Timmy Kelleher is his new role as chairman of the referee's society wants to tackle the two key issues

TIMMY KELLEHER is the new-chairman of the Irish Soccer Referees' Society taking over from Denis Cronin after his term in office ended. 

He was originally elected vice-chairman, however, when Denis announced that he was stepping down, Kelleher had no hesitation in taking up the role.

Kelleher has two key areas he wants to improve on in his term as chairman.

Primarily, tackling the abuse of officials by players, management and parents at games, as the association can’t afford to lose any more referees because of this problem. 

He also wants to get more referees into their society, to improve their knowledge by going to development sessions and to lean on the senior and former referees for advice if needed.

“Firstly, I want to thank my fellow referees who had the confidence in me to and voted me in as vice-chairman eight months ago. 

Then, Denis had to step down and I was asked to fill the role, which I was happy to do so, as I feel after 14 years with the society it was time to give something back.

"One of the biggest problems in the game at this present time is the abuse our officials are getting at games. 

"Don’t get me wrong its not happening in every League, however, at schoolboys level the biggest problem is parents on the sidelines think that their entitled to say whatever they want to our referees, especially our younger ones. 

"To be fair, the Schoolboys League brought in a rule two years ago that every manager signs the match card so than their responsible for the parents on the sidelines and that has helped. 

"However, I think its all about education and its the various clubs responsibility and a duty of care to try educate all the patrons who attend these games as there is nothing worse seen young referees leaving the pitch in tears after getting abused. 

"Would they like it if that was done to their child? 

"In the different men’s leagues, players and management behaviour has to improve. 

"I know mistakes are been made, however, shouting abuse into referees faces don’t rectify the issue. 

"In the last few weeks we lost a former League of Ireland referee as he couldn’t take the abuse anymore and we can’t afford to lose people with that kind of experience. 

"We now have told our officials that if they think the abuse is serious enough to walk off the pitch, abandon the game and report the incident.

"Nobody wants to see games abandoned as it is all about people playing the game, however, if we don’t have enough referees then we can’t cover all the games that need’s officiating.

"The other thing I like to see is referees from outside our society joining up with us so we can give them support and help them improve their game.

"Not all referees have to part of our society to officiate and they don’t for a number of reasons, for example they could be still playing. 

"I think it’s important that if something goes wrong in a game that as a referee you have a support system in place to give you the right guidance. 

"We also try help our members to improve, as they can go along to our development sessions and talk to our retired and senior members for advice if needed."

Hailing from the Glen area, he is married to Eileen, and they have a son Cian and daughters Chelsea and Celina. 

He is very grateful for all their support over the years.

He was a very useful left back in his playing days with Glen United, Crofton Celtic, Doughcloyne and then finished his career back at the Glen. 

When he took up the whistle 14 years ago, he has never looked back and had become one of the most respected referees locally.

"I played with three different clubs during my playing days and made some lifelong friends along the way.

"One of my best memories is when playing with Doughcloyne, we went through the League unbeaten and had the great Minty Fitzgerald and Pat Martin scoring goals for fun that year for us.

"When I retired from playing I still wanted to be involved and give something back to the game, so I decided to take up refereeing. 

"It was the best decision I ever made as it gave me a different outlook on the game. The biggest game I was involved in was the 2016 FAI Intermediate Cup final at the Aviva Stadium where I was on the line."