According to Scarborough Athletic that is...

Linos and refs have always been abused by fans at all levels. I don't condone it and it is totally unacceptable but why should females expect to be treated any differently from their male counterparts? Surely they are aware of these issues before they do the job?

Depends if the abuse was sexually related, I don’t accept that from fans.

As someone who was there, the only comments I heard were that she should be doing some washing up or revealing her cleavage.
There was a pause in the game when she highlighted to the referee that she had been targeted for abuse and within a few minutes there was an announcement made regarding misogynist remarks made to any official, player supporter etc would not be tolerated and any perpetrator would be removed from the ground. After that I didn't personally hear any such comments come from the Darlo fans where I was stood.
Second half she came out and started running the line on the other side in front of the Scarborough fans. There was an incident where there may have been a handball in the build up to our 3rd goal and thats when it all kicked off on the other side and the ref suspended play for about 40 minutes.
The way the media seem to going on is that it was purely down to the away fans that there was an issue where in reality it was both sets of fans.

‘As someone who was there, the only comments I heard were that she should be doing some washing up or revealing her cleavage’
Are you serious, that is abuse in my eyes, especially the embarassing bit about ‘revealing her cleavage’, beloved of ‘blokes’ rejected by women in real life.

In my view you tend to find the linesman role attracts little attention unless they’re incompetent and draw the criticism on themselves.
However, some abuse is really vile from morons with the thought process and IQ of boiled egg….
But, if the abuse was related to her sexuality, it makes you wonder what these pathetic inadequates get out of it.

Yes its abuse. I've seen female physios have innuendo made towards them when treating players. Its not right but it happens, no matter how good natured it may be intended.

Yes, as I said above, the abuse of match officials is totally unacceptable it should not matter what form the abuse takes it simply should not happen. Unfortunately it has always go on. What is being suggested? Are matches going to be abandoned if female officials get abused purely because they are female?

While I completely agree with what you state I am slightly puzzled that no one considered that female officials would get abuse from loud, angry, and possibly half pissed football fans when male officials have had to deal with it from time immemorial. Football is a pretty tough and nasty business at times and if there is any doubt in their minds, women officials need to be made aware of this before they embark on a career in mens football. Of course all perpetrators should be removed and banned where possible but it seems to me it will be difficult to completely eradicate.

Women linos for women's football.
Mens linos for mens football.
Problem sorted.
What next women playing mens football.

To be fair, Michael Olivers ex wife Lucy is one of the best refs I have seen at any level.
Apparently denied promotion as she didn't book people as much as she should.

I was at the match and why it was stopped for such a long period of time is beyond me. Like people have stated abuse shouldn’t be tolerated but what they were saying in the dressing rooms for half an hour I don’t know.
The Darlo fans response when they eventually came back out did make me smile with a rendition of We love you Lino we do

What say these tossers making theses comments grow up and act like an adult.
Is it asking too much?
If it was their daughter would they do it…?

I am not sure how successful you would be suggesting a gang of mouthy thugs should grow up. I have long since concluded that not every member of the human race is susceptible to reason.

The Darlo trainer is a huge lump of a bloke and when he had to come on late on to treat an injury was given a rendition of The Walrus is Back, needless to say the players were not taken back off the field and the guy fair play to him laughed it off and conducted the fans walking in front of the Scarborough end.

abuse or a bit of fun?

Seems a perfectly reasonable proposition to me (women officials for womens football) but I suspect the Guardian readers and the BBC would lose their shit at the very whisper of the idea.

It used to be called banter. The problem is one person's idea of banter is another's idea of abuse. What we gonna do, sanitize football crowds so they watch the match in silence and are only allowed to make a noise when a goal is scored?

It’s going that way if yesterday is anything to go by, there was a definite handball near the woman assistant ref just before the third goal she gave nothing and of course she was going to get gyp a bloke would of got probably worse.

It might get the approval of the Afghan FA.
So you’d approve of women doctors for women and men’s doctors for men….?

You wouldn’t because the knuckle draggers aren’t capable of comprehending shit all.
You can explain to people, but you can’t think for them.

I would love a reasoned argument as to why you ask that bizarre question. In what way is officiating at a football match got anything whatsoever to do with working in the health sector?

There was an away trainer who came on to treat a player. It would be fair to say he was not a stranger to a tub of Quality Street.
He got a rendition of " You fat bastard" from the town end as he walked behind the goal when walking back to the dugout. But as he passed the fans he stuck up two fingers behind his back with a smile on his face. Everyone was pissing themselves laughing.

Before anyone jumps on me i totally deplore the actions at the Darlo match.

A good anecdote. It sums up the kind of give and take banter that used to be a feature of footy games.

Hardly bizarre, you appear to be approving of some form of sexual apartheid….. for sport.
Why shouldn’t a woman referee or run the line in ‘men’s football’, they’re not competing against men, they’re adjudicating, their sex is irrelevant in this instance.
Sexual abuse is a sign of ignorance and immaturity.

