Referees are essential to football, yet serious abuse, threats and increasingly physical violence against match officials continue to occur across Western Australian football.

These concerns reflect what many within the refereeing community believe is a broader organisational and cultural failure to adequately protect match officials. This petition calls for greater scrutiny and clear procedural reform within Football West focused on referee safety, transparency and accountability.

I have refereed in Western Australia for approximately six years, progressing through Football West’s development pathways and officiating across junior and senior competitions, interstate tournaments, national cups, and within State and National Academy structures. Over the past two seasons, however, my experiences have caused me to seriously question whether I can continue in the sport.

During this period, I have experienced repeated serious abuse while performing my duties, including threats of violence and death, attempts to gain access to and entry into referee changerooms to continue abuse, sustained offensive behaviour, incidents requiring police involvement, and most recently being physically assaulted.

Other referees have reported similarly serious experiences, including being spat on, threatened with violence, locked inside changerooms and subjected to persistent verbal abuse. I am also aware of an incident involving weapons or blades being brought to a venue following a match.

These incidents are not simply examples of poor behaviour. They represent genuine safety risks to people participating in football.

Despite incidents being reported through the appropriate processes, there is significant concern about whether responses and sanctions consistently reflect the seriousness of the conduct involved. A participant who threatens to kill a referee should not simply return to the same competition a fortnight later. In any reasonable environment, such conduct would be treated as a serious safety matter.

Most recently, on 16 August 2026, I reported being physically assaulted by a team official following a match. The incident resulted in a formal report to WA Police, statements being provided and a police investigation. It was also formally reported to Football West.

My experiences are not isolated. Abuse, threats and intimidation are increasingly discussed within refereeing as though they are simply “occupational hazards” officials must accept. Referees I know have reduced their involvement, considered leaving, or lost confidence that they will be adequately supported following serious incidents.

That is ultimately what this petition seeks to change.

This is not about overturning one disciplinary decision or interfering with an individual police investigation. It is about whether the systems intended to protect referees are adequate, transparent and effective.

Referees should know what happens after they report serious abuse, how matters are escalated, how decisions are reached, and what support and protection they can expect. They should not be asked to make themselves available for a tribunal and then hear nothing for weeks, only to discover that a matter has apparently concluded when the participant reappears on a team sheet.

Football West should also regularly publish de-identified statistics on referee abuse, including the number and nature of incidents reported, disciplinary outcomes and sanctions, trends over time, and referee retention and attrition where available. The football community deserves to understand the scale of the problem and whether measures intended to address it are actually working.

Finally, this petition calls on Football West to develop and publish a Referee Safety and Abuse Action Plan, with defined actions, responsibilities, timeframes and measurable outcomes addressing:

• prevention and education;
• venue and referee-changeroom safety;
• responses and escalation procedures for threats and violence;
• consistent and proportionate disciplinary responses;
• support and communication following serious incidents;
• transparent reporting and oversight; and
• measurement of referee abuse, safety and retention over time.

Capital Football in the ACT is already undertaking procedural and policy reform in this area, demonstrating that meaningful institutional change is possible. Statements that referee abuse “will not be tolerated” carry little weight without transparent action, accountability and evidence that those measures are actually making referees safer.

By signing this petition, we are calling for Football West to take meaningful action to improve referee safety, transparency and accountability across Western Australian football.

Referees should not have to choose between participating in a sport they care deeply about and accepting abuse, intimidation or violence as an ordinary condition of doing so.

The game cannot exist without referees. It should not take another serious incident before we decide they are worth protecting.