The ‘Umpiring is Everyone's Business’ campaign aims to communicate the following key messages:
- Raise awareness for the need to create a better, more positive match day environment for umpires, particularly at grassroots level where there are issues with recruitment and retention rates of umpires.
- Demonstrate to the football community that at the AFL level, umpires, players, coaches, fans, administrators and officials can work together for the good of the game to make the match day environment as inclusive and enjoyable as possible for all the participants.
- Provide the AFL community with a greater understanding and appreciation for the role of the umpire at all levels of Australia's Game.
We currently don't have enough umpires to cover all games at community level and surveys have revealed that poor match day environments make it a challenge to recruit and retain umpires. This has improved significantly recently, but everyone involved in the game must consider the implications of their behaviour towards umpires.
In support of community umpires, the AFL has developed a Zero Tolerance to Abuse policy for all AFL matches. The AFL has also introduced the Green Shirt program to assist learner umpires in the early stages of their development.
Last Modified on 22/06/2014 14:50