The handball she missed was on the blind side looking at the highlights so it was the refs fault it wasn’t given, providing he could see.
What actually got the lineswoman onside with the Darlo fans was the fact she saw a handball the ref missed! The bad comments started earlier when she ignored blatant shirt pulling on Kaine Felix who was breaking down the right, clear as day to anyone with eyes open.
Danny our physio is a very big lad and he plays on the fact, he knows he gets stick so embraces it rather than shy away from it.

You accuse me of "approving of some form of sexual apartheid". So in your view that equates to a belief that because I approve of the idea that football officials should be of the same gender as the players they are officiating upon, male and female doctors can only treat patients of the same gender as they are. Still totally baffled by this connection to football. I cant help thinking it is insane bollox.

On the off chance that anyone impartial happens to be reading this I will outline why I think football officials should be of the same gender as those they are officiating upon. It seems a female lino had vile sexualized abuse aimed at her following a perceived error during a match between Scarboro and Darlington. From what a witness said, the perceived error lead to a goal being conceded which lead to some fans becoming angry and abusive and using the sexualized language. If the official had been male and had made the same error, he would have had to put up with plenty of abuse but it would not have been sexualized and the game would not have had to be stopped for 40 minutes. Angry football fans are like almost any angry gang: they will use any personal characteristic as a target be that gender, height, hair colour, lack of hair, race, etc. They dont care about hurting people's feelings indeed they want to hurt people's feelings. If we are going to have female officials in men's football it seems to me easy targets are being provided for the drunk, angry, coked up and hard of empathy. Why should we do this just out of political correctness? The environment at grounds where the crowds are small enough for almost every comment to be heard are likely to be "difficult" for female officials in my opinion so why put them through it when there is absolutely no need? It is detrimental to both the female officials and to the game, particularly if 40 minute stoppages caused by sexualized abuse of officials start to become more frequent or even the norm.

I hope the above will make it clear that I am not in any way in favour of "sexual apartheid" but rather my opinion is based on what I feel is in the best interests of both the female officials and the game itself.

This topic is getting like a collection of quotes from the ‘Sid the Sexist’ school of how to deal with women.
If you can’t see the very basic point I’m making on equality that’s not my problem.
But expecting women to be restricted and treating them like delicate flowers who should be put somewhere safe to save their feelings from those who ignorantly abuse them is rather ‘Victorian Father’ to me.
Treating them as little ladies is not the answer, try punishing the arseholes who have no excuse for their actions and abandon a match, the message will very soon get through…… a black player receiving abuse to this extent would cause outrage and rightly so, but would you expect them to play in an ethnic minority league to protect them from abuse…think about it.

Abuse of match officials has been allowed to become part of the game and any criticism of them from people within the game is met with sanctions and/or a fine. A manager gets asked in an after match interview about certain decisions made by the officials but can't give his honest opinion in fear of a ban and a fine.
When females first appeared as officials in the men's game my opinion was that inevitably sexual abuse would surface so why would a woman put herself in that position. I think that reaction by me was completely logical simply because it is extremely difficult to police that behaviour and stamp it out, apart from hefty fines on the club itself.
My Granny would have said "you're asking for trouble." Now we appear to have that trouble.
I brought this up a year or two back when I mentioned the fact that there were hardly any people of colour officiating at matches in an attempt to start a discussion as to why that was. I was immediately accused of being racist but unless these phenomena are brought to the table and discussed how do we get the diversity people seem to crave for. Will the supply of female officials also dry up like it has for male non whites simply because society gets away with abusing them. Is that why these categories are missing in the game because their Grannies said "you're asking for trouble". I wonder.

all match officials get abused one time or another and in most cases its brought on by themselves giving weong decisions. if being abused is not for you then look for something else to do in your spare time. the incident would never have made even the local press if it had been a white lino but abuse of a woman or non white official has to be made a national issue. the wastage of female and non white officials who quickly pack it in is no higher than for others and at least they have tokenism to fall back on once they go up the slippery slope. actually one asian ref i know very well has said he hates being the token paki being pushed all the way because the local county fa see him as the best of the few. did the job for nearly 30 years including a stint on the line for the eastern version of the northern league and got some stick all of my own making but it was like water off a ducks back.

Not for one minute am I disputing what you and Derwent have said, but while women can’t compete physically in men’s football, when officiating they can be the equal of men in any sport.
Therefore if they want to chance their arm at refereeing or running the line and they can ignore and live with crap from those immature blokes of all ages who have a problem with women then power to their elbow.
Incidentally, has any other sport got this problem as much as football supporters….?
I’d call them misogynists, but they probably couldn’t understand the meaning or even spell the word.

Remember years ago stood in the rinkend, And oppo were awarded a corner and our CB turned to the ref and said.
"you are a wanker ref" to which the ref replied "takes one to know one"

All sorted no tantrums, Its the old "sticks and stones"

This country really has gone soft in the head...

Gurman Singh? - One of the best referees I have ever seen.

No problem with banter, but when you’re asking them to show a bit of cleavage, that’s going too far, nothing to do with going soft.

