NO RESPECT FOR MEN IN BLACK
Former top ref Subkhiddin speaks out against M-League incidents
FORMER top referee Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh is up in arms over the behaviour of some MLeague players. The first Malaysian to be selected as a match official for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he spoke out against the new generation of players.
Subkhiddin compares the act of shoving a referee to pushing a police officer in the middle of the road or a student manhandling a teacher at school.
He urged the guardians of the sport in this country to act against this ugly trend of intimidating referees.
In two incidents over five days of M-League action, Kelantan striker Jack Hindle was caught pushing referee Amirul Aizat Mohd Lodin during a match against Perak II while JDT’s Natxo Insa was the perpetrator of a similar act.
Subkhiddin said the usage of video assistant referee (VAR) technology, which is widely practised in Europe, will go a long way to help curb the problem.
He felt that VAR would provide better evidence for referees to make their calls and also act against the shoving of match officials.
“Pushing in a situation like that Natxo did is a red card offence but maybe the referee (Azriel Baharudin) was in shock... didn’t expect it.
“Misdemeanours and violence in football are unacceptable.
“Action must be taken to ensure that the message is loud and clear to the players.
“It’s like saying if you touch the referee, stern and immediate action will be taken.
“VAR can help in this because the VAR call on this would have been a red card, and from there he (Azriel) would see it.
“VAR clears up mistakes that are happening on the pitch. Nobody will talk about referees’ mistakes but people will talk about the ‘corrections’ made by VAR.”
VAR can also save referees from a lot of trouble.
If VAR was around, referee Fairuzi Mat Desa (pic) would not have been suspended for two weeks by FAM.
He made the wrong call, when a PJ City player dived, and gave a penalty against Melaka.
Subkhiddin said while VAR is not perfect in its decisions as certain aspects require subjective judgement, its overall good is indisputable.
“We need to move together with the world. In Malaysia, at one time, players would accept, respect referees. But now they are different... things need to be fixed.”
Subkhiddin said when he was the FAM referees’ association committee chairman, he prepared the country to engage in VAR technology but the idea was scrapped in 2018, prior to his resignation.
He said Thailand has adopted the VAR technology well with the help of the country’s broadcaster.
“Not just Thailand, South Korea and Vietnam have also stepped forward in that direction.
It is reported that the cost to use VAR for one stadium can range up to US$150,000 (RM616,710) which means roughly RM7.4 million is needed for 12 venues in the Super League.