Michael Oliver is tip of iceberg as hate crimes against referees go unpunished

Police have received 70 reports of online hate crimes targeting match officials in the past three years – but only one has resulted in any action being taken, The i Paper can reveal.

Online hate crimes include malicious communications that cause stress and anxiety, threats and harassment, and incitement to commit violence and many in football fear abuse of ­referees and match officials online is escalating.

In January, referee Michael Oliver was subjected to threats to his family – and to reveal his home address – after he sent off Myles Lewis-Skelly in Arsenal’s Premier League victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Police investigations continue, sources said. But criminal offences committed in online posts can be notoriously hard to prosecute.

Figures obtained by The i Paper reveal that of the 70 ­reports ­referred to the UK Football ­Policing Unit (UKFPU), only 23 met the required legal threshold for an offence.

Of those, seven were posted by people living overseas, meaning no action could be taken against them by police forces. Four cases were dropped after insufficient evidence was found to press charges.

Eleven remain live, including multiple investigations into threats made against Oliver.

Yet only one has resulted in any kind of tangible action, and the consequences of that case were a warning and mandatory education programme – the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist.

“Hate crime, whether that is online or in person, is not acceptable, and we are committed to doing all we can to tackle the issue,” UKFPU director Mick Johnson told The i Paper.

“As part of our ongoing work we engage closely with social media providers, including Facebook and X, to identify those responsible for the messages to ensure that they are held accountable for their actions.”

Martin Cassidy, chief executive of charity Ref Support, told The i Paper that blaming and attacking referees has become “the accepted form of abuse in the sport”.

Anthony Taylor, one of the Premier League’s most highly-respected referees, and his family were hounded at an airport after a video of Jose Mourinho shouting at him in a stadium car park after Roma’s Europa League defeat to Sevilla went viral on the internet last year.

In Spain, Real Madrid are at war with La Liga, the league administration, about the quality of officiating and have accused officials of manipulating games against them – and there have been calls for Spanish football to poach the Premier League referees subjected to so much abuse in England.

In France, the referees’ union is suing for defamation after Marseille president Pablo Longoria accused an official of corruption following a defeat by Auxerre. “Put it all together and it’s a difficult landscape for them to referee in,” one refereeing source said.

Inevitably, Longoria’s corruption claims prompted a barrage of “hate messages” and “death threats” targeting referees and posted online, the referees’ union said.

Many people in the refereeing community The i Paper spoke to this week welcomed the UKFPU’s attempts to pursue internet posters who cross the line, even if the hit rate has, so far, been low.

The hope is that more action will be taken and it will act as a deterrent.

But a source familiar with the process pointed out that the threshold is so high for prosecutions.

The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body in charge of referees in England, actively monitors abuse and, where it believes it meets the threshold, flag it to the relevant authorities. But then they are in the hands of the police and Crown Prosecution Service.