THE secretary of a local Sunday league football team is paying for a referee out of his own pocket over fears for the safety of his players.

Graham Woollard, of AFC Crowmarsh, started hiring his own official after seeing his 26-year-old son put in hospital by a bad tackle.

And Woollard, whose team play in Division 3B of the Autotype UTV League, says that other clubs are being forced to do the same because of the increasingly violent nature of Sunday football.

"My lad was kicked in the back last season," he said. "He was in the John Radcliffe for a day and off work for two weeks. When you see that happen to your own son, it upsets you.

"We had an incident recently when there was no official ref and our striker was punched by the opposition keeper.

"Their guy who was refereeing said 'I'll have a quiet word with him'.

"It's getting crazy. These guys have to go to work the next day and their safety is paramount."

Since the start of this season, Woollard has been hiring his own qualified official for home games in the event of the league failing to appoint one of their own.

"That's turned out to be every game," he revealed. "But I don't blame the leagues for this. The refs take abuse and don't want to do it, so there is a real shortage.

"It's down to the clubs really - and a lot have done the same as us.

"Something has to be done because the game on Sunday is becoming more aggressive, and I think a lot of that is down to the fact that there isn't a man in a black shirt on the park."

Bill McKnight, the referees secretary of the Autotype UTV League, believes that the situtation will only improve if the players learn to behave themselves.

"The reason we are short of refs is the mannerisms of people on the pitch," he said. "Unless players start controlling themselves, it's not going to improve.

"Who would be a ref when you have to get up early on a Sunday just to get 90 minutes of abuse?"

Story date: Thursday 25 November

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