Howard Webb from England gestures during the group D match between Greece and Spain in Salzburg, Austria, at the Euro 2008 European Soccer Championships. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File.
Is there a more openly lambasted figure in football then the referee? Not even some of the dubious political figures that surround the world game receive the same kind of public ribbing from football fans.
Manchester United supporters might be split over their feelings towards the Glazers but they all tend to be united in their hatred of the man in black.
So why is it easier to blame a referee for not giving a penalty than a striker for missing an open goal?
My theory is simple: Fans already have a relationship with a striker who has fluffed a scoring opportunity. He might have already scored the winner against a rival or been a player of the season in the past. Most importantly of all, a striker wears the club’s colours.
Meanwhile, the referee is a largely anonymous figure who seemingly only turns up to ruin people’s parties. As the old cliché goes, when he does a good job you don’t really notice him, when he makes a mistake there’s hell to pay. Just ask Tom Øvrebø.
I’ve had a few first hand accounts of this over the last few months, the latest of which was at a media open day for the World Cup referees.
Thanks to some dodgy directions I arrived at the referees hotel just outside of Pretoria when everyone was packing up to head home. One of the few referees who was still hanging around was Englishman Howard Webb.
Despite having spent nearly two hours straight doing media interviews and having a massage appointment in a few minutes, Webb was more than happy to take the time to have a chat with myself and SBS writer Matthew Hall.
In our engaging interview it became obvious to me that Webb, who referees in the English Premier League and also officiated the Champions League final in May, is one of the more interesting characters in football and a nice guy.
For example, consider a few of Webb’s opinions he shared:
On video technology: “Anything that makes me more accurate I’ve got an open mind to.”
On preparing for games: “In my previous experience in FIFA tournaments, they’ll provide us with some information about formations and patterns of play. They won’t say this player is a real pain in the bum!”
On diving: “People don’t want to see games won by somebody cheating”
All of which had me thinking, if football fans actually saw the person behind the formal and official man in the middle on a Saturday afternoon, they might show some more appreciation towards what they do.
It’s a point that the great Pierluigi Collina made to me a couple months ago when I met him at Italy’s Coverciano training centre during one of his regular referee training camps.
“I think it would be very important if the referees job, their preparation, was more known by people involved in football,” Collina, who is in charge of the referees in Italy, said.
“I don’t know if supporters (understand) really what referees do in preparing themselves.
“Probably they think the referee is on stage for 90 minutes and he does nothing for the rest of the week. Certainly they don’t know the huge job referees do behind the curtains.
“Probably if this would be more known, (the referees job) would be more appreciated.
“To make the referees job known by people it’s not necessary to have interviews just after a game.
“It’s important to invite the media to a stage like this one at Coverciano or giving the chance to have interviews with referees but not strictly related with the game itself.
“Maybe on what (referees) do, how they prepare, this could be something interesting I think.”
So FIFA’s referee open day was a good first step in helping the general public learn more about the men in charge of our game and I believe this is the right direction for us to head towards.
It can only be a good thing for us to learn that referees are as committed to their craft as the players they watch over and just like the rest of us, when they stuff up they hurt.
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