A Roscommon match official believes the level of abuse towards referees has risen recent years.
His comments come following an alleged assault on a referee at a minor championship game in Ballyforan on Wednesday evening.
The official required medical treatment following the incident and the GAA'S Competitions Control Committee are commencing a full investigation.
Haulie Beirne says larger backroom teams on the side-line has made the referee's job much more difficult.
He hopes the injured official will return to the pitch and says sanctions must be handed down to those involved.
Of late things have not been the best in refereeing.
There seems to be a lot of verbal abuse towards referees.
I'd like to send my sympathy to the official, a very good referee.
I wish him well and I hope to see him back refereeing, that's up to him now.
I'm sure there is an investigation going and it gets to the bottom of it and the proper penalties are handed out to those involved.
Meanwhile Roscommon Gardaí have launched an enquiry into an alleged assault.
They say they are are aware of the video being circulated on social media showing the injured man on the ground.
While they have confirmed they are making enquires into what happened, no formal investigation has been launched at this time.
In a statement on social media this evening St. Aidan's GAA club, where the incident occurred, say they will co-operate fully with Roscommon GAA and the CCC's investigations.
