Zero Tolerance On Back Chat To Match Officials

posted on 1st Mar 2011

The Warwickshire RFU Discipline Committee are concerned by a worrying trend over recent months of an increase in “Back Chat” to the Referees from Players, Coaches and Spectators.

Closer scrutiny of sending off reports has revealed a trend where failure to deal promptly with instances of “Back Chat” to the Match Officials during the game has eventually resulted in severe problems later in the game which then escalate out of control leading to Referees having to dismiss players or in severe cases even abandoning the game.

The Discipline Committee have discussed this trend with the Warwickshire Referees Society Executive who agree that action needs to be take now to curb this problem.

Law 10.4 (s) states, “All players must respect the authority of the referee. They must not dispute the referee’s decisions. They must stop playing at once when the referee blows the whistle except at a kick-off or at a penalty kick following admonishment, temporary suspension, or sending off.

Referees will therefore be asked to adopt a “Zero Tolerance” policy with effect from the weekend of 12 March 2011.