Fionn O’Dea
Staff Writer
I would typically be addressed in one of a number of ways: ref, ye feckin’ eejit, ah for fuck’s sake…the list goes on. I was relieved when I hung up my whistle at the end of my 18 months as a ref in the mighty South Dublin Football League. “Never gonna miss this”, I thought. I suppose I was partially right.
While nothing makes you feel smaller than the inevitable and colourful abuse hurled your way (biased, incompetent and even racist), diffusing a tense situation or putting a smarmy, cocky 12 year old in his place makes you feel ten feet tall. My go as “the bastard in the black” gave me an insight into just how difficult and stressful refereeing is. Even when supporting my own teams, I bite my tongue when everyone around me is loudly agreeing that the referee is off his rocker.
A number of high-profile incidents in English football recently have brought the issue of refereeing standards to the fore again. Manchester City’s captain Vincent Kompany was harshly given his marching orders against City’s cross-town rivals a few weeks ago for a two-footed lunge. Cue fierce debate soon after when Liverpool’s Glen Johnson was not sent off for a similar offence.
The demand from the public after such situations is that the refs need to be consistent across the board. This is a nice idea in theory but it reinforces my belief that the public assumes that they know the rules better than the refs. Nowhere in the the rules does it say that a two-footed lunge is a red card, it is at the referee’s discretion whether it was dangerous or excessive. Nowhere in the rules does it state that committing a foul while being the last man automatically amounts to a red card, the referee must determine in the circumstances whether or not an obvious goalscoring opportunity was denied.
As part of this process mistakes will be made from time to time. It’s impossible that they wouldn’t. The ref is the only person on the pitch that is expected to give a ten out of ten performance and still take stick at every blow of the whistle. The reality is that different referees will make seemingly contradictory decisions from time to time. Every ref has different instincts but we must trust that it is these instincts that have brought them to the top of a very long refereeing chain of command.
While it is natural that spectators view decisions through rose-tinted glasses, on occasion this has resulted in scenes of violence against refs. Swedish referee Anders Frisk was forced to abandon a 2004 Champions League tie in Rome after being struck in the face by a missile thrown from the crowd. Staying Scandinavian, A Danish fan was recently fined €250,000 for his 2007 drunken attack on referee Herbert Frandel during Denmark’s international against Sweden.
So perhaps next time you’re thinking, as any fan or player does from time to time, of throwing a bit of abuse the ref’s way, think of the miserable Sunday mornings he/she spent out in the rain so that a group of teenagers can play a game. And then don’t say anything. Mario Balotelli’s agent recently referred to Howard Webb, one of the best referees in the world, as a coward. If anyone wants to see an actual cowardly refereeing performance then I’m free on May 19th for the Champions League final.
