Freaney: player abuse scaring off young refs

UNACCEPTABLE levels of abuse from players, managers and spectators are having a crippling affect on the amount of young referees making it as far as the inter-county scene, according to the GAA’s match officials coordinator, Pearce Freaney.

The Kildare man believes that there should be at least a dozen referees under the age of 30 operating at inter-county in hurling and football but, such is the level of hardship associated with the position, that he can think of only a couple.

One way of curbing the problem, he believes, it to introduce a “one strike and you’re out” system of punishment for anyone deemed guilty of abusing referees — but more important is a radical change of culture.