A football referee has spoken out against physical and verbal abuse officials are facing across Merseyside ahead of a region-wide fixture postponement this weekend.
The Merseyside Youth Football League (MYFL) has cancelled all games that were set to be played this weekend to raise awareness about the abuse referees in the league are facing from both parents and coaches from its under-sevens league up to the under-16s league. Stacey Savage, secretary of the league and the person responsible for organising the league's referees has revealed that one incident even saw a referee go to their car crying during a match.
Roughly 20 of the 50 referees in the youth leagues are under the age of 18, with children being able to apply for the course from the age of 14, meaning a number of the incidents that see referees abused often involve children being verbally abused. Stacey told the ECHO: "We want to press the reset button.
