30 November 2009
RESPECT: Referees Are Not Out to Ruin Your Fun
By Russell Drury
By the look of it, footballers, whether professional or amateur, seem to adopt the attitude that referees are out to ruin their fun. We hear the usual soundbites from players and managers about how ‘we should stay off the referees back’ and the claim that ‘we’re all human, we all make mistakes’.
But from the first whistle on a Saturday afternoon, referees are down there with traffic wardens, politicians and health and safety officers in the popularity stakes. Every decision is deemed biased and whichever team the official has managed to upset will casually reach the conclusion that the referee spoiled the game. It is rarely an open goal miss, a ludicrous own goal in the last minute or a defender’s inability to tackle cleanly in the penalty box. No. Nine times out of 10 it is the official who takes the flak. This, quite simply, needs to stop.
And this is where grassroots football must take the initiative. There is a strong argument that the Respect campaign, rather than being focused on amateur football, should begin at the very top. This is fair enough, but it is in the lower leagues that you will see matches without a referee because there simply aren’t enough to go round. While professional referees are paid tidy sums - maybe not in the same region as David Beckham, but enough - referees on a Sunday morning are paid a token match fee as well as travel expenses. They are not there for the money; they are there for the love of the game.
This has never struck me so clearly as it did on Saturday when I turned out for my own village side in a league game. I was being warmed up in goal by my team-mates before kick-off and the referee approached me. He must have been in his early 60s, but after inspecting my boots, he turned to the players who all had a ball at their feet and yelled ‘Come on – give it your best shot!’ Two of them did and he got nowhere near either of them. But that is not the point. He still clearly loved being out there, even though his playing days were well behind him. As I chatted to him I learned that he used to play as a centre-forward on Saturdays and a goalkeeper on Sunday mornings. He said he ‘just loved to play’.
Okay, he made some mistakes during the game, but not nearly as many as the two defences as eight goals were shared in a four-all draw. Nobody could have blamed someone at his age to be indoors in the warm playing darts in the pub or watching Jeff Stelling’s results service on Sky Sports. But rather, he braved the cold November afternoon and looked like he enjoyed every minute of it.
After the game I enjoyed another brief chat with him about how the game had gone. This might not be a viable option in the Premier League, but at amateur level a friendly chat with the official could be the difference between him wanting to do it all again next week, or deciding it just isn’t worth the grief.
Incidentally, in our league, each team is required to supply their own ‘assistant referee’ for matches. In Saturday’s game our opponents were unable to provide one, so one of our supporters, himself a retired top-flight official volunteered to do it for them. After awarding our team a corner he was met with a shower of abuse from the opposition goalkeeper. Feeling the need to make a point, he strolled over to the goalkeeper, tucked the flag under his arm and calmly said; ‘you do it’.
Now who would not allow themselves just a little smile if Howard Webb did something similar to Alex Ferguson with his whistle when he is next in charge of a Manchester United match?
