Refereeing is not a dream. Last year, football, rugby, handball and basketball federations were concerned about the shortage of referees, mainly at the amateur level. One of the causes is violence, physical or verbal. To counter this scourge in the world of amateur football, the Grand Vaucluse District has been equipping its referees with a camera for a month, as reported by France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
The system is simple: the camera is installed on the front of the referee’s jersey, at chest height, and records the entire match. Enough to deter players from reprehensible behavior. Victim of “attempted attacks” earlier in the season, Mohamed Ezkiyouh would have liked to have had the camera at that moment “to film these exchanges with this player”. Captain of the modest Racing Club Bollène, Karim Elhamraoui sees it as “a good thing to protect the referees and even for the away team, she feels a little reassured that there are images”.
The initiative cost the District Grand Vaucluse 5,000 euros and will continue until the end of the season. It is not completely new: the Loire District was the first to provide cameras to a few referees, in 2017. The images were then difficult to use. The system has since been structured and delights all stakeholders.