82 – An Amazingly Naive Society
…Refereeing in those days was a pleasure. Most teenage players respected authority, played to the whistle and didn't use foul language, especially within hearing distance of the referee. There were few cautions and sending a player off was extremely rare.
In many ways, society was amazingly naive compared to the present day. I remember the local Referees’ Association recommending that if I sent a player off for using foul or obscene language, I must not repeat the actual words uttered in my report to the Durham Football Association. They suggested that if the player said, "F. . . off,” I should describe the offending word as perhaps, “An old Anglo-Saxon four-letter word beginning with F!” How things change…
Robert Owen recalls his days as a football referee in more innocent times.
To read earlier chapters of Robert’s autobiography please click on Two Rooms And A View in the menu on this page.