A Leeds based manager is strongly in favour of The Football Association’s (FA) plans to introduce body cams for referees at lower levels of the footballing pyramid.
The FA trial, starting next year, is being introduced because of the number of physical and verbal abuse cases in grassroots football.
Gregg Johnson, manager of Brighouse Town and Leeds Beckett University said “I think it’s good for referees, because they will be able to back up their points with video evidence of what happened”.
According to FA data, there were 1.1 serious cases of verbal or physical abuse per 1000 matches. Despite that, the reaction from grassroots referees has been mixed.
But, Leeds-based referee Luke Hood said: “I’m not a big fan of it to be honest, more because I don’t feel like everything has to be recorded and used as evidence. You should be able to do things in life without everything being recorded”.
Hood did go on to state that although he is against the idea, it would likely be effective in lowering both physical and verbal abuse.
Fellow grassroots referee, Tyler Dutton, from Sunderland, is of the opposite viewpoint to Hood. Dutton believes that it has been “a long time coming.”
Dutton believes it was only a matter of time before they came in, citing the 380 incidents that took place over the course of one weekend as a point where he knew this would be necessary.
Dutton’s hope is the cameras will benefit the next generation of referees “Especially for the younger referee’s, hopefully it will give them a bit of confidence and a bit of security, because it’s tough for a young referee when they’re out on their own”.
One thing that all three did agree on was the fact that the FA should fund he trial, as they have a duty of care for their referees.
