Wayne Barnes retirement interview

Wayne Barnes slammed abuse of referees in a BBC interview after his retirement

Transcript

00:00 People don't see the human side of refereeing.

00:02 They think we're the man or woman who turn up on a Saturday afternoon and ruin their sport.

00:06 Ruin their day. We come to shout at us.

00:09 But we're actually human beings. We're families and kids.

00:11 Did you receive abuse after the final?

00:14 Yeah. It's the sad thing about the sport at the moment.

00:19 We're all used to criticism. People tell us they disagree with our decision.

00:23 That's part of the role.

00:24 But when people make threats of violence against you, against your wife, against your kids,

00:29 threats of sexual violence, threats of saying, "We know where you live,"

00:33 that crosses a line and that's when people should be held to account and also should be punished.

00:38 And I've said as part of when I retire, the one thing I want to do is to make sure that

00:42 that is taken more seriously.

00:44 If you're going to get this venom and this criticism week in, week out,

00:48 people will ask themselves, "Why? Why do I do this?"

00:51 We need to do better.