Saturday, September 14, 2013

I Officiate Football

Posted by Reverend Ref + at 10:48 PM

That title is important.

I don't officiate futbol.
I don't officiate soccer.

This month in Referee, an officiating magazine I subscribe to, there was an article about a soccer match in Brazil that turned ugly.

In short, a referee issued a red card to a player.  The player attacked the referee.  In response, the referee pulled a knife and stabbed the player.  Following the stabbing, friends and family members of the player rushed the field, killed the referee, dismembered and decapitated him, and his head placed on a stake in the field.  The player who was stabbed died on the way to the hospital.

I really have no words to describe my feelings about that, other than sheer disgust.

Oh, and I officiate football.

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3 comments:

Lady Anne | 7:41 PM, September 15, 2013  

Ugh! That makes ice hockey seem pretty tame. Seriously, those people hardly sound human - all that over a call they didn't like.

Stick with football.

Patience | 2:07 AM, September 16, 2013  

It's hardly my place to say this, what with just being a commenter wandering in, so for any presumption I do beg your pardon. (And as a very, very important aside, I am quite glad that your games are not like that, and that you are not in danger on the field.) ...but. As a former soccer player, who's also spent some time running sidelines when the refs were short, this one hurts. It always hurts, to know that humans can be so evil to each other, especially with no cause. But it's insult to injury to see an entire sport, played worldwide, tarred with the brush of violence and bloodshed, as if it was only in a futbol game that this could happen. Folks who would kill a man, so gruesomely and horribly, are not doing so out of sheer enthusiasm for the game.

Reverend Ref + | 11:45 AM, September 16, 2013  

It's not just soccer. There have been plenty of incidents of fan/parent violence at hockey games, football games and baseball games. I remember one game when I played Little League that was suspended while the parents fought.

And there have been incidents where officials have been killed. But this one was especially ugly.

My prayers go out to everyone involved.

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