Sports organizations in the greater Quebec City and Chaudière-Appalaches region are struggling to find referees, then to keep them, due to the ever-increasing number of inappropriate behaviors that they have to face every time they put on their uniform. official.
Deeming the situation “alarming”, the Quebec Student Sports Network (RSEQ) of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches is launching the “Respect the game” campaign which aims to raise awareness among the population about what referees have to deal with. The Respectelejeu.com site was notably set up and offers several awareness tools.
This poster will be present in several places to raise awareness.
Photo Kevin Dubé
According to an internal study, half of their referees have already been victims of violent acts from parents or coaches dissatisfied with their work, which means that the number of referees has fallen by 20% in recent years. years.
In basketball, for example, 17 of 42 officials left after last season, many simply not wanting to deal with criticism of 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 about what people allow themselves to say. […] These are behaviors that we do not want to see be normalized, for example waiting for a referee after a match or shouting certain things that would not be said outside of a sporting context. I’m not sure people realize the significance of all their words. »
More athletes
The pandemic, however, has had a beneficial effect on young people since it has resulted in an increase in registrations for sporting activities. In doing so, the number of matches presented each week, all sports combined, has exploded.
But the number of referees is not increasing at the same rate so that officials are overworked. In certain sports, matches must sometimes be refereed by the coach of one of the two teams due to the shortage of referees.
“One weekend in February last year, we had 1,600 games in the Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches region, so we had officials who played 6, 7 or 8 games per day during tournament periods. They come exhausted and we arrive on Sunday, they miss an offside and it’s the end of the world. Ideally, they would play two or three games,” summarizes the coordinator of officials at Hockey Québec – Chaudière-Appalaches, Philip Thivierge.
The coordinator of referees at Hockey Québec – Chaudière-Appalaches Philip Thivierge, the president of basketball referees Guillaume Breton and the head of rugby referees, Jérôme Lévesque, must manage with a significant shortage of officials in their sports.
Photo Kevin Dubé
Supervising young referees
One of the main challenges is keeping young referees long term.
“They get yelled at three or four times and then they go and find a job in a grocery store,” adds Mr. Thivierge.
Since these young, inexperienced referees are more often victims of abusive behavior, a pilot project will be implemented in basketball while each referee of minor age or in their first year of experience as an official, regardless of their age, must wear a green armband which will allow them to be identified.
“We have to present it by saying that we care about them, whether they are 16 years old or whether they are a 32-year-old rookie. I don’t want this to be the only match they do. We will support them well by putting experienced referees with them. I think it will be good and we hope to apply it to other sports in the coming years. »