A discussion was held regarding
whether the League should continue with a respect based scheme with similar or
perhaps even different objectives to those of Secret Shopper. While the
committee considered the initiative had been successful in a number of areas,
with players’ language being a notable exception, and offers had been made to
administer such a scheme, it was decided that a review of its feasibility
should be undertaken by a sub-committee to consider cost, criteria,
availability of assessors etc before any final decision could be made on its
continuation.
-
Taken from
the minutes of the Northern League Management Committee meeting on May 26th
2016, as presented to the league’s AGM on June 4th 2016.
Notwithstanding
unfolding events at the European Championships, over the past few seasons, the
very worst incident of misconduct I’ve personally witnessed at a football game
was an away striker reacting to his team mate being given offside by calling
the assistant a “cheating fat cunt,” about 6 times. The irate little baldy man
followed this up by then threatening the opposition secretary, a 70 year old
volunteer, that he would “fucking sort you out afterwards.” Indeed the elderly
club official was subsequently confronted by the still incandescent striker,
who needed to be physically restrained by his team mates, in the car park at
full time. This seething, thuggish aggression continued in the bar afterwards,
where the away team refused to complete the paperwork relating to the game
(which they’d lost 3-2) and left the place, after issuing a torrent of threats,
cloaked in abusive language, to
the opposition in general, none of whom reacted in the slightest to such vile,
provocative behaviour.
Not nice eh?
Completely unacceptable but understandable if this was a top of the table title
decider with a guaranteed promotion for the winner? In actual fact this was an Over 40s league cup
game, where I (sub not used, as ever) was the stand-in linesman and the man
berating me someone who has recently parted company with a Northern League
Division 2 side, where he held a position of responsibility if not power. He really ought to have known better. The
serious point to this is that such shocking conduct used to be common in north
east non-league circles when I first started watching the game 20 years ago.
Even when I got involved with Percy Main Amateurs in 2009, it was part and
parcel of the Northern Alliance. It seemed only Mike Amos, the recently retired
Chairman of the Northern League, was bothered about profanity on the pitch, which
had seen the abortive Stamp out Swearing
campaign of about a decade ago.
I like Mike
tremendously, and I back just about everything he’s ever done, though I
question his friendship with such shady characters as Brookes Mileson and
George Reynolds, but that’s by the by. Ever since I first met him back in about
1995, I’ve always enjoyed Mike’s company and respected his views, so when the Secret Shopper campaign was announced, I
volunteered to be part of it. Being perfectly honest, the main motivation I had
for this was pecuniary; I liked the idea of a white access all areas pass,
which I could use to attend any Northern League game for free. The season just ended saw me at 83 Northern
League games; 50 of these did not involve Benfield. It’s not a bad incentive
for filling out the occasional report.
Rewinding
slightly to when I first got involved, in the scheme’s debut season of 2012/2013,
I reported solely on a variety of midweek games (as Saturdays were dedicated to
Percy Main). Following my move to Benfield as programme editor, I asked to be
appointed only to Division 2 games, as I did not want to be accused of any
conflict of interest; a request that was granted and a state of affairs that
was replicated for the subsequent 3 seasons in which the scheme was in
existence. Have I always been fair and objective? Yes. Have I always marked
honestly? Yes. Did I know any of the other shoppers? No. Did I feel the scheme
was perfect? No. Aside from all questions of probity and favouritism, it seemed
to me that all it needed to work properly and transparently was adequate moderation,
which could have, with the correct training and advice, led to the preferable
state of affairs whereby each club marked themselves on the team sheet, similar
to how they grade a referee’s performance, for each of the categories we were
asked to assess both teams on. Self-policing is always the best idea. It’s
something I advanced in a programme piece a couple of seasons ago -:
Coming
into the Northern League didn’t initially seem to be as much of a culture shock
as I had feared. One clear difference is
in the tolerance of referees to transgressions of the law; many of the bookings
for dissent I’ve seen at a wide range of games would have been ignored in the Alliance.
However, this is part and parcel of a higher level of football, rather like the
Northern League’s (in) famous Secret Shopper initiative. Now in its
third season, and widely praised by some (including the FA who gave it an award
last season) and mercilessly ridiculed by others, who’ve generally received
negative reports, the system involves a panel of unaligned spectators who visit
all teams throughout the season, marking each club on a 0 (terrible) to 5
(faultless) scale in the categories of: player behaviour, technical area
language, technical area discipline and supporter behaviour.
Let
me state unequivocally that I am 100% behind any campaign that will effectively
minimise indiscipline on and off the pitch, as well as potentially increasing
the amount of spectators that come through the turnstiles, but I must admit to
having grave unease with the way the current system operates as I feel there
are avoidable variations in practice and anomalies that need to be addressed
and hopefully eliminated, if the Secret Shopper scheme is to retain any
credibility moving forwards.
