Statement: Use of social media and match footage

Many of you have invested in your facilities which is great to see – and that includes video footage of your matches.

While this footage and social media provides excellent tools for helping your club engage with members, supporters and the wider public, it can also lead to negative issues.

We have seen a number of incidents this weekend which has necessitated a reminder of the league’s communications and social media policy.

The full document - which includes guidance on the correct procedures regarding such incidents - is attached HERE for your convenience.

Referee Appointments Officer Dave Hesketh works tirelessly with his group of 108 officials (many of which are 18 or under) to raise standards to the benefit of the league and clubs.

We now regularly have a full set of match officials on all Premier Division matches, which was not the case in past seasons.

We don’t want to jeopardise that by losing officials to other leagues or to the game completely due to the unintended consequences of clubs posting clips to their social media accounts.

No referee is above scrutiny and any referee or assistant hoping to climb the ladder knows the scrutiny will only increase up the levels.

However, ‘pile-ons’ caused by managers and players commenting on such incidents on social media is not acceptable and can have a detrimental effect, especially on our younger officials.

We ask you to remind your players and managers to reacquaint themselves with the league’s policy and wish you all well for your next game.