santa sangria
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Via our friends at Referee Abroad...
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This anonymous letter appeared today on Italian newspapers. We are sure referees from all around the world can relate.
"Good Morning,
I'm a youth referee and I am writing to you about something too few people talk about - the violence against us referees.
Every week when you open a newspaper or read the FA bulletin we read about more and more episodes of assaults against referees, many of them youth like me or even girls. Assaults that are often verbal but, worryingly enough, more and more often also physical.
Us referees, according to the perpetrators, are "guilty" and deserve punishment because of our mistakes; and many people justify these vile acts because "you know, you ruined the game". This is just plain horrible and it should have no place in football.
Today I was thinking about this: what if our roles were swapped?
What if instead of the attacker hitting us because we didn't give him foul it was the referee to punch the player who missed a goal in front of an empty goal?
What if the referee slapped the manager who made the wrong subs or employed the wrong tactic?
What if it was the referee who made death treats to the unruly supporter and his family?
How would the public react to all this?
Would they say "the referee is justified because" we lost the game due to you missing that goal?"
I doubt that.
So let me ask, why us referees can't make any mistake, however small, because otherwise we become guilty of everything, and you players, coaches and supporters suddenly become the" victims of a rigged system of which the referee is part"?
This is the main reason why there are less and less referees out there.
Why would I want to spend my weekend in a field miles away from my comfy home, dedicating all my free time to this cause, only to be insulted, offended, assaulted? "But you get paid", you say? As if 30 euros really justifed all this ...
Somebody really tell me why".
π πππ ππππ'π ππππππ.
This anonymous letter appeared today on Italian newspapers. We are sure referees from all around the world can relate.
"Good Morning,
I'm a youth referee and I am writing to you about something too few people talk about - the violence against us referees.
Every week when you open a newspaper or read the FA bulletin we read about more and more episodes of assaults against referees, many of them youth like me or even girls. Assaults that are often verbal but, worryingly enough, more and more often also physical.
Us referees, according to the perpetrators, are "guilty" and deserve punishment because of our mistakes; and many people justify these vile acts because "you know, you ruined the game". This is just plain horrible and it should have no place in football.
Today I was thinking about this: what if our roles were swapped?
What if instead of the attacker hitting us because we didn't give him foul it was the referee to punch the player who missed a goal in front of an empty goal?
What if the referee slapped the manager who made the wrong subs or employed the wrong tactic?
What if it was the referee who made death treats to the unruly supporter and his family?
How would the public react to all this?
Would they say "the referee is justified because" we lost the game due to you missing that goal?"
I doubt that.
So let me ask, why us referees can't make any mistake, however small, because otherwise we become guilty of everything, and you players, coaches and supporters suddenly become the" victims of a rigged system of which the referee is part"?
This is the main reason why there are less and less referees out there.
Why would I want to spend my weekend in a field miles away from my comfy home, dedicating all my free time to this cause, only to be insulted, offended, assaulted? "But you get paid", you say? As if 30 euros really justifed all this ...
Somebody really tell me why".
