Nearly one-fifth of soccer referees in England who responded to a survey say they have been subjected to physical abuse, according to a BBC radio programme broadcast on Sunday. A study by academics from three universities received responses from more than 2,000 referees, mainly at grassroots level.
Nineteen percent said they had been physically abused at some time and 60 percent experienced regular verbal abuse.
The Football Association (FA), which implemented a "Respect" programme for players, officials and spectators seven years ago, said the number of yellow cards for dissent by players had declined by almost a quarter in that time and that serious assaults were "few and far between".
"Across an estimated 1.2 million games last season the number of reported (serious) incidents amounted to a tiny fraction of one percent - which puts the scale of the problem into context," an FA spokesman told the BBC.
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