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Have Scarborough Athletic shown the top clubs what to do?

Graham Fisher in Editorial, General Soccer News 20 Aug 2009

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Scarborough Athletic FC was only formed in 2007. It was formed by a supporters trust when the former league club Scarborough FC sadly went out of business.

Promotion

The club began life in the Northern Counties Eastern League Division One and gained promotion last time out in only their second ever season, meaning that they now ply their trade in the Northern Counties Eastern League Premier Division, tier five of non-league football in England.

It is a success story that the club is even in existence and the progress they have made has been impressive. Now they have made the news for taking very strong action against two of their players.

Sacked

On Sunday the club played at home against Guisborough Town in an FA Cup qualifying round in front of 608 spectators. They lost the game 2-1 but the real news is that they have sacked two of their players after incidents during the game.

Jamie Waltham was shown a red card in the game and he continued to have an altercation with the referee which led to other players having to drag him away.

Scott Phillips was substituted and stormed from the pitch, throwing his shirt to the ground.

Respect

The club have issued a statement saying that the actions of both players showed a total lack of respect and that neither player will be selected for the team again.

Club Chairman Simon Cope told the BBC,

“The club has decided that both Jamie and Scott will no longer play for Scarborough Athletic in the future. It doesn’t reflect well on what we’ve been trying to do as a club and we’re very disappointed in the pair of them. It was tough but what made it easy was that myself, the director of football and the team manager were all in agreement on what action need to be taken. It is tough though, especially two players who have been very influential for us in the past and both have been regular starters. You’ve got to show respect to the officials regardless of what they do. Scott let his temper get the better of him I think. His reaction to being substituted wasn’t what we expect. That’s why we’ve had to take this action with the pair of them. We have no intention of becoming known for the wrong reasons – we want to be known for the right reasons.”

The Chairman went on to say that he felt that the team would still do OK in the league this season and that expectations were still high despite the loss of the players.

Dragged

Of course, Manchester United would have been OK if they had sacked Cristiano Ronaldo after his outburst at being substituted towards the end of last season. Chelsea would have been OK if they had sacked Didier Drogba after having to be dragged away from the referee following Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final defeat against Barcelona.

I wonder if Scarborough Athletic have done the right thing? They are not paying ‘lip service’ to the respect campaign within the game, they are actually following it through with decisive action.

Learn

Could the top clubs learn something from this? If they started sacking players for behaving badly it would surely soon stamp out the lack of respect we so often see players showing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Graham Fisher


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  • Chris4CFC

    0 0

    I think the real issue here is money.

    Ronaldo and Drogba are both worth so much that they will never be disciplined as severely as situations may dictate. I am not making comment on how I feel about either players actions, just that punishments will be less severe for players of their caliber.

    If they were sacked from teams, it would cost both the clubs and the game itself so much, that I feel these punitive measures will not be taken.

    Think about your own favorite team, on most teams there are usually players that have been guilty of conduct that could get them sacked at one point or another.

    Off the top of my head, I know that ManU, Chelsea, LIverpool, Real Madrid all have player(s) whose conduct could arguably merit discharge from the club.

    On a side note

    My personal feelings about the issue are simple: I think that players should be treating officials with more respect, and should be punished more harshly for their conduct.

    Also for this to be successful officiating needs to be held to a higher standard. There is always talk of respecting the officials. The officiating bodies and their employees also need to respect the leagues, teams, players, and the game itself. It is absolutely unacceptable for them to demand a level of respect they do, while being unable to make even the simplest of calls correctly in many cases. I’m not advocating any players negative behavior in anyway, but respect is earned, not freely given, and there is no valid reason why the officiating bodies should still be clinging to such archaic methods.

    Both sides need to reach a happy medium.

  • Soccer

    0 0

    The Chelsea incident should not be brought up in this context. Hopefully the Chelsea incident was a one off because the referees in that game were an absolute disgrace and needed a good belting.

  • Chelsea FC Fan

    0 0

    lack of respect?

    what about the lack of officiating? If you’ve ever played an officiated game in your life, you would know how bad officiating impacts the game. It’s enough to make your blood boil. I have never lost my cool with a ref b/c I don’t play at those top levels where my career is on the line.

    But anyway, why not remove ALL dialogue with the ref in the first place??? If there is a dispute, captains and coaches should be able to challenge a call and have an independent source, from refs and teams, manage the issue. Obviously cap the number of times a ref can be challenged per game and you will begin to see how teams manage the officiating without being ‘disrespectful’. I don’t know – maybe i’m blowing a lot of hot air around here, but I really find the officiating in Soccer to be prehistoric.

  • Chelsea FC Fan

    0 0

    lack of respect?

    what about the lack of officiating? If you’ve ever played an officiated game in your life, you would know how bad officiating impacts the game. It’s enough to make your blood boil. I have never lost my cool with a ref b/c I don’t play at those top levels where my career is on the line.

    But anyway, why not remove ALL dialogue with the ref in the first place??? If there is a dispute, captains and coaches should be able to challenge a call and have an independent source, from refs and teams, manage the issue. Obviously cap the number of times a ref can be challenged per game and you will begin to see how teams manage the officiating without being ‘disrespectful’. I don’t know – maybe i’m blowing a lot of hot air around here, but I really find the officiating in Soccer to be prehistoric.

  • Soccer

    0 0

    The Chelsea incident should not be brought up in this context. Hopefully the Chelsea incident was a one off because the referees in that game were an absolute disgrace and needed a good belting.

  • Chris4CFC

    0 0

    I think the real issue here is money.

    Ronaldo and Drogba are both worth so much that they will never be disciplined as severely as situations may dictate. I am not making comment on how I feel about either players actions, just that punishments will be less severe for players of their caliber.

    If they were sacked from teams, it would cost both the clubs and the game itself so much, that I feel these punitive measures will not be taken.

    Think about your own favorite team, on most teams there are usually players that have been guilty of conduct that could get them sacked at one point or another.

    Off the top of my head, I know that ManU, Chelsea, LIverpool, Real Madrid all have player(s) whose conduct could arguably merit discharge from the club.

    On a side note

    My personal feelings about the issue are simple: I think that players should be treating officials with more respect, and should be punished more harshly for their conduct.

    Also for this to be successful officiating needs to be held to a higher standard. There is always talk of respecting the officials. The officiating bodies and their employees also need to respect the leagues, teams, players, and the game itself. It is absolutely unacceptable for them to demand a level of respect they do, while being unable to make even the simplest of calls correctly in many cases. I’m not advocating any players negative behavior in anyway, but respect is earned, not freely given, and there is no valid reason why the officiating bodies should still be clinging to such archaic methods.

    Both sides need to reach a happy medium.

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