{"id":2907,"date":"2016-03-05T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T02:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2016-03-05T08:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T02:30:46","slug":"in-defence-of-the-world-cup-referee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2907","title":{"rendered":"In Defence of the World Cup Referee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span><\/p><\/div>

hen I was a 10-year-old, I was enrolled in a basketball class coached by a giant Catholic Bandra uncle with size 13 shoes and calves the size of my midriff. Catholic Basketball Uncle was utterly terrifying. As you can imagine, he had no qualms about using his size to his advantage, often throwing size 7 balls in the faces of the children who would refuse to pass the ball, and casually backhanding the kid with one hand in his pants and one finger in his nose.<\/span>\n\n\nBut of all the things that irritated Catholic Basketball Uncle, one thing would make him fly into a rage like no other \u2013 complaints directed at the referee. He made this very clear one afternoon while he was \u201crefereeing\u201d a game of 5v5 (<\/span>smoking a cigarette<\/span><\/a> on a plastic chair while we ran around whacking each other). At some point during the game, one of the young boys tripped over his own feet, and immediately insisted from the ground that the ref should have called for a foul. Catholic Basketball Uncle didn\u2019t say a word. He instead rose from his chair slowly (think of an elephant rising out of a river), lifted the crying child by his shorts, and placed him on the fence separating us from the Bandra <\/span>traffic<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\n\n\u201cVery fair you are, no. Sit on the fence now,\u201d he said, while the rest of us tried our best not to crack up in the corner. The lesson \u2013 while probably utterly horrifying for 12-year-old crying boy \u2013 was clear: In a team sport, where every player is expected to carry his own weight and work in tandem with his teammates, there is and was no room for tantrum-throwing and referee-blaming. Human error would, and always will be a part of the team sport. <\/span>\n\nIt took me 17 years, but as this <\/span>FIFA World Cup<\/span><\/a> continues throwing up last- minute shockers, and the responsibility continues to fall on the poor referees\u2019 shoulders in Twitter Kangaroo courts, I can finally agree with this sentiment. For some reason, there has been this sudden expectation from both referees and their linesman to be physically able enough to run as fast as <\/span>Cristiano Ronaldo<\/span><\/a>, maintain the vision of Marvel\u2019s Hawkeye, and display the coolness of the <\/span>Dalai Lama<\/span><\/a>, while being super self-aware that every single error they make will instantly be dissected by millions of fans.<\/span>\n\nOnly last week, the <\/span>American referee Mark Geiger<\/span><\/a> of the Columbia-England game was called out by the Columbian team for displaying a \u201cclear bias\u201d toward England. The Columbians were offended that their players had received six yellow cards despite practically pummelling the English squad. Surprisingly they didn\u2019t have much to say, when in the same game, Columbian <\/span>Wilmar Barrios <\/span>headbutted<\/span><\/a> English midfielder Jordan Henderson and was lucky to escape with a yellow card. <\/span>Maradona<\/span><\/a> too lashed out at Geiger saying Colombia suffered a <\/span>\u201cmonumental robbery\u201d<\/span><\/a>, only to apologise later after being pulled up by FIFA. <\/span>\n\nThat\u2019s the basic problem \u2013 arguments over refereeing will always come across as childish (remember the crying kid on the fence). When a call goes against a team, you\u2019ll notice players gherao-ing the ref with exaggerated hand movements and vocal outrage. When the call is made in a particular player\u2019s favour, meanwhile you\u2019ll notice them move innocently in the background where they pretend to tie their shoelaces. <\/span>\n\nThe fans get equally riled up \u2013 a call in their team\u2019s favour is \u201cpart of the game\u201d, a call against them is a \u201ctravesty to the beautiful sport\u201d. A team could play 90 minutes of really unappealing football, concede a penalty in the dying minutes, and an entire country will bay for the blood of the referee. <\/span>\n\nDespite what anyone might see, the <\/span>VAR<\/span><\/a> has only added to the referee\u2019s woes. Take for instance the Australia-France game, which the Socceroos lost 1-2. French player Antoine Griezmann<\/span> appeared to be caught by Australian defender Joshua Risdon with his leg outstretched as he entered the penalty area. Uruguayan referee Andres Cunha stopped the game to consult the screen on the side of the pitch and <\/span>award a penalty<\/span><\/a>. Immediately after the game, Australia\u2019s coach came out, vein popping in his forehead, and claimed the referee had made a mistake awarding the penalty, and that officials should be more \u201chonest\u201d. <\/span>\n\nA system like VAR could never fully replace a referee, because a referee\u2019s job in any sport is not just to run around looking at things \u2013 they must react to external stimulus, not just technically call out a foul. Watch any game where play is stopped for every nonsense mini-tackle and you\u2019ll understand what I mean. Alternatively there are those players who commit six mini-fouls in a row, and get outraged when they are booked for the seventh challenge, despite it being the least offensive of all fouls. This is something VAR will never be able to do as well as a human referee.<\/span>\n\n

It took me 17 years, but as this FIFA World Cup continues throwing up last- minute shockers, and the responsibility continues to fall on the poor referees\u2019 shoulders in Twitter Kangaroo courts, I can finally agree with this sentiment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nNow I\u2019m not suggesting, of course, that the players and coaches of the World Cup should be hung on a fence by their pants until they start respecting the referee, but maybe scary basketball dude had more than a valid point. His logic was pretty simple, once you decide to play a team sport, you\u2019ve decided to hand over control to a referee \u2013 whether he\u2019s a fit man able to run as fast as a cheetah, or an overweight uncle who was just looking for a way to revisit his youth. You support this referee no matter what because, in the long run, just like in life 50 per cent of the decisions are going to go in your favour. <\/span>\n\nFor the kids who still don\u2019t agree, there is always carom.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been this sudden expectation from referees to run as fast as Cristiano Ronaldo, maintain the vision of Hawkeye, and display the coolness of the Dalai Lama, while being super self-aware that every single error they make will instantly be dissected by millions of fans. But let\u2019s remember referees are humans too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[5805,2270,5504,396,5527,5806,5528,5807,5698,353,5606,5808],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-andre-cunha","tag-colombia","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-maradona","tag-mark-geiger","tag-neymar","tag-red-card","tag-referee","tag-sports","tag-uruguay","tag-yellow-card"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defence of the World Cup Referee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There has been this sudden expectation from referees to run as fast as Cristiano Ronaldo, maintain the vision of Hawkeye, and display the coolness of the Dalai Lama, while being super self-aware that every single error they make will instantly be dissected by millions of fans. 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