Football is not a matter of life or death, says Birmingham County FA chief executive Kevin Shoemake as he tells the Herald about rising cases of misconduct across their patch which includes Stratford and south Warwickshire

“The numbers are shameful,” Shoemake told the Herald. “As a former professional and semi-professional player, a Premier League match delegate, a UEFA B coach and FA goalkeeping tutor, I have seen the benefits of the game.

“It’s not just about kicking a ball about for 90 minutes, to me it’s about social inclusion, the camaraderie, the challenge of improving as a player, the networking it brings and the positives it brings to health and wellbeing. We have the largest geographical area out of the 50 county FAs in the country and the numbers suggested that post-pandemic, there was a huge desire from people to get back into playing the game but that also brought an increase in ill-discipline.”

Shoemake went on to say that 80 per cent of misconduct cases have been down to the personal choice of the individual involved. “There’s been incidences of a bad tackle and either a player, coach or spectator has given verbal abuse. There’s been cases of players being sent off and coming back on to start a mass brawl, or spit and shout at the referee,” he said.

“The majority of the serious cases are within an individual’s control, so they can do something about it. When we talk about a cost-of-living crisis, a yellow card costs £12. I’d prefer a person to keep that money and spend it on their family, their heating, their petrol or their food. If anyone shows indiscretion, will we investigate it as per FA rules, most get charged and most go to a hearing. It’s then down to a panel that look at the evidence and then they question the perpetrators and referees involved accordingly.”

But it’s not only in the adult game where there have been cases of serious misconduct. Shockingly, there have been cases of discrimination at U9s and U11s football, including racism.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Shoemake. “Staff at our headquarters have to read these reports and they can be very distressing. After the pandemic we did not know whether there was going to be a massive interest from people to get back into football or if the game was going to capitulate. So on the back of the success of the men’s and women’s Euros, it’s great to see that huge interest in football but it’s got to come with responsibility and it’s important to promote better behaviour.

“Respect the referee, respect the laws of the game and behave on the sidelines, that’s all I am asking, it’s not rocket science, save yourselves some money.”

When it comes to the abuse towards the man and/or woman in the middle, as well as the assistant referees, Shoemake slammed those who claim “it’s just banter” or “it will toughen them up”.

“Football is a passionate game but the problem is everyone has a different line of what is acceptable, it varies from person to person, player to player and referee to referee,” he continued. “Some referees are more tolerant than others but that’s the society we live in, however, everyone has to know what’s right and what’s wrong and if you overstep that line you’ve got to face the consequences.

“There is no way for a player to tell if a referee is someone who has come from the factory floor and is more tolerant about the language used in society, or whether they are a born-again Christian who does not tolerate any form of bad language, even the mildest forms.

“People need to just take a breath and think about life in general. We’ve come through a huge crisis in the world with health and mental wellbeing at the forefront of it. There is more to life than whacking someone for a challenge you disagreed with, abusing someone from the sidelines or punching someone because you feel they’re better than you. Some say it’s just banter and it toughens people up but that’s not acceptable.”

Other cases of serious misconduct last season included death threats towards players and assaults on referees, but thankfully, Shoemake said, these numbers were very low.

While there has been an increase in misconduct and ill-discipline, Shoemake also says this can be pointed towards the fact more referees in their remit are coming forward and reporting these types of serious incidents.

Shoemake explained that the Birmingham County FA was doing all it could to encourage more referees to be more detailed in their report writing, a key life skill he said, and to be more wary and conscious of what is happening on the pitch.

“It’s a brave decision to report something as serious as discrimination or assault,” he said. “However, we will help, support and protect those referees and officials as best as we can, while removing idiots, there’s no other phrase for them, from the game. I know of a league which has asked clubs not to register a certain three players because of their previous history in the game which is great, it stops them from playing and it sets a precedent.”

On the support for referees who have been abused physically and/or verbally, Shoemake added: “There is FA-funded support and we send them those details once we become privy to information that they have been subjected to that kind of abuse.

“The laws of the game allow that protection. We immediately suspend the person involved and put them out of the game while we do our investigation.

“That person will be charged if there is enough evidence and if the misconduct is serious enough we then encourage the referee or official to go to the police. We will then pause our investigation while the criminal one goes on and sometimes it will go to court. When that’s finished, we take up the football investigation again. Whether it’s proven or not is down to the evidence panels and the FA. It’s important to stress this is done on the balance of probability.”

On a positive note, the Birmingham County FA is back up to around 1,200 referees. Numbers had been as low as 980 during the pandemic, the first time the number of referees had dropped under a 1,000 in Shoemake’s six-year spell as chief executive.

The drop in numbers led to a lot of leagues struggling to fulfil fixtures, Shoemake said, but an influx of 300 new referees has put things back on track.

“We’d like to think we can get to 1,400 referees by the end of this season,” he added.

“We’ve got another 25 referee courses coming up and the majority of those are already full, so there’s a hunger and desire to be a referee. The drop-off is a difficult picture to paint because there’s not a lot of referees we’ve surveyed who said they left because of the game and the abuse.

“Other county FAs might differ but what we have found is our referees are now less tolerant which is great, they should be reporting what’s going on.”

On the importance of the next generation of referees coming through, Shoemake said: “It’s massive. We’ve got some really famous referees in our county. There’s probably eight Premier League or Football League referees and then we’ve got the likes of Sian Massey-Ellis and Lisa Rashid who are doing great and have hopes of officiating at the Women’s World Cup.”

Shoemake stressed, though, that the next generation of referees will come through if everyone plays their part in understanding the laws of the game and maintaining their discipline when they disagree with something that’s happened on the pitch.

“I’m hopeful the Enough is Enough campaign is going to drive some change and get people thinking. All I’m asking for is for people to just stop and think before they act,” he said.

“Take a breath, smile and think the world is a better place, there’s more to life than football, it’s not life or death. If you get sent off just walk off, there’s no need to come back onto the pitch and hurl abuse or start throwing punches.

“People need to calm down, enjoy the game, shake hands afterwards and then go home and enjoy their lives, more so after being stuck at home for two years because of Covid.

“Ideally, I’d love behaviour to improve and if more people enjoy the game then more people will want to play football, more people will want to become a referee and more will want to become a coach. If we can stop the misconducts and ill-discipline, we’ll see less people in court, less people injured and less people put out of the game from a bad experience.”

• The FA’s Enough is Enough campaign looks to address behaviour within grassroots football by sharing the key message that football deserves better and unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. This includes swearing, aggressive shouting and persistent arguing among spectators, players and officials.