THE DUBLIN BRANCH of the Irish soccer Referees Society has unanimously voted to withdraw services for ALL fixtures from Friday November 18 until December 2 in an effort to highlight ongoing verbal and physical abuse of their members
The decision follows 12 months on from when FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill “promised” to protect Irish referees by doing “whatever we have to do to ensure a zero-tolerance policy towards abuse,” the Dublin branch of the Irish Soccer Referees’ Society (ISRS) has unanimously voted for strike action.
All fixtures in Dublin, including futsal and friendlies, are set to be postponed from Friday November 18th until December 2nd after the ISRS announced a “lack of confidence in the FAI disciplinary control unit (DCU).”
“Our members voted by show of hands – 175 in favor, zero against, zero abstentions – that we will be withdrawing our services from all football,” wrote Sean Slattery, honorary secretary of the ISRS Dublin branch. “We would like this message to be sent to all branch secretaries nationwide urgently.”
The following is a statement frm Dublin Branch which I am instructed to send to Council:
AS stated in our previous correspondence sent of Sunday 30th October, at last night’s meeting (Thursday November 3) we made our members aware of the Dublin Committee’s stanceof our concerns and lack of confidence in the FAI Disciplinary Control Unit, and the two recent cases in which our members stated that an assault and as att4mpted assault had taken place.
In both cases the referees word was not taken as fact and six and seven match bans were handed out
Our members were outraged when they heard the verdicts first hand and also questioned how videos were now being accepted as evidence.
They also questioned how a manager that was involved in the incident surrounding the assault, and who was then banned for six matches by the league was still alllowed give evidence at the hearing on behalf of the player.
They also could not understand how rhw DCU, who we were told would be exclusively deal with assault/attempted assault, were then also able to hand out lower suspensions not in in what we were led to believe was their remit.
Members were told their Committee had no confidence that when the next assault/attempted assault occur, that they would see the proper sanction applied by the DCU.
Our members voted by show of hans 175 in favour, none against and no abstentions, that we will be withdrawing our services from all football, including Futsal, including friendlies, from Friday November 18 until Friday December 2 2022 (both dates inclusive).
We would like this message to be sent to all Branch Secretaries nationwide urgently.
Regards,
SEAN SLATTERY
Honorary Secretary, Dublin ISRS.
