This is Devon --
CITY football officials have vowed to weed out cyberspace thugs who have been verbally abusing referees online.
The social media bully boys' targets have also included top-ranking committee men, says the Plymouth and West Devon Football League.
League chairman Ian Leonard said referees had been forced to suffer a barrage of online abuse, ranging from comparatively mild insults to allegations of a serious sexual nature.
Leonard said one case, which is at the top end of the scale, was currently going through the league's disciplinary system and he promised to report future incidents to the police.
Although he declined to comment on the details of the case at this stage, he said allegations made online were serious enough to warrant involving the police.
Leonard, who has been on the receiving end of online criticism himself, said local and national FA officials were determined to stamp the problem out.
He said: "We are determined to track down people who hide behind the internet and make sure they are punished.
"Somebody expressed the opinion that they thought I should be killed online.
"But that's typical – these sort of people haven't got the courage of their own convictions to say something like that to my face."
Leonard said on-the-field abuse of referees, which has been confined to verbal attacks, had been dealt with over the last four years.
The city league launched its own Respect campaign on the back of a similar national scheme, which had resulted in a massive reduction in the number of on-the-field discipline problems.
But some of those problems have transferred to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, said Leonard.
He said: "We have one case going through at the moment which, frankly, should have been reported to the police.
"But the person concerned decided they didn't want to do that and were content to let the FA deal with it, instead.
"All I can say about the case at this stage is it was involving sexual allegations, which will not be tolerated."
Leonard added: "No matter what anyone thinks about referees, we couldn't do without them.
"If teams think they do a bad job, then they can report them to us and we can decide.
"But whether people think our referees are bad, or whether they are good, the people who are complaining about them are park footballers and there is no excuse for some of the things which have been happening online.
"I promise that the perpetrators will be found out and the league will report online abuse to the police." Reported by This is 22 hours ago.
CITY football officials have vowed to weed out cyberspace thugs who have been verbally abusing referees online.
The social media bully boys' targets have also included top-ranking committee men, says the Plymouth and West Devon Football League.
League chairman Ian Leonard said referees had been forced to suffer a barrage of online abuse, ranging from comparatively mild insults to allegations of a serious sexual nature.
Leonard said one case, which is at the top end of the scale, was currently going through the league's disciplinary system and he promised to report future incidents to the police.
Although he declined to comment on the details of the case at this stage, he said allegations made online were serious enough to warrant involving the police.
Leonard, who has been on the receiving end of online criticism himself, said local and national FA officials were determined to stamp the problem out.
He said: "We are determined to track down people who hide behind the internet and make sure they are punished.
"Somebody expressed the opinion that they thought I should be killed online.
"But that's typical – these sort of people haven't got the courage of their own convictions to say something like that to my face."
Leonard said on-the-field abuse of referees, which has been confined to verbal attacks, had been dealt with over the last four years.
The city league launched its own Respect campaign on the back of a similar national scheme, which had resulted in a massive reduction in the number of on-the-field discipline problems.
But some of those problems have transferred to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, said Leonard.
He said: "We have one case going through at the moment which, frankly, should have been reported to the police.
"But the person concerned decided they didn't want to do that and were content to let the FA deal with it, instead.
"All I can say about the case at this stage is it was involving sexual allegations, which will not be tolerated."
Leonard added: "No matter what anyone thinks about referees, we couldn't do without them.
"If teams think they do a bad job, then they can report them to us and we can decide.
"But whether people think our referees are bad, or whether they are good, the people who are complaining about them are park footballers and there is no excuse for some of the things which have been happening online.
"I promise that the perpetrators will be found out and the league will report online abuse to the police." Reported by This is 22 hours ago.