The sickening attack on Khodr Yaghi is not isolated and part of a worrying trend of referee abuse

Player participation is up. Referee participation is down. ADAM PEACOCK investigates why officials are quitting and what it means for football.

Khodr Yaghi, wife Fay and their four boys had planned to start this week sitting on a beach in Bali.

Instead, Khodr was in hospital getting his face wired back together on Monday after being bashed on Friday night while refereeing a game of football in Sydney’s south west.

Broken jaw in three places.

Teeth missing.

Soul, devoted to football forever, rattled.

The alleged attacker, Adam Abdullah, is in custody, bail refused on an assault charge. Abdullah was a spectator at the game because he was suspended from playing.

What happens to Abdullah remains to be seen but if he plays an organised game ever again, something has gone wrong.

But that’s just one story, one snapshot of a wider worry.

The targeting of referees has become a widespread issue and is threatening sport as we know it.

Ask any football referee, from park football to the English Premier League, and they’ll have an anecdote where fear has been a factor in the course of performing their on-field duties.

Khodr Yaghi was attacked while refereeing a game.

A fortnight ago, a game in Sydney’s NPL 1 competition (the level below A-League) ended in acrimony for one player who, with his team down 3-0, was sent off in injury time.

The player gave the referee a serve, and had to be pulled toward the dressing room. He didn’t make it. Game footage shows the player going into the referee room in the tunnel briefly.

After the game, off camera, the player gave the refs another serve.

Once it seemed all had calmed down, one of the assistant referees found spit on their bag in the change rooms.

The investigation continues although the player was free to play last weekend after serving a game ban for the original red card.

And then, at the very top of the sport, Jurgen Klopp made a meme of himself on Monday morning (AEST) with hundreds of millions watching.

The Liverpool manager saw his side score a 95th minute winner to beat Tottenham 4-3 at a rapturous Anfield. Klopp’s instinct was not to celebrate but rather to run angrily to the fourth official.

Klopp got clipped by the karma bus, tearing his hamstring in the process and would later apologise for his actions – but not before going on to complain about the referee, Paul Tierney, who has been involved in a few controversial moments in Liverpool games this season.

“What he said after he gave me the yellow card, no, it’s not possible,” Klopp said.

The story is now Tierney’s problem with Liverpool, not Klopp’s issues with self-regulation.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp remonstrates with officials on the weekend. Picture: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

*****

Trends in Australia paint a worrying picture regarding referee participation.

Seven of the nine state federations reported a drop in referee numbers from 2021 to 2022 (numbers for 2023 have not yet been finalised).

The biggest federation, Football NSW, which controls football across Sydney, has seen a 7 per cent growth in player participation since 2020, while referee numbers have dropped by 18 per cent.

What’s more, those referees appear to be refereeing less.

“The amount of times (referees) are making themselves available is reducing,” a Football NSW spokesman told CODE Sports.

“This ultimately results in more matches left with less than three officials, which is most prominent within grassroots competitions.”

Retaining young referees is a significant problem.

Enthusiasm in many cases is waning because of a simple choice: $40 a game reffing, or flip burgers at McDonald’s without getting abused by parents, players and/or coaches.

Pretty easy decision.

Young referees are becoming a rare sight. Picture: Robert Pozo/AAP Image

*****

This writer has seen the cause and effect over countless weekends in the past decade across grounds in Sydney.

Adults acting like children and children following the adults’ lead.

The end result is a cycle which can only be stopped by self-regulation.

Two weeks ago, I was at a game watching my son in Sydney. He plays at rep level. The norm is a referee and two assistants provided for each game.

But on this day, there were only two officials: one referee, who did five games in a row, and one sideline assistant.

The ref, in his early 20s, had to call offsides for one half of the pitch. He tried his best. Got some right, got some wrong. And in the stands, parents hooted and hollered about the close ones, carrying on like a Champions League trophy was on the line.

The game ended, the ref’s fourth of five for the day, and he trudged back to the change rooms for a 15 minute break before his final game.

Some parents berated him on the way off.

One called him a disgrace.

And they all went back to their cars and normal lives, none the wiser as to the broader issue at play.

Originally published as The sickening attack on Khodr Yaghi is not isolated and part of a worrying trend of referee abuse