Referees not only have to concentrate on the game to give decisions, they also have to deal with abuse from players that believe they are correct no matter what the referee says to them.
Players
One incident in the game would follow like this. A player nearly breaks another players leg with a challenge that could only be described as cynical and the referee stops play and gives a free kick, the player who then committed the foul begins to shout and swear because he thinks that football has actually turned into kung fu.
*Warning do NOT watch if you are faint-hearted!
The referee then tries to talk to the player, but the player who has no respect continues to hurl abuse at an innocent human being that has just blown a whistle and given a free kick.
When the referee has eventually had enough and the moronic player has shut up, the referee tells him that he is going to be booked for the foul and for shouting, all the while the referee cannot shout or swear back towards the player.
Just from that one example you can see what the man in the middle has to deal with.
This is especially true at the grassroots level where 90% of complaints made against Referees and Teams in the Bolton & Bury District Football League are made by the losing team. What we must remember is thise complaints are made by grown adult’s supposedly in the best interests of the young players they influence week in week out, yet the statistic would highlight a trend of sore losers with the inability to respect a decision or defeat.
Managers
But in the beautiful game it is not just players that the referee has to deal with, oh no, managers are another burden on their job.
Take Tony Pulis for instance, earlier on last season he accused a top premier league referee of being biased against his (Formerly) precious Stoke City and it isn’t the first time Mr Pulis has accused referees of favouring the opposition team.
I don’t understand how at the top level of the game a premier league manager can accuse the referee of being biased towards the opposition team when they have to be impartial or they will lose their job. One thing I believe that managers don’t understand is that referees give a decision based upon what they, or their assistants see happening on the pitch, the managers just think that if a decision goes against them the referee suddenly becomes the 12th man for that team.
It’s not Serie A, the referees aren’t corrupt and they don’ take payments to hand the game to a particular team. The standard of refereeing in the premier league is the best bar none, in my opinion because they control the game well, even when managers or players don’t agree with them, but they don’t care they aren’t going to change their mind if you continue to shout at them.
In addition managers need to realise that the man in the middle is not the enemy just because he gives a decision against their team, I hope your listening Mr Pulis because I would like to see you stood in the middle of the pitch trying to control 22 overpaid, pre madonnas effectively.
Fans
My final moan of this blog is at the fans who hurl abuse at the referee. Fans in addition with players and managers don’t understand just how important the referee is to ensuring that they see a good game and get their money’s worth when they go to see their favourite team playing home or away. They just believe, like managers, that the referee is against their team every time they give a decision that they don’t agree with and this is why referees feel that they have to give decisions to please the fans that are turning on them.
This shouldn’t be happening in top divisions in the footballing world, referees should be able to give decisions that are correct every time and not have to think about what the fans are going to think. In addition the fans are probably the biggest problem for the referees because they are the only ones who can voice their opinions whenever they want and they can also say whatever they want without having to think about the consequences of their actions. The fans at football matches always have an opinion on the referee before and after the game, generally after the game it is not a positive opinion because of one decision or another.
Finally football fans will continue to swear at and abuse referees and disagree with what he gives during the game, but one thing I don’t understand is that the fans will then think of him as a messiah in the next minute because he gives them a decision that results in them scoring.
To end my rant defending referees in football I will say this, referees are the most important thing in a football match because without them fans wouldn’t be able to watch their favourite team week in week out, players wouldn’t have a job that pays them thousands for kicking a ball and most importantly the so called ” beautiful game” wouldn’t exist at all.
So just think next you think about hurling abuse at the referee just take one moment to think about where we will be without hardworking ref’s.
You can buy referee kits or referee accessories from Discount football Kits.
We are also helping grassroots refs by supporting the Respect campaign, clubs can get cheap football crowd barriers to help with this. We have teamed up with leagues such as the Bolton & Bury district football league who are committed to developing and protecting the game for the benefit of all involved. So lets give referees a break and change the culture of the grassroots game!
