{"id":344988,"date":"2023-11-08T21:15:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344988"},"modified":"2023-11-09T00:03:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T00:03:11","slug":"world-cup-referee-reveals-horrific-family-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344988","title":{"rendered":"World Cup referee reveals horrific family abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Rugby World Cup final referee Wayne Barnes has called for people who make threats against the families of sports officials to be held to account and wants to see social media laws tightened up.<\/p>\n

Barnes retired after the World Cup final in which South Africa beat the All Blacks 12-11 in Paris last week.<\/a><\/p>\n

His wife Polly revealed after the final that the family had received death threats.<\/p>\n

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\"Referee<\/p>\n

"When people make threats against your wife and kids, they should be held to account and punished," Barnes told the BBC in his first interview since the tournament, in which he notably issued a red card to All Blacks captain Sam Cane for a high tackle.<\/p>\n

Barnes said he believed social media abuse was getting worse.<\/p>\n

"Threats of sexual violence, threats of saying we know where you live. It crosses that line," he told BBC sports editor Dan Roan.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/twitter.com\/danroan\/status\/1722138770521121240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"Social media is getting worse and it's the sad thing about the sport at the moment. It has not been a one off."<\/p>\n

Barnes said that while he was able to "compartmentalise" the negative side of social media, he struggled when his family were subject to abuse.<\/p>\n

"If you're a fan at your local rugby club and you're sending vile messages to people's families and making threats, why should you be able to be involved in the rugby family?" he said.<\/p>\n

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"The bit I've always struggled with and will continue to struggle with is when that abuse comes to my family.<\/p>\n

"I want prosecuting agencies to consider ways of doing that, I want legislation of what social media sites can do to prevent it and I also want governing bodies to consider what they can do."<\/p>\n

Barnes told Roan that people don't see the human side of refereeing.<\/p>\n

"They think we are the man or woman who turn up on a Saturday afternoon who ruin their day. But we are actually human beings with families and kids.<\/p>\n

"People in positions of responsibility have to realise our actions have consequences. You can't pick up your phone and abuse people.<\/p>\n

"We need to be better."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is reproduced with permission\ufeff Rugby World Cup final referee Wayne Barnes has called for people who make threats […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344995,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344988\/revisions\/344995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}