I
believe I’ve identified 2 major areas of concern. Firstly those compiling the
reports may assume that their role is to comment on every single aspect of the
“match day experience,” rather than confining their attention to the 4 clearly
defined criteria on which they’re supposed to comment. In addition, there is nothing
to counteract any suspicion of a palpable divergence of both standards and
consistency among the panel compiling these reports. Thankfully I am not just
here to find fault with the system, but to offer concrete advice on how to plug
these gaps and help to maintain or restore confidence in the Secret Shopper initiative.
Firstly,
there is a very simple way to ensure those marking games do not stray from
their required brief; tell them in no uncertain terms what they should be
looking and listening for, then remind them that while they may have an opinion
on many other matters from the quality of the pies to the availability of pin
badges, such thoughts are beyond the scope of their remit and should not appear
on their final written report. If they make such comments, they must be
disregarded; perhaps to the extent of viewing such a report as the equivalent
of a spoilt ballot paper. Secondly, something urgently needs to be done to
introduce some kind of moderation system that standardises the marks on an
agreed set of principles that can be referenced as required. While this may
compromise the Secret part
of the Secret
Shopper initiative and strip it of its sibilant nomenclature, the
only way to assure quality control is by a standardisation exercise.
As
far as I can see it, the best way to do this would be to get every Shopper to
watch the same game and then to give their marks. One way to do this would be
to make attendance at a game, for instance the Craven Cup curtain-raiser at the
start of each season, compulsory and then to perform the moderation exercise
immediately afterwards, with a defined set of standards put in place to
give Shoppers an
unequivocal mark sheet to work from. Alternatively, if anonymity is required,
then I’m sure enough clubs film games and would be happy to record a chosen
game, sending DVDs to all those who need a copy. A League official could also
mark the game and provide a written commentary on points of interest and a
clear explanation of how the marks were arrived at. Whether the game in
question was faultless or appalling is immaterial; it is simply there to
provide an agreed standard. In time, a compilation DVD of clips of games of
differing standards could be compiled to build on this rigorous system of
moderation.
If
the scheme is to continue with any degree of confidence and credibility in the
future then I believe such standardisation and robust post report
moderation must be introduced. Otherwise nagging doubts about bias and
questions of competency can rear their head; especially when one considers that
there is absolutely no appeals procedure against what has been submitted.
For me, the best idea for subsequent seasons would not be independent
observers, but internal quality control, whereby each club submits a mark in
each of the four categories for both their own club and the opposition, on the
completed team sheet when it is submitted to the league. This is, I feel, the
best way to ensure compliance not only with the requirement to improve the
conduct of players, supporters and management, but also with the spirit of this
initiative.
Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, the piece
above may be considered moribund if not entirely irrelevant. If the Northern
League Management Committee is as keen to remove the stamp of Mike Amos on their
competition as they appear to be, for instance abolishing his daily blog with
almost indecent haste, then I feel sure the Secret
Shopper subcommittee will announce the demise of the initiative fairly
quickly and with the minimum of fuss. Were this decision to be taken, then I do
not doubt few if any clubs would shed a tear, nor indeed will the on-line
apologists for profanity, who show a desperate lack of insight into the reasons
behind the campaign. As far as I can see, asking players to try and maintain
correct standards of behaviour is a laudable sentiment. Undoubtedly the scheme tamed most of the
oath-edged talk from within the dug outs, which is great for two reasons.
Firstly, the less abuse match officials get the better, as it means they can
concentrate on their thankless tasks. Secondly, if it makes people more
receptive to attending games with children or grandchildren, then so much the
better.
Those of you who read last week’s blog will know I
wasn’t at the Northern League AGM, preferring instead to delve into the heart
of an enormous darkness that is Scotch Junior football at Beith 1 Auchinleck
Talbot 1. I had a great day out, tinged
slightly with sadness that I couldn’t say goodbye to Mike, but greatly relieved
that one particular proposal had been voted against during the meeting.
Regulations regarding the consumption of alcohol at
football grounds in Scotland are very clear. It’s illegal. It has been so since
the 1980 Scottish FA Cup ended in a riot after Celtic beat Rangers in extra
time. The scenes at this year’s final (a common factor 36 years later being
Rangers lost the latest one as well) indicate that the ban won’t be lifted any
time soon. In England, the situation is less clear cut and bedevilled by
legislation and regulations that are confusing and contradictory. In the
professional game, down to Conference level, drinking in view of the pitch is a
complete non-starter, though you can generally buy beer in grounds. The law is
less clear below this level and ensnared by obfuscatory local regulations, but
I’ve never seen anyone drink on the terraces at Croft Park, Blyth for instance.
