On pick-up duties from swimming lessons and on the way to grab something for a family dinner, Ben Williams is a timely reminder that referees are human.
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Now retired, Williams isn't foreign to the abusive tirades that come with refereeing - the FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, Asian Cup and 141 A-League matches light up his resume - but nothing makes the vulgar comments thrown the way of officials acceptable.
Williams has called on Capital Football to come down hard on referee abusers as claims emerge whistleblowers have been victims of death threats, sexist remarks and physical abuse.
The governing body and club presidents met on Wednesday night in a bid to appease officials but Capital Football boss Phil Brown has kept silent on the matter driving a wedge between the game and its referees.
Referees are set to officiate in the opening weekend of the Canberra premier league finals series but retention is proving difficult for Capital Football, with 45 per cent of referees aged between 18 and 30 leaving the game over the past two years.
Williams says something needs to be done or more whistleblowers across various sports will go the way of the NRL's leading referee Matt Cecchin, who won’t referee again following this season.
"He was the best bloke in the game and he’s had death threats and all these kinds of things, which are not foreign to myself either. Believe it or not, referees are human," Williams said.
"They’ve got family and they’ve got people that love them. They want to be able to go out and enjoy a game of football too, and give their best.
"Sometimes their best is not good enough, but that’s always the same with the players. No one goes and gives death threats to the striker in State League 8 when they put one over the crossbar from six yards out.
"Why is it accepted that a referee who makes an error - or maybe doesn’t make an error - is subject to that."
Some officials claim to have been abused or physically harmed by players, coaches or spectators at matches, only for Capital Football to let the incident go untouched, or reduce heavy sanctions.
Williams has called on Capital Football - and all other governing bodies - to take a firm stance and make a change.
"When it turns people away from the game, I don’t see why it is something that should be accepted or downgraded," Williams said.
"At the end of the day everyone involved in the game wants to feel valued. If some young kid is abused week after week and players threaten them, then they’re out there a few weeks later, it doesn’t really say to the referees ‘we’ve got your back, you’re part of our football family and we value you’.
"It says quite the opposite."
Former Capital Football chief executive Heather Reid has slammed the culture of some Canberra clubs and called for a "zero tolerance" policy for abuse of match officials.
Williams played a huge role in the recruitment and retention of referees in Canberra and the 41-year-old says the former was never an issue - he used to see up to 120 people pass through courses in one weekend.
Keeping a whistle in the hands of those people was the toughest part of the job.
"They get out there, no matter how inexperienced they are, people expect perfection straight away and that’s not reality," Williams said.
"Referees will make mistakes or won’t be confident, or won’t know the laws properly. It’s all part of the learning. Unfortunately the abuse gets them to turn away from the game and turn off the game.
"We’ve lost a lot of good people, and in the end football is the game that suffers. Whether it’s coaches, referees or players, they get involved because they love football and it is a fantastic sport.
"You don’t want to lose people because of abuse."
