning that our grassroots game lacks just one thing.

Players? Hardly, when sports centres in the North East are hiring stewards to prevent chaos in their car parks as parents take to the touchlines on Saturday mornings.

Places like Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium are a riot of noise and colour, with smartly kitted-out kids charging around lush green pitches for almost as far as the eye can see.

Manners? Not in my short experience, with dissent as rare on the field as off it.

Barring the odd exception, the pushy parents and cursing kids of tabloid myth prove to be just that.

Talent? While my lad’s no Ronaldo, some of the skills on show take the breath away.

At which point, I should mention that Farrington Jr’s red-hot tip for the top is Mckenzie Milner, because he’s “well the best player” in his year at school and “absolutely mint”.

Believe me, anybody whose spirits are laid low by the worst excesses of our professional game would be lifted by a visit to our region’s junior leagues.

Ironic, then, that just about the only thing needed by football at entry level is exactly what is being forced upon it at its top end: more referees.

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