Former top referee Waddell warns that next generation of whistlers may be lost to game

AS a former FIFA Grade One referee, Edinburgh's Andrew Waddell has observed the outpouring of discontent at Scotland's officials with interest. Today, he warned that the game's future is in danger as young referees will soon refuse to enlist for duty due to intolerable pressure.

The fallout from Tannadice ten days ago saw assistant referee Steven Craven tender his resignation to the Scottish Football Association. He committed the heinous crime of advising Dougie McDonald to reverse a decision to award Celtic a penalty against Dundee United. Subsequently, Neil Lennon went berserk, Celtic complained to the SFA and Craven suffered death threats, whilst his teenage sons were verbally abused. Referee William Collum became the latest to receive death threats at his Lanarkshire home following Sunday's Old Firm derby. His abomination was to award Rangers a penalty in the fixture, prompting Lennon to once again publicly question officialdom.

Waddell, below, who retired from refereeing in 1999, believes the pressure applied to referees and assistants has reached unacceptable levels. Speaking exclusively to the Evening News, he questioned the motives of those slating officials before, during and after matches. He also cautioned that up-and-coming referees are being dissuaded from the profession by the intensity of the scrutiny. "We might get into a situation where people are not going to put themselves under that pressure," said Waddell. "Because of the demands of top-level football, with travel and physical fitness and everything else, it's becoming a much more demanding job compared to when I did it. Then to get all this extra pressure on top, I just don't know who is going to do it in the future. That's my worry.

"Refereeing can be a fantastically rewarding thing to do. I remember the Swedish referee, Anders Frisk, who just said, 'I've had enough for my family's sake and everything else,' and walked away from it. If that's going to become the pattern in the future where we lose good people, then where are the replacements coming from? The long-term development of good referees is at stake."

Frisk was another to receive death threats. In his case, he sent off Chelsea's Didier Drogba during a Champions League tie against Barcelona early in 2005. "There's absolutely no question that the guys nowadays are under more public scrutiny," continued Waddell, now 60. "There was an undefined line that people would not cross by publicly criticising referees in my day. That seems to have got blurred somewhere.

"It seems fair game for anybody with the slightest grouch to start shooting off about the referee without concentrating on problems closer to home. Such matters were dealt with privately previously but there now appears to be a media warfare on the issue, which increasingly puts people under pressure.

"It's perfectly legal, there's nothing preventing people doing this, and consequently it's being exploited. It just didn't happen to the same extent when I refereed. If a manager was unhappy with you, then you knew it on a personal level but he didn't air it in the press.

"The one simple question I would ask the people making these comments is: If refereeing standards are as bad as they say, how will their actions improve things? My answer is they won't, they are going to make things a lot worse. I'm curious as to how this is all going to work for the future."

When his own refereeing career took off, Waddell avoided media coverage of football every Sunday to escape any abuse which might have been aimed in his direction. He was also delighted the SFA prohibited officials from speaking publicly on decisions.

"Every human being dislikes criticism. Every player hates it, every manager hates it and every referee hates it as well. I used to have a fairly strict habit of not reading the press on a Sunday on the simple principle that you're only as good as your last decision. Next week would be something entirely different.

"I was quite happy not to have my say because it takes two sides to argue. If one side isn't commenting then you don't have an argument. It quite suited me to say, 'sorry, I'm not allowed to comment on these things'."

With some managers and players carping at officials on a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, basis, relieving the pressure on those in the middle is no easy task. Waddell appeals for common sense and realism in the hope that laws preventing any comments on referees are not introduced.

"I hope it's unnecessary to introduce such regulations. I hope the SFA don't need to get involved by introducing more laws," he said. "I would hope that, in the moral spirit of things, people simply won't do it because. It's very much short-termism. All we need is a bit of common sense, respect and understanding. That works both ways. Referees have to understand the pressures of managers but, at the same time, managers need an attitude of 'the guy's got a job to do, let him get on with it'.

"You do get very thick-skinned about it and the criticism becomes water off a duck's back eventually. The guys nowadays have to adopt that attitude, it's the only way to survive.

"If you don't have that sort of attitude you will rapidly go under. I was out of the country in Australia so I haven't seen the incident involving Steven Craven. I don't know what sort of pressure he's been under but I've seen the reaction to it. When you look at the years he's had to put in to get to that position at the very top of the game, then for him to just walk away from it is pretty bad pressure."

The burden is now becoming intolerable for Scotland's officials and, if that is threatening the game's long-term future, then his request for some slack is well worth heeding.