Manly Warringah Football Association president Jeff Smit abuses female referee
The president of the Manly Warringah Football Association — who once wrote how spectators and officials should be respectful on the sidelines — has been found by a tribunal to have verbally abused a female referee who sent his son off during a tense grand final.
Manly
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A top football official has been found by a sporting tribunal to have verbally abused a female referee who red carded his son in the dying moments of a tense grand final.
The president of the Manly Warringah Football Association behaved in a “disgusting” manner following the sending off during a match between St Augustine’s and Pittwater Premier Reserves on August 24.
Jeff Smit, who is a volunteer not a paid official, was heard loudly criticising Naomi Peterson - named under-25 ref of the year - according to one witness, who complained in an email to the MWFA.
His statement was not heard at the General Purposes Tribunal, which looks at incidents involving spectators.
Witness Wayne Terry alleged that Mr Smit — while standing in front of the VIP stand — said: “That’s f***ing bulls**t”, “She a f***ing joke. “She’s got no idea what she’s f***ing doing” after his son Mark Smit, who was playing for St Augustine’s, was sent off for a deliberate handball.
Mr Terry wrote: “While these comments were not yelled out at full volume, they were made in a loud voice. The referee would not have heard them with all the other noise at the time.
“I was absolutely amazed that the president of the MWFA would act in that manner. As a member of the 2019 MWFA Judiciary I have seen numerous cases this year of referee abuse from players, officials and spectators.
“To witness the association president at the front of the VIP area publicly abusing a referee because he didn’t agree with their decision was disgusting.”
The MWFA was asked why Mr Terry’s statement was not heard at the tribunal with no response.
Ironically on the MWFA website, Mr Smit said in his own ‘welcome message’ he wrote in 2018, “We should all support our kids and club with passion but remember it is just a game”.
In a 2016 statement he urged all players, coaches, managers and supporters to respect the game day officials.
“Referees are everyday people giving something back and they are human, so mistakes and differences of opinion are inevitable,” he wrote.
“Please resist the urge to have your say and respect the person doing the hardest job on the pitch.”
The tribunal investigated another incident which happened about 10 minutes after the match finished when Mr Smit approached Ms Peterson and fourth official Andrew Best.
In Ms Peterson’s statement she wrote that Mr Smit abruptly questioned a handball decision against St Augustine’s, that resulted in a red card and penalty being awarded.
She said both herself and the fourth official Andrew Best, who also corroborated what she said in his statement, calmly explained why they made the decision.
“Jeff was not satisfied with this response and he continued to complain about the decision in a rude and aggressive manner,” she wrote.
Another referee then asked Mr Smit to leave and guided him away.
Ms Peterson wrote: “As Jeff slowly walked away, he continued to make remarks in a loud and disgruntled manner — some of which included the comment: ‘That decision was a disgrace. You are a disgrace’ directed towards me as the referee.”
On September 9 Mr Smit’s case was heard at a General Purposes Tribunal. The panel found he had breached the spectator code of conduct by not respecting the official’s decision and not being on his best behaviour and did verbally abuse the match officials.
They accepted that he had already apologised to Ms Peterson and Mr Best.
Mr Smit was reprimanded and St Augustine’s was docked five points, which will carry on next year.
In a letter of apology to Ms Peterson, Mr Smit wrote: “With my role in football on the northern beaches, I should lead by example and this incident is one that I certainly regret. I hope my actions don’t have any effect on your future as a referee and I wish you all the best going forward.”
MWFA CEO David Mason wrote a letter of support for Mr Smit, who he said gave countless hours of service to the MWFA.
He said 2019 had seen a remarkable enhancement in the relationship between the MWFA and the referees association, MWFRA, and it had been built on getting together, sharing experiences and being open and honest about matters involving referees.
He said that “ironically, it has also been Jeff’s drive that has seen, not only the improvement in this relationship, but the protection for referees in cases that have seen referees threatened or sworn at”.
Ms Peterson and Toby Williams, head of the MWFRA, were contacted, but declined to comment.
In a statement to the Manly Daily, Mr Mason said Mr Smit questioned a decision post-match in the referee control room.
“The referee reported the incident, which confirmed that Jeff did not swear or threaten the match officials,” he said.
IN OTHER NEWS:
“Despite this, the incident was referred to the MWFA’s independent General Purposes Tribunal, as with any incident of its nature.
“Before the General Purposes Tribunal hearing, Jeff apologised to the Manly Warringah Football Referees Association (MWFRA) President and the two referees in question in writing and met with the two referees and the MWFRA President, to further apologise face-to-face, during which time he acknowledged he made an error of judgment in approaching the referee control room.
“The General Purposes Tribunal considered the reports of the match officials and Jeff’s statement and found that Jeff had failed to respect the referees decision and was not on his best behaviour and acknowledged his repeated apologies before handing him an official reprimand.”