The sight of Rio Ferdinand giving referee Cuneyt Cakir a sarcastic clap after his sending off of teammate Nani, during the team’s Champions League defeat to Real Madrid, is nothing new.
Anyone who has had any involvement in the sport at any level knows that refereeing is a thankless job. On the terraces we know what they call them, it begins with a W and it’s not particularly flattering.
Refereeing is a perfect example of a Catch 22. The men in black are in the unenviable position of being damned if they do and damned if they don’t, accused of bias by both sides, given little credit for a right decision and crucified by players, supporters and commentators for a wrong one.
The nature of football makes it all the worse for its referees. Heated, tribal and unpredictable, minor decisions often have a larger impact on the result than they would in rugby or cricket. As a referee, your decision on a penalty or an offside can make or break the hopes and dreams of a team and its supporters. With the seemingly never ending debate about the use of more technology in making these calls, the eyes of the referee are more often than not the last line of defence. It is not a responsibility I would like on my shoulders, and it is one they bear admirably.
At the coal face the problem is approaching pandemic. In youth and amateur football a ref’s armband is the equivalent of a target on your back. Current estimates suggest that nationally there are over 300 attacks on match officials per year. Perhaps the most famous incident of late was the vicious assault on referee Clive Stewart during a Swansea youth game, leaving the 62-year-old requiring ten stitches after being punched in the face by the father of one of the players.
This begs the question of why anyone would actually want to be a football referee. There is an old adage of referees as power obsessives with a Napoleon complex, desperate to have some involvement in a sport they lacked the talent to play. There is probably an element of truth in this, but only for a few, not most referees. For most it is simply a love of the game, and an opportunity to be involved at a higher level than they could have played it.
There are no easy solutions to this ugly side of football, but sometimes it might be a good thing for all those who truly enjoy the sport to take a minute to tip their hats to some of the forgotten heroes of the game, those crazy referees.