Once you get down to Northern Alliance and then Tyneside Amateur level, such
regulations don’t apply, though the Wearside League, which is almost
exclusively populated by clubs from the Durham FA, published this statement on
their website at the back end of April -:
Following
clarification from The Football Association, the Durham County FA have issued
this ruling:
1.
Any alcohol consumed at a facility which has a licenced area to sell alcohol
must be consumed within the confines of that licenced area.
2.
No alcohol is to be consumed near the playing area.
3.
Any clubs/teams reported for the consumption of alcohol near the playing area
will be charged with misconduct.
Perhaps the person who wrote that explanation knew
what they were saying, but it is clearly open to interpretation in a number of
ways. I’m not sure how many members of the Wearside League have a licensed
clubhouse on site, but point 1 makes it clear that you can only drink in the
bar or, presumably, in any outdoor smoking area where people are allowed to
take their drinks. Points 2 and 3 are, I believe, designed to stop radgies on a
Sunday morning bevvying on the touchlines. What these points do not do is
specify the minimum distance from the pitch where drinking is acceptable or
what clubs are supposed to do with people turning up with carry-outs. If a team
doesn’t charge an entry fee to allow people to watch a game in a public park,
how can that club possibly be liable for casual, plastered observers with a bag
of cans?
This leaves the Northern League. At the 33 Benfield
games I watched last season, I drank alcohol at 4 of them. The only home game I
had pints at was against West Allotment Celtic, when I’d accompanied Mike Amos
on his Last Legs stage; I drank only
in our clubhouse, on a bitterly cold February Wednesday. Away from home, I
drowned my sorrows after we went out the Vase 2-0 at Atherton Railway, but only
after full time. The fine selection of bottled Real Ales in the Shildon
clubhouse made up for a 4-0 thumping we endured. However, I did have cause to
toast our victory away to Ashington, where a 3-1 win was accompanied by half a
dozen bottles of magnificent German imported beers. I enjoyed those latter
pints during the game as well. Sat quaffing in the stand, I had availed myself
of the plastic pint glasses proffered at 2.58 by the bar staff. Now I don’t know if it is was the drink, or
the fact this was our first game after a 2 month winter hiatus, but Saturday
January 23rd was one of the best days of the season. In saying that,
I will admit I doubt I’d have been offended if I’d been told I couldn’t take my
drink outside.
As a spectator, I’m ambivalent about the idea of
drinking on the terraces, but as a club official, I would be vehemently opposed
to it. Regardless of the economic benefits, the possibility for disorder and
the need to police those parts of the ground where drinkers congregate is as
onerous and thankless a burden to place on the shoulders of any volunteer as
one could imagine. Let’s be clear about this, at the overwhelming majority of
games I saw last season, the idea of having a drink in the ground during the
game would only have appealed if it was a medicinal hip flask of brandy
delivered by a Samaritan St Bernard. Squashy plastic pots of flat, bland lager
don’t appeal to me at the best of times; supping them on a concrete step on a
Tuesday night in November with 25 others as temperatures fall below freezing to
the accompaniment of a Force 10 off the North Sea and horizontal rain is my idea
of hell. On those occasions when I’d
have fancied a pint, I was aware I was never more than 45 minutes from a
cessation of the game I’d come to watch. Personally I go to grounds to watch
football and pubs to drink beer; rarely do the two combine.
At the Northern League AGM, a vote was taken on a
proposal to allow drinking pitch side in designated areas. The motion was debated and the vote was
conclusive; the proposal was defeated. That’s how a democracy works; one club,
one vote in this instance. Strangely though, the chronically hard of thinking
in the non-league fraternity have failed to grasp this simple point, opting
instead to endlessly and fallaciously debate the legal and moral minutiae of
the defeated motion. Those empty hot heads who feel so passionately about the
benefits of drinking pitch side have approximately 50 weeks before the next AGM
and 9 months before motions have to be submitted; surely they can use that time
to come up with a proposal that is acceptable to all, providing they are able
to state their case in a persuasive and perspicacious manner in order to garner
sufficient support.
Before anyone starts a campaign to legitimise
public drunkenness, I would counsel caution; the Secret Shopper initiative, which is where we came in, has done so
much to improve the ambience at Northern League games. It should not be allowed
to die without legacy. The isolated incidents we have seen in the Northern
League season just ended that have involved unpleasantness and disorder have
almost entirely involved half-cut yobboes acting as if Dean Street is an
extension of Green Street. Now I’m
not expecting squads of well-drilled Russian fitness fanatics in MMA gloves to
show up at a Northern League game soon, but if they did, it would be amusing to
see the reaction of those delusional, chunky, wannabe Zoolander toughies in their £500 Italian designer knitwear and
Norman Walsh trabs who are very brave boys on Twitter but couldn’t put a tab
out in real life.
