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The former Super League referee, who has held his current role since 2016, is not currently carrying out his role.

Steve Ganson, the Rugby Football League's head of match officials, has been stood down subject to an internal review of his department, Rugby League Live understands. Ganson, a former Super League match official who took charge of more than 300 games, is not currently carrying out his role as the governing body looks into an unspecified matter.

Ganson did not attend a recent pre-season camp of match officials in Tenerife, despite his senior position within the department. It has now been confirmed that he is not currently at work as RFL investigators carry out their review.

There is no current indication of the review's timescale. He has been in the role since 2016. On the field, he officiated in the top flight between 1996 and 2013.

In a statement, the RFL said: “Steve Ganson will not be carrying out his role as Head of Match Officials at the current time, pending the completion of an internal review. Currently, it is expected that this will be temporary and the RFL will make no further comment until that review is complete.

“Dave Elliott, the former Warrington and Cumbria player who has been the Match Officials Senior Coach since early 2021 having previously worked in the England Performance Unit, will lead the Match Officials department while the review is ongoing and will be supported in his role by the RFL’s Chief On-Field Officer, Dave Rotheram.”

It comes after strong comments made by former leading match official James Child, who claimed to feel as though his confidence had been "eroded internally." Child has stepped away from officiating after more than a decade as one of the sport's leading referees.

Speaking in Forty-20 Magazine, Child said: "What I've always found difficult about refereeing are not the external pressures, that is a given. Start aged 11, progress through the ranks and you kind of get used to that even though there have been incidents I've been involved in when I've been abused.


"The internal pressure and criticism, all the threats, swearing and shouting however, that grows tiresome and sport - including officiating - relies heavily on confidence. If you've got 26 players and 10,000 people in a stadium questioning your decisions, you've got to have confidence in what you are doing. If you feel as though that's being eroded internally as well, you do start to wonder who has got your back."

He continued by saying: "For me. the whole structure is in some ways quite wrong. At the end of the 2021 season, I arranged to go and visit the RFU referees at Twickenham off my own bat I spent two days with them, which was interesting and enlightening.

"It was a very relaxed yet professional environment, the boss was really jovial, they were critical of one another in a constructive way. I gave them a flavour of what our group reviews would be like, and they were taken aback. They were not used to the combative in-your-face criticism that operates in league. and it showed me how it could be run."


https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... dium=email

Seems like the professionality of Union officials ie refs is seeping through finally to Rugby League. An example quid pro quo. We have the more professional player they can learn from whilst they have the more professional match officials we can learn from good init

that was an interesting final quote re RU officials

Very often in sport, players, coaches etc will spend time in other sports to see how they do things differently, so good to see Childs had taken it upon himself to do that. Pity that (reading into the article) his boss as we all saw week in week out, was an arrogant **** who thought it was more about him, than the game. Hopefully its good riddance and time to move forwards for our refs

Richard Silverwood had some pretty scathing words to say about Ganson

Ganson always came across with a sense of incredible arrogance. Yep, we know the ref's get berated by fans at all grounds and I suppose that comes with the territory. However, reading what James Child has said, it comes across that Ganson had no interest in developing the ref's (or simply didn't have the knowledge in how to do so) and instead belittled them or shouted them down.

A huge part of coaching is how we deliver and receive feedback and it goes a hell of a long way to building positive relationships within whichever group you're working. It's a skill that requires the person to be self critical and to be open to constructive criticism from others and then look at what they can do to improve both themselves and those that they're coaching. Every single good coach, no matter what the sport, has these skills and, along with empathy and humility as well as taking a holistic approach to what they're trying to achieve, uses them to get the best out of those that they're trying to educate. That comes (or at least should) long before the technical aspects of coaching any particular sport/pastime/role etc

The fact that more than one referee has now come out and been pretty scathing speaks volumes, as does the reaction of the ref's that JC spoke to at the RFU. I never liked Ganson as a ref and I like him even less now.

It begs the question who appointed him and why was he in the role for so long?

Read on a Twitter site from the examiner that Steve ganson has been stood down whilst an internal investigation is underway
Don’t know what the issue is as it just says for an incident that has occurred
This was dated January 15th
Has anyone else seen or heard anything

oval balls wrote: ↑Tue Jan 17, 2023 12:23 pm Read on a Twitter site from the examiner that Steve ganson has been stood down whilst an internal investigation is underway
Don’t know what the issue is as it just says for an incident that has occurred
This was dated January 15th
Has anyone else seen or heard anything

reading between the lines its not an isolated incident as such, but a series of incidents.

Senior refs resigning recently have highlighted some issues, plus i think Richard Silverwood has also waded into the arguement. I dont think he is the most popular man to have at the helm, and it would be a surprise to see him continue in the role (but thats just my opinion with absolutely no inside knowledge)

Since Ganson has been head of refs the standards have nosedived he really should be moved on