Handball Association Rhineland: Yellow card for aggressive spectators

According to the association, there have been increasing verbal and physical attacks, particularly against female referees and coaches.

Especially at youth games, the referees have been subjected to increasing levels of abuse from spectators week after week. The Rhineland Handball Association says it wants to counteract this trend before handball ends up in conditions similar to those in amateur football.

The campaign seems to have worked at the evm Cup on Sunday. It was a super peaceful and harmonious tournament, said Matthias Lorenz from the Rhineland Handball Association. There was not a single yellow card.

He assumes that the action made all parents in the stands aware of their responsibility towards children and young people: “Perhaps people thought about it again before they started shouting abuse at the referee.”

memory

In Speicher (Eifel), an amateur football match was abandoned after an attack on the referee.

In the past, things had often been unpleasant at children’s and youth games. Spectators had insulted the referee, entered the field and threatened the umpires.

And that has now suddenly become part of the routine, with the threat of receiving a yellow card and being thrown out of the arena. Lorenz hopes that the yellow card will ensure good and fair behavior for spectators in the long term.