Soccer referees at the mercy of hooligans

NOTHING is as embarrassing as being pushed, shoved or assaulted before a crowd. Just having your body used as a punching bag for whatever reason is degrading. Sadly, this is the humiliation soccer referees have to contend with each day they are in office.

As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, there are countless pictures and videos of referees who will be under attack for daring to discharge their duties in the most professional manner possible.

A good number have been beaten up in front of their wives, children, in-laws, classmates and even neighbours. Some cheeky supporters get so hurt when a decision is made against the teams they root for that they make it a point to confront the referee after the match. Yours truly knows a referee who was denied accommodation for making a decision that cost the landlord’s team.

“Hatigari nevatengesi,” he was told before being asked to leave.

Some will stone the ref ’s car, his wife and even uproot vegetables from his garden just to spite him.

A win, a draw, a loss or cancellation of the match are the possible results one should expect from a game of football. Unfortunately, few people accept defeat, wherein the challenges begin.

It can be worse at the end of a season, when some soccer clubs try by all means possible to survive relegation in their respective leagues.

Referees often have to run for dear life after matches, while some end up just yielding to the demands of teams with the highest number of hooligans so they can be allowed to go back home and see their families.

This, however, comes at a cost to the game. Called “muzhalo”, “gemhazo”, “zhelaz”, “mupira” or simply “bhora”, a football match is a high adrenalin affair for which some people are prepared to either kill or main someone.

But why is this so?

“I was having a nice time watching a flowing game of football until the ref made astonishing decisions which spoiled the party for me. Manje yangu haiperi,” I heard a diehard supporter of one of the country’s oldest football teams saying. “Panotofa munhu chete rwendo rwuno. Hatijaidzi makudo. Kutyeiko kugara beya serinorwadza! I will die for the team of my life,” he declared. But he is not the only one with this view.

“A referee must be an organised individual, who handles football matches fairly and makes decisions based on fact. If he blows the whistle willy-nilly, he would have to pay for it. We will make sure he fully appreciates the importance of making correct decisions all the time,” one Tellmore Nyakabau told this writer.

He said he took no exceptions but to deal with what he termed rogue referees. Angela Moyo, an avid soccer fan, said there was need to protect referees at all times because their lives were always in danger.

“No matter how good a referee can be and no matter how impartial he is, there are some people who will always find faults and an excuse to bash match officials. This is why referees, in my view, have to be protected at all times,” she said. Gentle reader, do you know that soccer stadiums can be a source of death and injury?

Characters that do not take kindly to losing are sometimes seen carrying weapons like knives and catapults to stadiums, where they will attack fellow supporters, match officials and whoever they feel will be making it difficult for teams of their liking to win.

We need to grow and make the ref ’s job easier by respecting his decisions so that football, as the late football icon Pele said, remains the beautiful game.

Inotambika mughetto. ◆ Rosenthal.Mutakati@ zimpapers. co.zw