I wondered that today when my teenage daughter came home beside herself after she refereed an under 9s game. She said a child tripped over his own feet and stayed down. A male ran onto the field and yelled at my daughter; "You're a f$&g shit ref. I should have refereed this game. ". The child got to his feet and continued the full game with no issues.
When my daughter first told me this she still very upset. I wrongly said to my daughter that it comes with the territory. Unfortunately we live in a society today with people who have no integrity and will intimidate and verbally abuse others including young children without any consideration to how that behaviour affects the person they are directing it to. I did later correct myself and say to my daughter I'm sorry that man spoke to you that way, it is wrong and unacceptable. It has been reported and hopefully there will be some recourse for this person.
Two weeks ago at an under 14 game a coach verbally abused the young ref throughout the whole game. The language again incorporated the F word plus other such words. He could be herd yelling out at the ref from the other side of the field and it was obvious it was intimidating the young boy. Afterwards I couldn't help hearing a parent excusing the behaviour; "Oh that's just him"
No excuse and even more so if he was really the coach.
Cocktail of ego and testosterone is dangerous.
These mongrels shouldn't be let near junior football.
Ban them - get rid of them with surgical precision. We don't need them.
It is a good case for a behavior monitor to be present at the games provided either by the clubs or, better still, by the association.
These incidents are too common place and totally unacceptable.
So sorry what happened to your little girl and disgusted at the "coach" abusing the young ref.