CBC-Sports

Right or wrong, respect the ref

May 11, 2009 09:41 PM | Posted by   Nigel Reed  

I stood outside the headmaster's study trembling with fear. I could feel the pain before it had been administered. Once inside, I would be caned and be expected to take the punishment like a man. I was eight years old and I shouldn't have been there.

It was not my fault. Even at such a tender age, I understood the meaning of injustice.

Ten minutes earlier, I had been concentrating on my latest masterpiece in art class. It was a lion in a cage at the zoo and the yellow ball in the top left-hand corner signalled a sunny day. All was well at the zoo until my bored classmate, who would later bully me in the playground, deliberately flicked paint on my picture.

Distraught and confused, I concluded the painting was yet salvageable. I began to sabotage my own work by adding more random flicks of paint to resemble huge rain drops. My actions did not go unnoticed. My art teacher towered above me demanding to know what I thought I was doing.

Confidently, I responded that it was a lion in its cage at the zoo on a sunny day, but it had just started to rain and the lion did not like the rain very much. My teacher did not like my reasoning very much and even less the "rain drops" which had missed the paper and were now decorating the floor of the classroom.

"Get out!" she bawled, ordering me to explain myself to the headmaster at once. My protests went unheard. I was given no right of rebuttal and I was going to be taught a lesson which would deter me from, ever again, perpetrating such a heinous crime.

The whole hideous, unjust experience could have scarred me for years, but I learned one thing: There is no point arguing with people in authority. I can only conclude that, by and large, those employed in professional soccer never went through what I had to endure.

Over the last few weeks, the work of referees has attracted more than its usual share of criticism. John Carver's outburst at officialdom in Dallas was swiftly followed by the deplorable sight of players haranguing and intimidating the referee during both high-profile UEFA Champions League semifinals.

The plethora of complaints threatened to escalate still further at the weekend after Toronto FC were forced to watch Jaime Moreno convert a controversial, last-gasp penalty to deny them maximum points at RFK Stadium.

Vilification of match officials, both on the field and during post-game interviews, has become so commonplace that what happened next was mildly shocking.

Chris Cummins, Toronto FC's recently appointed interim head coach, actually agreed with the referee. He accepted that Marvell Wynne's injury-time handball was, indeed, worthy of a penalty kick to the opposition. Publicly at least. No rant, no sideswipe, no condemnation.

Whatever was said in the visitor's dressing room stayed right where it was and, for that, in my opinion, Cummins should be commended. He chose to keep his counsel rather than complain his team had just been robbed of victory.

Referees are not robots with all-seeing eyes and instant super slo-mo replays. They're human beings and humans make mistakes. As long as they are honest mistakes - and frankly, some players' gamesmanship makes the job almost impossible - there's no argument from this observer.

At the end of the day, someone has to be in charge and apply the rules. It is incumbent upon the players to respect the decisions made – good, bad or indifferent. The crowd is entitled to boo and jeer all it wants, that's part of the game-day atmosphere, but those on the field and in the dugout must be professional in every sense of the word.

I'm well aware soccer is a passionate game where emotions run high – that's part of the reason we love the sport in the first place – but there's a line to be drawn between competitiveness and abuse. I'm not going to preach about players being role models – they know they are and they should be aware of the message they send out to youngsters when the red mist descends.

We don't live in a utopian world where everyone plays fair, either in the classroom, the boardroom or on the football field. But Cummins, to my mind, set an example many others would do well to follow. His job is to get the best out of his players, not to give the referee a lecture on the laws of the game.

Soccer fans are always excited to see new, emerging talent - crucial to the future of the game - but no more important than the encouragement needed to recruit and develop the next generation of referees, for, without them, the game disappears completely and is replaced by anarchy.

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