A news item that grabbed the headlines in specialised sports media last week originated from France after that the French parliament passed an innovative law to give greater protection to referees in all sports from acts of violence.
Violence occurs when an individual (or a group) attempt to impose their will on the referee, physically forcing the referee to do what they want. This includes any act that inflicts physical bodily harm such as punching, pushing, head butting, slapping, spitting, and beating up. Verbal abuse such as offensive, abusive and insulting language can also be felt as strongly as having a physical act committed against the referee.
Under the new French law, threatening verbally or physically and causing injuries to a referee resulting in a work stoppage of over eight days will be punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine of 75,000 euros. In the most serious cases, a life sentence in prison will also be applicable.
In this way, if one vents very excessive frustration, also verbally, with any referee of any sports discipline will be quite risky in France. In technical terms, this innovative reform has defines the referee as carrying out a ‘public mission of service’ at par as a fireman.
This decision was taken in order to curb and restrain, as much as possible, the increasing number of physical acts of violence against referees that had become almost a fashion in amateur football levels.
In fact, according to the French referees’ federation, there have been over a thousand reports of physical attacks on football referees in the last six years compared to one incident in rugby and none in basketball and handball.
Incidents range from beatings by players, club administrators, gamblers and supporters up to the cowardly, yet very dangerous, action by the ‘hooligans’ who amuse themselves by firing lead balls towards the referee and his assistants.
Just as an example, last year, a French referee needed 10 stitches in his head and suffered a partial loss of his eyesight after being hit by stones.
One should also remember the immature and grossly disrespectful act by goalkeeper Fabian Barthez who spat towards a Moroccan international referee Abdellah El Achiri during a friendly match played in Casablanca in February 2005 between Marseille and Wydad Casablanca.
The disciplinary committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) had imposed a six-month ban on the Olympique Marseille player, with half of the sentence suspended. This original sentence was termed as one that made a mockery of all referees and wa later doubled after an appeal.
A similar incident had occurred in 1991 in france when Mecha Bazdarevic, the former coach of French club Istres, was then suspended for 12 months.
A further sad thing about such bad examples given by those who should act in a more exemplary manner is that these dreadful actions are quickly ‘copied’, by some players in the amateur level.
The first reaction by the general world refereeing community to this new French law was one of great satisfaction and it was termed as a historical decision.
Within France itself, the president of the French football federation, Frederick Thiriez, stated that he believes that this law will help to limit the loss the referees every year.
He said that in the last five years, more than 20,000 referees from some 154,000 registered referees all around France, decided to stop refereeing as they got tired and could not withstand to be submitted to the systematic verbal and physical attacks.
Other countries may follow suit (possibly also having an EU law enacted in the future) as there is no denying that acts of violence against referees has become, especially in a number of countries where sports is at a very high level, a serious problem both with regard to the personal safety of referees themselves and because, as stated above, they set an extremely bad example for society as a whole.
The majority of Referees who officiate at ‘grass roots’ level are not accompanied to games and neither are they provided with any form of protection. It is therefore vitally important that Referees minimize the risk of being assaulted.
Press reports and statements made by various referees’ representative associations state that referees are increasingly being subjected to psychological pressure and actual physical threats.
We have also heard of a number of death threats made against a referee ranging from amateur games (citing the sad incident that occurred on the 3rd of December 2000 during an amateur game (Promozione) in San Cassiano, Lecce, in Italy when the referee was actually threatened with a gun in the dressing rooms) to the much-publicized death threats received by Swedish international referee Anders Frisk.
Although being physically assaulted can be damaging and sometimes life threatening, some non-physical actions can also produce the same or even greater psychological harm to the victim. For example, threats to your family and children or being threatened with a broken bottle will not be easily forgotten.
There is no ‘fool-proof’ method for eliminating violence against referees completely. However, the main duty of anyone is to protect them from aggression. There are many situations when a referee may ‘himself’ develop (or foolishly get involved in) confrontation that will actually instigate (or increase the likelihood of) violence being committed against himself. It is these instances that an experienced Referee will avoid like the plague also thanks to the experience gained along his career.