Peter Prendergast

President of the Jamaica Football Referee Commission (JFRC) Peter Prendergast believes that the abuse being meted out to referees from fans is a persistent problem, but deems the abuse coming from coaches as even most disturbing.

"This is a perennial problem and it does not happen only in Jamaica. However, how our stadiums are built and our culture makes it seems lot more threatening, but I must say the bark is more than the bite," Prendergast said.

"If we look at the amount of verbal abuse that is dished out to referees, it rarely gets physical. A greater concern is the abuse that is coming from the coaches and the coaching staff; the referees are being told to have zero tolerance," he added.

Reflection of society

Prendergast blames the abuse that is being met out as an overall reflection of the state of society.

"The calibre of players and referees are not as past years. The players used to have to go to school but the values and attitudes have significantly changed," Predergast said.

"We are not attracting persons of a high calibre in the profession as they do not want to subject themselves to abuse. The most disturbing part is when the abusive person is standing beside a police or is an officer," he added.

Prendergast and the other referees will soon have another challenge on their hands when the recently launched Insports All-Island Community Football Championship, a community-based league, gets under way.

"It will be a challenge, but my honest view is that it will be a good challenge. It will take some amount of man-management skills," Prendergast said.

"The day a referee gets hit in one of these games, they will have no more referees to ref the games," he added.