“Abuse will not be tolerated” says Steve Cotterill as sexist abuse was directed towards female referee during Forest Green Rovers victory.
Bryne, who was officiating her ninth National League fixture of the 2024/25 season, was seen informing her fourth official and the respective benches of some unwarranted comments coming from the away section of The New Lawn.
“The fourth official said to me that there had been unsavoury comments from the west side of the ground towards the referee.
“I wasn’t over there so I can’t accuse anybody but I’m pretty sure she [Abigail] wouldn’t have come to me, to the side if perhaps hadn’t have been said.
“If someone has said something, that’s unacceptable and I will go to her and I will see if she is okay.
“We don’t tolerate any abuse at this football club. It goes on but until you’re the one who ever gets it, you never quite know how that person feels,” Cotterill said.
Following the news being broken to Cotterill, the Rovers manager became animated on the sideline ushering towards the stewards and up to the stadiums Director’s Lounge where the Club’s Sectary was situated.
“We needed to get more stewards over there, but unfortunately there wasn’t anyone in and around me so, I clocked our Club Sectary in the Directors Lounge and asked them to come down.
“I spoke to the fourth official and said, ‘give her our support’ while the game is still going because she has to still deal with the game.
“I just said ‘we needed to put an announcement out for that to be a deterrent,” he said.
As the game got back underway, the needed announcement was met with an eruption of applauses and standing ovations from the home support, showing their support towards Bryne.
Bryne issued just two yellow cards during the game whilst giving up 18 fouls across both teams, allowing the game to flow to the supporters and Cotterill’s delight.
“I can tell you this now, we’ve had some referees this year and I don’t think she’s had a bad game at all.
“Normally what happens is if you don’t notice a referee, that’s when they’ve had a good game, and I can’t say I really noticed her,” he said.
Abuse towards female officials is nothing new to the with clubs such as Darlington and Scarborough Athletic being fined over abuse towards a female match official and two football fans being arrested over alleged abuse towards referee, Rebecca Welch in recent years.
But as the beautiful game continues to grow, female match officials are one of the greater developments with Cotterill believing Bryne and others will go on to great things for the sport.
“Whenever there’s a female referee now, and some of them are very, very good, but we have to understand that is part of football and I now hope she goes on and does really well,” he said.
