New years can often mark brand new chapters and for Alan Kelly, 2022 kickstarts a fresh phase in his career.
In mid-December, the Corkman called time on 27 years as a referee which has seen him officiate in the League of Ireland, MLS, UEFA club competitions and FIFA tournaments.
The 46-year-old is remaining Stateside as he starts a new role as the Senior Referees Manager for the Professional Referees Organisation which is headed up by former Premier League match official Howard Webb.
— Alan Kelly (@alanrefkelly) December 17, 2021
This week, Kelly joined us on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast to talk in-depth about the factors that prompted retirement, what he learned during eight years in Major League Soccer and also broke down the Video Assistant Referee process given his experience of using the technology on the pitch and as the official in the VAR booth.
But he also touched on the issue of abuse towards match officials and how that is proving a deterrent to attracting newcomers into the profession.
Domestically, the issue reared its head in the North Dublin Schoolboys/Schoolgirls Soccer League (NDSL) when all matches in the second week of November were suspended over concerns about constant, and worsening, abuse being suffered by referees.
It's not a problem solely confined to this island of course or to any particular level of the game and Kelly spoke of the concern about the impact it has on aspiring referees who may turn away from the profession as a result.
"It's already proving to be a deterrent for people taking up refereeing," he said.
"Unfortunately, it's always been there. I suffered physical abuse as a referee in my younger days [and] it's not a nice place to be, especially when you're refereeing a game on your own with no assistant referees or anything like that.
"I'm very aware of the incident in Dublin but that's not an isolated incident. Those types of incidents have been going on all over the country and all over the world. It's no different here in the US to a degree.
"It is proving to be a deterrent. It's really important on every national association and every league within to really adopt a no tolerance policy."
Using the examples of perpetrators who threaten or physically assault an official, Kelly added that the punishments need to be punitive enough that it "sends out a clear message that it's not tolerated".
Please adopt a zero tolerance approach to this
"It does send out a message that you are supported and you can be, even though it's after the fact, protected," he said.
"I know from my point of view, it happened on a Friday evening. I remember the Good Friday Peace Agreement for different reasons. It happened on that day to me and it wasn't very pleasant.
"I was lucky enough to have a game the following day and the thought, 'Do I go, do I not go' type of thing and there were good people around me to give me the support and I think that's really important.
"We had an official in Cork that was threatened. I didn't know the official but I reached out just to say, 'Hey, look, been there, it's happened to me before, it's not nice but you have support there if you need it. Feel free to touch base' type of thing.
"And I think it's really important that the referee communities around the country do that when it happens. It just gives a sense of feeling and a sense of safety to a degree to the official. But on the authorities point of view, please adopt a zero tolerance approach to this."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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