Quoting from the official website:

>>>>>>

The new procedure targets inappropriate behavior by parents and spectators directed at children, coaching staff members, referees, match officials, or other parents and spectators. This includes, but is not limited to:

Verbal abuse (insults or profanity), as well as physical assault or shoving of one’s own children;

Verbal abuse, physical assault, or shoving of staff members of one’s own team;

Verbal abuse, physical assault, or shoving of players or staff members of the opposing team;

Continuous challenging, verbal abuse, physical assault, or shoving of referees and match officials;

Verbal or physical altercations with other parents or spectators.

<<<<<<

If that's the situation in, and it can't be stressed enough, a children soccer game, then yes, abandoning the match is probably the right choice. I assume they are only defining a formal procedure for practices that already exist.

Happened last week in the Netherlands. The home team (FC Utrecht) played terrible. They were down 3-1. Hooligans threw fireworks on the pitch and the match got suspended. The match was resumed three days later. Utrecht played much better en got a 3-3 draw.

I imagine this is the referee's call; a ref ought to know better than to abort the game because the losing team is throwing a tactical tantrum.

I would assume it’s treated as if the team of the offending parent has abandoned the match.

Safety is far more important than deciding who won a youth match

One can imagine overzealous parents tactically causing a scene to nullify a match result.

This is a common misconception. The referee has no control over who is in the stands - they are “outside agents”. Many people think that the referee can eject a spectator, but they can’t. The referee only has authority over the players and coaches.

This is why the first remedy is to ask the coaches to get their parents under control. In general, if the abuse continues, the coach can be carded as that’s the only person the ref can discipline.

I referee volleyball. Our instructions are to get the home team - preferably the athletic director or somebody similar but ultimately the home coach if there's no one else - to do something about somebody behaving in an unacceptable way.

We're advised not to act too friendly with coaches because some people might think we're favoring their team. Involving the coach if you don't have to might create the opposite impression, that you're upset with the coach or team.

I've never experienced or heard of this being an issue in volleyball. I'm sure it's happened, particularly at the club level where parents are paying big money for their kids to play. Other sports, particularly basketball or football, it definitely happens.

From my experience, the refs typically assign responsibility to the head coach of the team the fans represent. It's not the refs job to manage the fans. They are there to manage the game. If the coach or staff determine the problem fans should be removed, they can do that.

If it's anything like the UK then it's likely the games are played in a public space like a park, so it might not be possible to eject the parent.

> Why is the remedy not simply ejecting the offenders?

Because if the situation is so heated up to warrant an abort, you'd need security staff or even riot police to yeet the offenders.

And no, I'm not joking. Private security staff ain't gonna break up a mob of 40 people bashing each others' heads in [1], and when it's 70 people involved [2], you gotta pray that they've KO'd each other out because even riot cops won't break up a fight club that large.

[1] https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/heilbronn/m...

[2] https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/erlangen-massenschlaege...

Because it does not remove a spectator, it ends the entire match. Please read the article.

Did you read the article? The card stops play and can be used to end the match if abuse continues.

Abandoned matches are reviewed by the relevant league, and depending on the reason and circumstances the match can be replayed, resumed, or adjudicated. When a side is judged to be at fault, the outcome is often a default 3-0 loss for them, on top of assorted punishments for the players/coaches/teams involved.

For other kinds of match cancellations with an offending party (example: having too many players sent off), the offending party automatically loses.

I expect it to be the same here, with the referee deciding who the offending party is.

Why are you assuming abuse by parents is solely being targeted at the opposing team’s players? Parents may just as well be shouting at their own kid for what they see as “sub-optimal” play, and at their kid’s teammates for what they see as “getting in their kid’s way.”

   > My other children were smart enough to choose tennis and horses

FTA: “The black card being brandished will be the final part of a three-step process. In the first instance, the referee will temporarily suspend the match and ask coaches to speak directly to its team’s supporters and parents, while an announcement will also be communicated to supporters should a public address system be available.”

So, that’s exactly what step one of this is: a signal to the crowd “behave yourself/make the bad actors behave themselves”.

Long before it gets that far, soccer needs to end in the country.

For most people, soccer is a fun, pass time, and they are not abusive, and things work well. Overall there are enough cases of abuse that they have to go one step down the slippery slope and do something. That doesn't mean they have to go all the way. I don't know where the future will go. I suspect and hope that this is as far as it ever goes. But if things continue getting worse, maybe Romania has to say, 'that's enough. We're not going to do soccer anymore'.

And I'm serious about Romania completely stopping soccer in a country if things continue to get worse after this. Now there's probably a few other rules that they will need to adjust and tweak over the years, but if abusive fans and or abusive parents continue as a problem that means that the people of the country can't handle the game. No more Romania Intl the World Cup. They're not going to send a team because they don't allow soccer anymore.

Don't let it get that far. Whatever sport you do. Cheer when the opposing team makes a good play. Congratulate to the on a win.

I can accept bad officials as long as they're unbiased. As long as they're making bad calls against both teams or missing calls against both teams, I can deal with that. It's when the official is biased and making calls against one team that they're going to let go for the other team, that's when I have a problem. However you deal with that at the league level not in a game

Did you really pull the "slippery slope" on a change for children football matches to safeguarding them from abuse from spectators?