A black year for referees
Every time you turn on a televised football match or go to a live game, there is at least one moment when you ask yourself: who'd be a referee and subject themselves to the kinds of direct abuse they receive?
I certainly wouldn't want to attract that kind of attention or vitriol.
It is a sad fact that the men in black are the butt of hurtful jokes and much worse. Alas, things seem to be reaching a new low as some new research suggests top-flight refs are really getting blasted from all sides by impatient and intolerant fans.
The new findings reveal there were more than 295,000 negative comments made online towards England's top-flight referees during the last 12 months– and that's just in the UK.
TOP OF THE PILE: Premier League referee, Anthony Taylor, leads the way in terms of global abuse.
Among the most shocking of all the findings was the confirmation that:
- 79% of all negative comments are made by males
- 18-24 years olds are the worst offenders, with 53% of negative comments made by this specific demographic group
- On Twitter, only 10.6% of conversations about match officials were found to be positive
IN THE MIX: referee Mike Dean is never far away from controversy - or abuse - on a matchday.
The data is part of a wider study into negative online comments made about 600 referees, umpires and officials from each major sporting league around the world. Given the passions football evokes in supporters, six Premier League referees make the top 10, making the world's most wealthy and widely supported competition the most toxic global sporting event.
And while six of English football's top referees find themselves in the top tier, a further four increase the English quota to 10 when identifying the 20 most trolled officials in the world. Of these, Anthony Taylor has received more abuse than any other official over the last 12 months. The Liverpool v Chelsea tie on 28 August 2021 caused the brunt of this abuse, with over 3,000 negative comments being aimed at him directly.
UNWELCOME STATISTIC: Super Bowl umpire, Sarah Thomas, got the second-highest level of abuse.
Martin Atkinson and Paul Tierney also make the top-five list. Atkinson’s worst game was West Ham v Manchester United on 19 September, when he received over 4,000 direct negative comments, whilst Tierney’s was Spurs v Liverpool just before Christmas. On this occasion, Tierney performance attracted over 3,100 negative broadsides.
But it’s not just the Premier League that gets a raw deal. Sarah Thomas, a female umpire in the NFL, boasts the second-worst online trolling record with 6,288 abusive comments – most of which were sent after it was announced she would be officiating at the recent Super Bowl.
IN THE FIRING LINE: Paul Tierney is the fourth most globally abused match official.
The world's most abused match officials
1. Anthony Taylor (Premier League referee): 10,141 abusive and negative posts
2. Sarah Thomas (NFL umpire): 6,288
3. Martin Atkinson (Premier League referee): 6,153
4. Paul Tierney (Premier League referee): 4,080
5. Scott Foster (NBA): 3691
6. Mike Dean (Premier League referee): 3,491
7. Michael Oliver (Premier League referee): 3,135
8. Chris Lee (National Hockey League referee): 2,886
9. Ruddy Buquet (French Ligue 1 football referee): 2,562
10. Craig Pawson (Premier League referee): 2,557
NO HIDING PLACE: even NHL referee, Chris Lee, can't escape being hounded by online trolls.
To collect the data, research (via 'social listening') was conducted between January 2021 to January 2022.
Over 600 referees, umpires and officials were analysed from each major sporting league around the world. Each official was analysed through the social listening tool, to reveal the number of posts made and the percentage of which were negative.
Tony Yorke is the Deputy Editor of Sorted.