Referees in York have been asked to help the Minster Engineering League in their efforts to stamp out bad behaviour at games. Please remember the following when refereeing in the league:
1. Do not hesitate to caution or dismiss persistent offenders on the field and submit the reports to the relevant County FA.
2. Do not hesitate to report any misbehaviour by club officials or spectators to the FA. You do not need to have names of spectators and the club officials should be named on the team sheet given to you before the start of the match. Obviously give them a warning first but if they persist report them! Actual words or actions must be reported.
3. Submit an online match report via the League website for every game, even if there were no incidents in the game. By all means praise the teams, as some of you already do. You can find this online report form via the frontpage of the league website (www.yorkleague.org.uk) It is in the last option “online forms” under the “Information” menu. Just press Submit after completing the form and it automatically comes to me. By using this facility we can build up information on all clubs from you, our “eyes and ears” on the ground. Remember, you might not think an incident worthy of reporting to the FA or you did not hear the exact words shouted but it would be useful for the League to know what is going on so include it on your online match report. Also report any bad pitch markings etc. Surprisingly we hardly ever receive reports from referees on pitch markings but I am sure that not all pitches are marked out clearly in the prescribed manner.
4. All pitches on which our league games are played are supposed to have respect barriers in place. For the lower Divisions these should extend from penalty area to penalty area. The posts should be of a suitable safe material and ropes should extend between the posts. All clubs have been informed of this requirement but there are still some who are not using them. Please report (on the match report form mentioned above) if these are not being provided.
5. All spectators should be behind these barriers during the game. Only club officials / substitutes should be on pitch side of these barriers. There are some clubs in the lower Divisions that have permanent pitch barriers (eg Selby RSSC) but their spectators are ignoring them.