Why your league needs one
Protecting officials starts on the sideline. In a 2017 National Association of Sports Officials survey, nearly 87 percent of officials reported verbal abuse, and in 2018 Illinois had roughly 2,000 fewer licensed officials than in 2010-11 Sourced. A new league that cannot keep referees cannot keep a schedule.
Families notice too. Clean officiating and a site supervisor visible at every field day are basics that bring them back, alongside a reliable schedule and a short game window (see family retention).
How to use the code
- Collect it at registration. Add a spectator and parent code of conduct acknowledgment to your registration form, next to the medical release and media consent, so every family has agreed before the first game.
- Post it at every field and at the check-in tent. Print the sheet below as a sign.
- Publish the same ladder in your rulebook: immediate removal for abuse, at least a one-game suspension, and a team forfeit if an ejected adult refuses to leave. It is decision 16 in the rulebook decisions worksheet.
- Staff a site supervisor on every field day whose job includes walking to the sideline the moment it starts. The league, not the young official, has the conversation with the parent.
- Log every removal on the enforcement log below and send it to the league safety officer, so a suspension follows the adult to the next game.
Coaches sign their own version, the coach code of conduct. How leagues recruit, pay and keep officials is in flag football referees, and new officials can join through Flag50 referees.