Threats and Aggression Directed at Soccer Referees: An Empirical Phenomenological Psychological Study

Abstract

A descriptive qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews involving seven provincial Soccer Association referees was carried out in order to find out how referees experience threats and aggression directed to soccer referees. The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method (EPP-method) was used. The analysis resulted in thirty categories which were summarized in six themes. The main themes described the perceived causes of threat, reactions to threat, how the referees manage stressful situations, and their motives to referee.

“The Referee Plays to Be Insulted!”: An Exploratory Qualitative Study on the Spanish Football Referees’ Experiences of Aggression, Violence, and Coping

“…This result differs from the instrumental aggressions, which are prevalent among the athletes participating in the matches (Pedersen, 2007). The most frequent hostile aggressions experienced by referees in our study were verbal abuse coming from players, coaches, and the public in general, in a similar way as indicated in previous studies (Folkesson et al, 2002;Friman et al, 2004;González-Oya, 2006;Louvet, 2011;Warner et al, 2013;Cleland et al, 2015;Forbes et al, 2015). Foul language, such as anonymous insults and threats from the crowd on the field or in the stadium, were the common verbal aggressions suffered by referees.…”

“…Referees from different sports, such as football, hockey, rugby, and cricket, and across different continents suffered hostile reactions to their decisions (Fields et al, 2007;Kellett and Shilbury, 2007;Ackery et al, 2012;Webb et al, 2019). In the particular case of football referees, different types of physical and verbal assaults have been identified, mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the rules by the public and the lack of commitment by the referees (Friman et al, 2004;Simmons, 2006). Folkesson et al (2002) observed that 63.6% of Swedish football referees had suffered verbal aggression at least one occasion either from players, coaches, spectator, and/or others.…”

“…According to Voight (2009), the most used strategy by United States referees to cope with the corresponding aggressive sources was to 'ask fellow officials' how to overcome the aggressive situations. Other studies from Sweden and Australia indicated that referees coped aggressions from angry players by communicating with them to restore their conduct (Friman et al, 2004;Simmons, 2006). As an example, Praschinger et al (2011) found that half of Austrian referees from their study would expel a player because of verbal abuse (55.7%), while others would just give them a warning with yellow card (25.2%) or blue card (12.1%).…”

“…The more frequently used emotional-focused strategies by football referees were calling for social support or denial and, to a lesser extent, avoidance tactics in order to manage spectators' angry behavior (Friman et al, 2004;Simmons, 2006;Voight, 2009). It is suggested that referees from collectivistic Asian cultures used more emotional-focused coping strategies than their individualistic counterparts from Western cultures, which used more problem-focused coping (Kim and Duda, 2003).…”

“…Nevertheless, although most of our referees used send-offs depending on the context and situation, this option has proven to be problematic in several studies. According to Folkesson et al (2002) and Friman et al (2004), this tactic might generate feelings of injustice and uncertainty in players, coaches, and the public. These feelings might even increase the possibility or risk of aggression, especially when referees' decisions were completely opposite to the views of the players, coaches, and spectators (van der Meij et al, 2015).…”