Sad Incidents of Violence against Referees
Referees and Umpires in sports competitions perform a vital and often underappreciated role. By helping to maintain proper decorum and sportsmanship on the pitch, they help to bring order and fairness to the game being played.
Over the years though, violence against referees has been increasing and they are the most abused and threatened people on the field of play. A recent incident where a Paraguayan footballer attempted to choke a referee brings this point home in a big way. The incidents of violence and abuse against referees need to be stopped to ensure a proper and fair game in the future, without that the game and sports in general will just descend into chaos.
Referees get abused and attacked on a regular basis. The latest violent attack comes to us from Chile, where footballer Jose Pedroso, who was playing for second division team the Rangers, choked the referee of the game from behind then tried to attack him again when he was pulled off. The Paraguayan footballer had to be restrained by three team mates and was shown a red card by the referee, (Guardian News and Media, 2010).
After the incident, Pedroso was handed a 27 match ban by the Chilean Football Federation; 20 match bans for the attack on the referee, 5 for trying to re-attack him and 2 for getting a red card in the game. The disgraced footballer has since resigned from the Rangers team and gone back to Paraguay. What the defender failed to understand was that the referee was trying his hardest to do a difficult job and had to keep control of the match as best he could.
This phenomenon is not limited to football, although incidents in football do arise more than in other sports. Some of the common sports where violence against refs is very pronounced are baseball, softball and basketball. An example from basketball took place when a tournament for 6th grade boys was taking place. The coach of the team, Charles Taylor got so upset with the Umpire, Charles Murray, that he assaulted him in such a terrible manner that Murray fell into a state of unconsciousness, lost three teeth and requiring 26 stitches.
After the hapless umpire was knocked out, he was then hit with a metal chair that broke his ankle by one of the players, a 12 year old boy, (David W. Rainey & Peter Duggan, 1998). The saddest part of this story was that it took place at a children’s tournament. These young basketball players saw the ugly side of the game that night and got caught up in it and it must have left a very negative impression on them.
Research conducted in 1995 found that almost half of the referees that worked in amateur football in the UK have thought about quitting the game because of violence shown towards them. Some of the worst incidents relate to an assault that almost killed a referee, a car that tried to run down a referee and an incident when a gun and a machete were brandished to settle an argument, (Steve Boggan, 1995).
The incidents of violence extend to Papa New Guinea as well, where the problem is so widespread that the football association is having trouble recruiting new referees to its football league. The incidents of on pitch violence also have another stranger consequence. There have been spikes reported in violence and crime levels in the country as a result of the football league violence, (Ilya Grindeff, 2009). This is a fascinating aspect of a sport causing violence levels to increase in a country. This is also a reason why violence in sports needs to end and assaults and abuse against referees has to be stopped.
Hopefully the day will come when referees are free to work in peace and free from abuse and harm from players and coaches. There has been a lot of work done for the protection of referees and officials but it is still far from ideal. By ensuring that the punishments are very severe if a player is found to have assaulted or abused a referee, other players will learn and be reluctant to try anything in the future. Refereeing is a difficult job and players and coaches need to keep their tempers and passions in check and learn to deal fairly and positively with officials.
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