Absolutely agree with the principle you describe Snowy but the reality is that the crap and abuse has more chance of upsetting them than not.
The Morons we are discussing give dog's abuse to their own players and even their club so "outsiders" making mistakes have no chance. In no way would I condone abuse but there are no go areas in this life and like the non white males have done, I can see the females following suit, which is unfortunate.

Yeah I can see the point you are making. We must sanitize men's football so women officials don't get upset because we absolutely must have female officials. Of course shouldn't be a problem. Install video surveillance at every venue where football is played and pay the wages of people who spend the entire match watching and listening for sexist abuse. I wonder how this will be funded. But equality yay!

unlike his dad ever was. then there was uriah rennie, hated by anyone who was unlucky enough to run the line for him both on and off the pitch.

exactly, i learned very quickly to get a quick reply in to sort something out. problem with many coming into the game they are inexperianced in stuff like that and only have the laws of the game to rely on plus 2 cards and a whistle.

actually other women are not keen on either womens football or female match officials. Its just they are quieter in voicing their objections. anyway all match officials are equal and should be tret accordingly. same with anybody in any walk of life with no one seemingly getting a free ride because of anything.

Darlo, like most clubs, have their share of dickhead fans. These dickhead fans usually come out for the big games or for the booze ups and they enjoy stirring things up and having (what they see as) a bit of fun. These dickhead fans spoil things for others.

It's not just Darlo though, a few weeks ago the Hereford/Darlo game was stopped because someone in the H'ford end shouted homophobic abuse at a Darlo forward. The match was stopped, the person was pointed out and he was thrown out, and most likely banned too.

The thing is though times are changing, abuse is not tolerated in todays world and my prediction is that more football matches will be stopped in the future, throughout all leagues.

Women linos shouldn't be exempt from being booed or receiving comments like 'do want to borrow my glasses' etc, but misogynistic abuse (get yer tits out/etc) is just not on, and I don't see why some fans find this hard to understand? Or maybe I do!!

Thank you, the point I’ve been trying to make all along.

There should not be any reason why any capable person would be exempt from refereeing men's football but reasons exist that could drive them away from it. That being the case the authorities have to find a way of stopping them being driven away. As the authorities have failed to protect other groups from being driven away I don't hold out any hope whatsoever of the authorities protecting the girls from abuse and therefore that lack of protection will drive them away, or at least the majority. A girl can't walk past a building site without being subjected to the usual cries of "get yer tits out for the lads" etc. Does anybody do anything about that behaviour???/ No they don't. They won't in football grounds either. Maybe one day but will there be a day when yobs will be prevented from that sort of behaviour. To use common sense you first have to have it.

Wonder why football has an higher reading on the ‘Moron Scale’ than other sports.
I sometimes think it’s a throwback to the Colosseum in Rome, minus the chariots, though trying to get out of Morrison’s car park post match runs a close second.

It is the lack of self discipline, Snowy. Why do we allow kids barely in their teens to destroy their peers on social media through similar behavioural patterns. Respect and manners have been consigned to history.

Women have officiated as linos at several home games at the Vic without arousing any audible controversy - doubtless by doing the job to a standard not always attained by their male equivalents.

Those good old, salt of the earth wolf-whistlers on building sites are going to have to find a new pastime too:

'Street harassment to be banned in crackdown, government says'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63916328

Every time some arse shouts hurtful remarks to an female offiical are we to stop the game, Thats what i meant by going soft.

Same old same old, you know as well as i do minority spoiling it for the majority, And twats will keep on doing it
If it means stopping the game.

You can hear fans at premier clubs chanting abuse constantly at officals/ Opposing fans, Yet familys with kids yards away
Are expected to get on with it.

Why should a female offical be treated differantly, Than say someones little girl at the match.
And yes i know the chants are not directed at the familys but they still have to sit through it


Remember Cloughie having trouble with the forrest fans years ago because of abusive chants.

Walk through the townend one week and just listen, its vile.

I’m agreeing with you, they’ll have to toughen up a or give up, but don’t deny them the chance to try.
But are some of these repellent terrace windbags kept on a tight rein when not at the match and become Jeckyll and Hyde characters where they express their frustrations with women and life in a frenzied state for two hours at a match.
I know we can do little about it as they reveal a shockingly low level of what could be classed as normal behaviour…a bit like sweary/shouty day at the asylum….and why do they pat themselves on the back after their outbursts .

Any photos of said cleavage?

now now MrI

sure you will get a PM,lol

I worked as a Bricklayer for over thirty years up until recently and only saw this happen once, and then the culprit got a bollocking from the site foreman. Misbehaving on building sites is a bit of a fallacy, the Fast Show stereotypes are few and far between.

Mind you, it’s posh where I live!

I’ve seen it once from other contractors when we were installing gear on a flat roof, but it was an ironic not complimentary wolf whistle…. the old lady in question just laughed it off.
But that was in the 80’s and no one I’d imagine then was that offended.
It is a bit of an urban myth though and usually down to the same ‘offender’ wherever he worked.

the 'offenders' are always the quickest to duck away from sight on the scaffold afterwards..