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JOURNAL
OF
SPORTS SCIENCE &
MEDICINE
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Research
article
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MAY I CURSE A REFEREE? SWEAR WORDS AND CONSEQUENCES |
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Andrea Praschinger1  ,
Christine Pomikal1 and Stefan Stieger2 |
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1Freelance scientist, Vienna, and 2Department of Basic Psychological Research, School of Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria |
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2011) 10, 341 - 345 |
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| ABSTRACT | |||
| The purpose of this study was to determine whether male and female
soccer (football) referees would execute the Laws of the Game despite players'
verbal abuse. Law 12 (Fouls and misconduct) instructs the referees as to
how they should react when a player, substitute or substituted player expresses
a swear word. The player should be issued a red card. Referees (n = 113)
were presented with 28 swear words and asked how they would respond if this
situation occurred in a real game (red card, yellow/blue card [blue cards
are used in juvenile games, player leaves field of game for 10 minutes],
admonition, no reaction). The selected words were divided into categories
(such as pertaining to intelligence or sexual abuse) indicating different
degrees of insult. Approximately half of the referees would have responded
to players saying swear words in a game by issuing a red card (55.7% red
card, 25.2% yellow/blue card, 12.1% admonition, and 7.0% no reaction). The
response was independent of the referees' qualification and experience.
It was found that the insulting content of a swear word determines the referee's
decision. Referees would apply Law 12 only in one half of the cases, depending
on the insulting content. The findings are discussed in the context of game
management. Key words: Soccer, referees, Law 12, game management. |
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