The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) is considering scrapping the offside rule for amateur matches in response to a surge in violent incidents stemming from disputed decisions.
Last season alone, 1,864 amateur matches were halted due to aggression, marking a 58 per cent increase over the past five years and an 11 per cent rise from the previous year, according to a report from Reuters.
KNVB director Jan Dirk van der Zee acknowledged that while the number of affected matches is small compared to the amount of games played every year, the association cannot ignore the problem.
“It is true that it is a relatively small number compared to the almost 780,000 matches that are played annually, but we are not going to trivialise it,” Van der Zee said.
“We have a problem, and we want to eradicate it. I do not rule out that we will one day stop using assistant referees.”
Much like in England, amateur football in the Netherlands relies on assistant referees who are often untrained and affiliated with the clubs involved.
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The abuse of officials has been an issue across football in recent years. In May 2023, the Football Association (FA) introduced new regulations that meant grassroots clubs could face points deductions for abusing referees.
The measures, which came into force from the start of the 2023-24 season, are designed to try and combat a rise in “unacceptable behaviour” towards match officials.
It followed feedback from across the grassroots game that player behaviour is a significant issue, and the measures specifically target offending teams where its participants commit serious misconduct.
Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer at Professional Game Match Officials Limited, said last August that the standards of behaviour in England had worsened.
“Over a period of time we’ve seen a decline in some behaviours, both on the field of play and in the technical areas, he said. “It’s not exclusive to the English game, we’ve seen it around the world.
“This has had knock-on effects. We’ve seen copycat behaviour at grassroots levels and that’s resulted in people either quitting as referees or not choosing to take up the whistle.”
The Athletic has contacted the KNVB for comment.
(Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)
