Sports organizations in the Quebec City metropolitan area and the Chaudière-Appalaches region are struggling to find and then retain referees as they face increasing levels of inappropriate behavior every time they put on their uniform.
The Quebec Student Sports Network (RSEQ) of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches considers the situation “alarming” and is launching the “Respect the Game” campaign, which aims to raise public awareness of what referees have to contend with. The website Respectelejeu.com has been specially created and offers several awareness-raising tools.
This poster will be present at multiple locations to raise awareness. Photo Kevin Dube
According to an internal study, half of their referees have been victims of violence from parents or coaches unhappy with their work, meaning the number of referees has fallen by 20% in recent years.
In basketball, for example, 17 of 42 officials left the team after last season; many simply did not want to deal with the criticism directed at them.
For the general director of the RSEQ of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, Mathieu Rousseau, the increase in these free gestures towards referees has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“It makes things worse what people allow themselves to say. […] These are behaviors that we don’t want to see as normal, for example waiting for a referee after a game or shouting certain things that wouldn’t be said outside of a sporting context. I’m not sure people realize the meaning of all her words. »
More athletes
However, the pandemic has had a positive impact on the youth as it has led to an increase in registrations for sports activities. As a result, the number of weekly games across all sports combined has exploded.
But the number of referees is not increasing at the same pace, so the officials are overloaded. In certain sports, due to a shortage of referees, games sometimes have to be officiated by the coach of one of the two teams.
“One weekend in February last year we had 1,600 games in the Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches region, so we had officials playing 6, 7 or 8 games a day during tournament periods. They come exhausted and we arrive on Sunday, they miss an offside call and it’s the end of the world. Ideally, they would play two or three games,” concludes Philip Thivierge, the coordinator of referees at Hockey Québec – Chaudière-Appalaches.
Hockey Québec – Chaudière-Appalaches referee coordinator Philip Thivierge, basketball referee president Guillaume Breton and rugby referee chief Jérôme Lévesque must contend with a significant shortage of officials in their sports. Photo Kevin Dube
Supervision of young referees
One of the biggest challenges is retaining young referees in the long term.
“They get yelled at three or four times and then get a job at a grocery store,” Mr. Thivierge added.
Because these young, inexperienced referees are more likely to be victims of abusive behavior, a pilot project is being implemented in basketball that will require every referee who is a minor or in their first year of refereeing to wear a green armband, regardless of their age, which will make it possible to identify them .
“We have to show it by saying we care about them whether they’re 16 years old or whether they’re a 32-year-old freshman. I don’t want this to be the only match they do. We will support them well by providing them with experienced referees. I think it will be good and we hope to transfer it to other sports in the coming years. »