REFEREE FREE FOR ALL
The game of soccer over the past 200 years has blossomed into a game that billions watch. In the 2018 world cup final 1.12 billion sat down on their couches and packed out all the bars to watch it. In front of our eyes, the game has gotten faster than ever before. The introduction of strict nutrition, training and fitness regimes have propelled it to the most popular sport in the world. Players, coaches, fans and many more enjoy the new reality.
It may seem all great for most of us, but what about the referees? They suffer abuse daily for their human errors, errors that we presume shouldn’t be made whilst sitting at home looking at a screen that shows the perfect angles of the incidents, which most refs don’t have outside of the top leagues.
What makes a good referee? Communication, confidence, courage and more. Nowhere does it specify 2020 vision. So why do we presume referees can see everything that happens on the pitch? Since the introduction of VAR, it has given referees a ‘ helping hand’, a device to solve all the errors they make and make the game ‘better’. VAR, so far for referees, has caused nothing but controversy and abuse for them. When called over to the screen to see a potential penalty, referees can’t see how much contact there is, there is no meter at the side of the screen indicating how much contact there has been on that player. The referee must give what he sees. He can’t guess, he can’t make up a scenario, they must give what they see on that screen at that particular time.
This opens the floor for any player to make it seem they’ve been fouled and make the job of the referee impossible. Give it and get abuse because he’s clearly gone down too easy or don’t give it and get abuse because there’s visual contact.
This abuse is now getting out of hand. Referees suffer too much from ‘Experts’ of the art of refereeing. Mike Dean, one of the Premier League’s most experienced referees, was subjected to death threats, directed at him and his family, after two separate controversial incidents involving Southampton’s Jan Bednarek and West Ham’s Thomas Soucek. Subsequently, he withdrew from the following week’s game for his own safety.
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey, expressed: “the abuse I received was one of the factors in my decision to quit”. That 2013 season he quit soccer, during which he refereed Liverpool and Man United. Two decisions that Liverpool fans didn’t take too warmly to were the sending off of Jonjo Shelvey and also United being given a penalty. Appalling messages were sent to him afterwards. Appalling messages push referees into a spiralling pit of fear for their lives and their loved ones. Aren’t they just human like us?
We can all say that we have shouted at the screen “penalty ref”, “that’s a red” and a few more that wouldn’t allow this article get published! Human emotion controls how we approach the situation. Our favourite team gets a red card, a penalty against, an offside call and we may not agree, we may not like the outcome, but the reality is our biase controls what’s right or wrong. Referees have the pressure of the world on their shoulders, especially with crowds in the stadiums. Knowing they’ll get abuse afterwards, knowing that 30 thousand fans will jeer them. No one can prepare someone to deal with these situations.
Can you blame them for making a mistake? You live and you learn, and referees don’t need the constant abuse and pressure of the biased views thrown at them. The sooner we accept that referees aren’t special and don’t behold magic powers to make the right decisions all the time, the closer we are to getting an acceptable level of commentary, not abuse!