In any competitive sport, scrutiny is commonplace. We know this. The blame game gets played all the time and ultimately, it’s all connected to people needing a scapegoat for an undesirable outcome or result within a game, season or franchise.
Sometimes it’s the coaches. “He shouldn’t have brought the reliever in until the 8th inning.” “Why would he wait to bring in the line shift?” “Switching to the 2-3 zone was a stupid decision.”
Sometimes it’s the players. “Why wouldn’t he go back against the grain when the blocking broke down?” “Why would he swing at that pitch, it was clearly in the dirt?” “He should have dumped the ball down low, he hasn’t hit a shot all day.”
And sometimes, it’s even the owners. “He was too much of a risk to be worth trading for.” “How does he think that keeping the team as it is will bring us closer to a championship?” “Maybe if he put more stock into his scouting staff we’d have a decent recruiting class coming in.”
Yet in American sports, referees rarely get saddled with any sort of lasting censure. In the middle of a game? Absolutely, refs get an earful seemingly every other moment. After the game? Maybe, if a call really stood out, he/she would receive some backlash from coaches, players media or fans.
However, there are few referees that have imprinted their names in a sport’s history in a negative light. Even Jim Joyce, the first base umpire who robbed Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game, is now seen by many as a role model-like umpire whose willingness to admit his critical error makes him a genuinely good official.
When it comes to international soccer, though, things are different.
Way, way different.
Due to the nature of soccer, the simplest of questionable calls can significantly impact a match’s result, and subsequently, a club’s season. The choice to award a penalty kick in the European game, for example, is typically considered refereeing suicide unless the call is painstakingly obvious. Because spot kicks normally result in goals, a single point of the finger to the penalty spot from the ref can be the difference between a team winning or losing a match.
Example A: the 2010 World Cup quarterfinal, in which England’s Frank Lampard had a clear goal go uncalled against Germany. The Germans end up victorious, 4-2, but the post-match spotlight shined for several months (and still today when mentioned) on the referee. Big time mistake, big time repercussions.
In English club soccer, the scrutiny of referees is equally severe. Top-level officials have their performances reviewed following each match and if they’re deemed to be even somewhat incompetent in their officiating, they’re demoted for a string of games, a result which yields a pay, and pride, decrease. Positive showings lead to nothing more than the sustaining of their top-flight status.
Measures of protection have been taken by the English Football Association in order to protect the safety and integrity of the referees. Amidst the heat of an important game, players have been known to surround a referee, verbally assaulting him in the process and sometimes resorting to pushing or other forms of physical intimidation. Due to this, the English FA has been forced to protect its match officials, the men and women who are assigned to maintain the sanctity of the beautiful game. The steep pressure faced by top-of-the-line officials routinely manifests itself in ugly ways, and unfortunately, danger on and off the field is an imposing reality for those that wear the traditional black and white on the pitch.
In other places, the stakes have been seen to be even higher.
To cite extreme instances, take the Colombian soccer official that was gunned down in 2000 following his officiating in a domestic semi-pro (yes, semi-pro) fixture. Or consider a 2004 South African referee, who felt so physically threatened after a debatable decision that he drew a gun and killed one of the coaches in the midst of the on-field chaos.
The bottom line: these refs have it tougher than any in the world of sports, without question. Their job is made exponentially more challenging by the consistent burden of disrespect and disregard of their profession’s difficulty. No matter what calls they make, someone always jumps on their back in the aftermath.
They deserve more praise. They deserve more understanding. And in a way, you really have to admire these guys. Without them, everything else we love about soccer couldn’t exist.
