Referee: The Thankless Part of Football

Football, as its name stands, is one of the most glorious parts of the dictionary of sports. Traces of "folk football" could be found in ancient medieval times, but the rules varied (Döllinger, 2021). But, modern football has evolved from Britain in the 19th century. With passing time, it has started to gain popularity among all the nations and currently, it is one of the trending sports and favourite pastimes for its viewers. The World Cup, with 36 competing teams, has been known as the "Greatest Show on the Earth"(Khan, 2024). Nowadays, women, children, specially-abled citizens, as well as other sections of society have also shown great interest in participating in the specific sport.

The referee is a part of the specific game, without whose presence it would have never earned its fame in the global sector. As the topic name suggests, it is a thankless job without any fanbase or popularity, but still the presence of the third team (Referee) in the field has been an impactful part of the sport. The team of Referees consists of a main referee, who is supposed to be the chief administrator of the game, followed by two assistant referees and a fourth official (Schwab, Steverding and Rein, 2023). The current world has seen the inclusion of modern technology like Video Assistant Referee and Goal Line Technology to enhance the performance of the on-field match officials. The Referee, as the name suggests, is the ultimate decision maker on the field, and the decisions taken by the personality are deemed to be neutral to maintain the fairness of the game in its set standards. However, it has been seen that there has always been a negative view of the referees in all circuits of sports, questioning their neutrality and fairness in the field (Ponkin and Lapteva, 2023). But, it needs to be clarified that the person specified is also a human being and human error can occur. Henceforth, various upgraded technologies have been brought out to enhance and improve their performances on the field.

The life of a referee has never been in light following the fame lessness of the match officials in the sport. But, it's never less challenging than a player. A referee has to be physically fit and sound to keep up with the players in a match (Muscella, Stefàno and Marsigliante, 2021). Annually, a referee has to pass through Fitness Tests and other practical schedules held by specific member associations to prove themselves fit and sound for the following year. He has to make decisions in a fraction of a second, which may have a huge impact on the result of the match. To prepare for such situations, a referee needs to be mentally more stable and fit to stay strong in such circumstances (Wunderlich et al., 2021). The preparation starts from the day before the matchday. Following severe diet routines to scheduled intake of proteins and carbohydrates along with enough electrolytes, a referee needs to be on his heels to stay hydrated as a part of his physical routine before the matchday. The teams participating in the following match need to be properly supervised by the referee by investigating their previous games, which would help identify the pros and cons of the teams in the field along with their tactical behaviour and aggression of the players. The matchday needs a lot more like having a sound sleep, followed by good stretching and proper mental calmness to stay in proper mind shape before the match begins. A pre-match discussion is held among the match officials to share their workloads in the field and set up certain discrete signals that would be helpful in their communication process during the game. Assistant referees and other on-field match officials play a significant role in assisting the referee in making proper and accurate decisions during the match. A total of almost 150-200 decisions need to be taken by the referee during the match, which is never easy and the most challenging part is to deal with the professional players (Spitz et al., 2020). They never give an easy sideway to the referee if decisions go against them. To handle the players, coaches, and other team officials, followed by the high presence of spectators on the field, a referee needs to be cool, calm, firm, and courageous while administrating the match. Varied moods of referees are found during the match. At times, he needs to be friendly, varying to be aggressive and firm at other times. The ultimate objective is the successful completion of the match. The job does not end there. After the completion, begins the post-match discussion where the referee needs to justify the crucial decisions and his consideration as every bullet used by the policeman requires proper justification (Scoppa, 2021). Based on the consistency of the decisions taken by the referee in his matches, he is ranked among his colleagues.

All the referees have a passion for being the best and getting certified as FIFA Referee from their specific Member Association. But, a few come into the limelight by hosting superior and extraordinary matches. The rest remains in the dark shadow. Only a few countries have started to develop good career opportunities for referees who have taken it as their profession. Many countries are still far behind in creating good career opportunities in these fields, resulting in degrading performance as they need to divert ways to make a stable income to earn their bread and butter (Bright, Warner and Zvosec, 2022). The life of a referee is like the tides of an ocean where it goes high at times and the other part goes low. Still, there is a ray of hope that this profession will someday be in the limelight and people will understand the significance of the role a referee, along with his team, plays in the field.

Reference

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Döllinger, D. (2021). From Custom to Code : A Sociological Interpretation of the Making of Association Football. [online] DIVA. Available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1547463&dswid=-2502 [Accessed 14 Oct. 2024].

Khan, A.R. (2024). FIFA World Cup 2022 and Bangladesh: Shedding light from the sociology of sport. Scientific Journal of Sport and Performance, [online] 3(1), pp.130–144. doi:https://doi.org/10.55860/PFUX3298.

Muscella, A., Stefàno, E. and Marsigliante, S. (2021). The effects of training on hormonal concentrations and physical performance of football referees. Physiological Reports, 9(8). doi:https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.14740.

Ponkin and Lapteva (2023). Legal Status of Sports Referees: Legal Nature, Features, Problems. Kutafin law review, 10(2), pp.377–403. doi:https://doi.org/10.17803/2713-0533.2023.2.24.377-403.

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