One of the world’s oldest football leagues is to introduce secret shoppers to spy on officials and players who swear during games, its chairman said.
The Northern League, formed in 1889, could then name and shame the worst offending clubs and provide financial bonuses for those who keep it clean.
The league, which has 46 clubs from Alnwick, Northumberland, to Northallerton, has led a number of high-profile campaigns against swearing, which is contrary to the laws of the game, and which puts off families from watching.
Next season the league will send secret shoppers to monitor games – despite the opposition of certain members opposed to snooping.
League chairman Mike Amos said: “If you go to a Premier League game with 50,000 people there and the players and management are effing and blinding, you can’t hear it, and so in a sense, it doesn’t matter. But if you are at a game with 100 people in the ground, you can hear.
“People say to me ‘it’s a passionate game’ and it is, but it is also a disciplined game.”
Mr Amos said the laws of football allow a referee to send off a player or manager who uses offensive language, but few do.
Match officials may be wary of being marked down by clubs if they tackle the issue – meaning referees would struggle to get promotion through the leagues.
Mr Amos, who has been league chairman for 16 years, said the FA could stamp out the issue if they took a stand, but it seemed reluctant to do so.
A previous attempt to tackle swearing by introducing a zero tolerance policy failed to win the governing body’s backing, after it was initially praised by the FA.
“We are not going to persuade the referees to act without the FA’s backing, so we have to persuade the clubs and their personnel not to do it,” he said.
League chiefs know the worst offending clubs and the chairman said those with managers who swear from the technical area also had a problem with players using bad language. “If the managers are disciplined, then the players tend to be,” he said.
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Print this pageBusiness confidence dip amid crisis - The Guardian
The Lloyds Bank Wholesale Banking and Markets Business Barometer fell to minus 21% from 26% last month, meaning most respondents are negative on the view of the economy.
The eurozone crisis continued to escalate throughout May as fears grew over the health of the Spanish economy and the possibility of Greece exiting the euro.
Trevor Williams, chief economist at Lloyds Bank Wholesale Banking & Markets, said: "The renewed concern around the eurozone is clearly having an impact on businesses' sentiment towards prospects for the UK economy and, to a lesser extent, to their own prospects."
Companies also became less confident about their own prospects, although the decline was not as severe as the sentiment towards the broader economic outlook.
Businesses' confidence in relation to their own prospects currently stands at 35%, down eight points on April's 43%, Lloyds said, which still remains higher than during the worst of the financial crisis in 2008/09.
The survey data suggest an underlying 0.2% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) between April and June, Lloyds said, but only once the impact of the Diamond Jubilee is taken into account, which is likely to have reduced growth by 0.5 percentage points.
The most notable declines in confidence in May came in the North and Midlands and in the retail and distribution sector.
The deepening troubles in the eurozone have also hit confidence on stock markets.
Debt-ridden Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession, faces a crucial election later this month, which has been branded a referendum on whether it will stay in the eurozone and stomach more painful austerity measures.
Meanwhile, there are fears over the health of Spain's banking sector, after its fourth biggest lender, Bankia, said it needed a 19 billion euro (£15.2 billion) bail-out. In the UK, banking stocks have been among the worst hit.
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In-store shopping most trusted, but buying online is overall favorite - Computerworld Australia
When it comes to where to shop -- online or in-store -- U.S. consumers are split.
A majority (59%) of U.S. consumers say shopping online is their "overall favorite" way to shop, according to a survey from Nielsenwire. Meanwhile, 68% also called online shopping the easiest and most convenient way to shop.
However, traditional in-store shopping hasn't fallen by the wayside. Nielsen reported that 77% of U.S. consumers say shopping in brick-and-mortar stores is the safest, and 69% said it's the most reliable.
"It's no surprise that people are just happier about shopping online," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. "I think it's becoming easier to shop online. Almost every retailer has greatly simplified the process."
He considers Amazon.com the best online shopping site, with its one-touch buying, ability to compare shipping rates and prices from multiple vendors.
"People often find something in a store and then buy it online to save money," Kerravala said. "Online retailers have gotten smarter."
While in-store and online shopping both have high points, shopping with a mobile device has yet to catch on.
According to Nielsen, shopping by means of smartphones and other mobile devices came in third place across nearly all measures. It was a distant second to online shopping for "most convenient" (38%) and "easiest (27%).
Kerravala agrees that mobile shopping is still difficult, but it's making progress. "In general, the mobile experience is poor for shopping," he said. "It requires too much data entry and the screen is too small to really see your purchase. But FTD has a very good mobile interface. I order flowers for my wife on my mobile device now."
While consumers may not buy products via their smartphones and tablets, they are using their devices while they shop.
In February, comScore reported that more than half of U.S. smartphone users have researched products while in a store. At the end of 2011, nearly one in five smartphone users had scanned product barcodes and nearly one in eight compared prices while in a store.
Kerravala also said that it's far from time to poo poo tried-and-true shopping in a physical store.
"I think there will always be a place for in-store shopping," he added. "It gives you the ability to talk to someone, to try something on. That experience can't be matched online."
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed. Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.
Read more about e-business in Computerworld's E-business Topic Center.
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