Confrontation, hostility and aggression may be the
three graces of a modern Friday night out, but they aren’t what the Northern
League is about. Let’s have a drink beforehand, watch the game and celebrate
the unique beauty of our community with a post-match pint or several. Drinking
on the terraces will possibly ruin the ambience of the Northern League.
Resisting it could allow those clubs who are already at loggerheads with their
local community to mend fences. Apart from all that, we would do well to
remember that not every competition is as orderly as our own is currently. Here is my Chair’s report to the AGM of the
Tyneside Amateur League -:
I’d
like to start by offering my humble and sincere thanks to all of you here in
this room tonight. To those of you who have been involved with clubs in
whatever capacity, managerial, playing, administrative or all three in some
instances, you have my warmest congratulations on all you’ve done for the
Tyneside Amateur League in 2015/2016. If I could I’d award you medals for
getting us through the campaign just finished. I’d also like to extend my
thanks to my colleagues on the top table; to Neville, to Paul, to Kevin and to
Allan, for all of their hard work in helping us reach the end of another
protracted season, made all the more onerous by the incessant bad weather.
I’d
also like to issue two apologies; firstly for a decision we made last year to
run with 16 clubs in one division. At the time it seemed a perfect number;
those of you who have studied Mathematics will appreciate how easily 16
factorises, which is useful when making draws in cup competitions for instance.
However, what we know now is that, notwithstanding the willingness of clubs to
use 4G pitches and to reverse fixtures whenever possible (gestures for which we
owe you all an enormous debt of gratitude), 16 teams are too many for one
division. Trying to squeeze in 30 league games is just too many, what with the
dire forecasts for subsequent winter rainfall. You have my assurance we won’t
be advocating such a move again; far better to have two divisions of 8 and a
sectional cup if there’s a mild winter. I’m sure there’s a Selcray Bowl
knocking around somewhere…
On
a more serious note, I’d like to offer my personal apologies for not being
strong enough in my leadership of the league to ward off some highly damaging
and completely unacceptable incidents that have marred our reputation this
year. If I had the necessary leadership qualities, then clubs would not have
blatantly ignored instructions to attend meetings to explain the conduct of
their players or administrative inadequacies. Those clubs would, when they did
attend, have shown enough decorum and respect to accept the points we were
making, rather than adopted a confrontational attitude, belittling any
criticism. Sitting in a meeting on a Monday night, being contemptuously sneered
at for suggesting the repeated use of obscenities to a referee is not the sort
of conduct we expect in the Tyneside Amateur League, is not what I’d envisaged
my role of Chair would entail.
We,
all of us, are volunteers and there are times when I have wondered just why I
would want to be associated by repute with clubs who find it perfectly
reasonable to threaten and intimidate match officials and opposing players,
using vile profanities, in a way that would see them arrested if such behaviour
was replicated in everyday life. I
refuse to accept that the vast majority of sensible, sporting, mature,
responsible players, club officials and supporters, should have to endure this
sort of behaviour. I find it deplorable that players should refuse to take part
in fixtures against certain other teams, for reasons of personal safety
concerns. This is simply not acceptable. It must now stop.
You
may have seen that leagues higher up the pyramid than us have seen the
departure of high profile management committee members that has, according to
received wisdom, made the leagues vulnerable. You may also have noted that
Neville has stated his intention to step down next summer; suffice to say he is
irreplaceable and that fulsome tributes will be paid at the appropriate time.
However, his scheduled departure will leave our management committee seriously
understrength. Please examine your consciences; could you give something back
to help run this league? Are you prepared to stand up, in whatever capacity, to
help maintain the good name of the Tyneside Amateur League? Because I say this now, providing I’ve been
re-elected, I will not hesitate to resign if there is any suggestion of racism,
intimidation or violence towards opposition players or match officials next
season. It is not a decision I would take lightly, but one I am convinced would
be both right and proper, so pleased be warned.
Paul
has alluded to the fact I expected my role to be more symbolic and ceremonial
than things have turned out (though I prefer to say he couldn’t think of anyone
else to do the Chair’s job). That said, I’m glad it has. You see, I have
developed a deep and abiding affection for the Tyneside Amateur League, which
was amply demonstrated by the two magnificent occasions at Benfield for our Cup
Finals. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by my partner Laura and several
friends to both games; all of them spoke warmly of the atmosphere and sporting
behaviour on display (red cards for keepers apart I suppose…). Feedback like
that, and the knowledge that our clubs continue to progress upwards and makes
successes of themselves in the Northern Alliance are what makes me proud to be
involved with this league. Please, everyone, let’s make sure we’ve got plenty
more reasons to celebrate your successes moving forward.
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