The Rational Ref | Protect referees by hitting clubs where it hurts
The spate of violence against officials shows little is being done to promote respect for game
No one is bigger than the club. This commonly espoused mantra is easy to comprehend yet individuals with massive egos and an overdeveloped sense of grandeur do not get it. They are the ones who take the law into their own hands and as a result people have died.
What else could explain the actions of the 17-year-old player in Utah who, angry at being shown a yellow card, punched 46-year-old referee Ricardo Portillo in the face? Portillo collapsed, was taken to hospital where he became comatose from swelling in his brain and passed away.
What else explains the behaviour of three teenage players in the Netherlands last December who fatally attacked 41-year-old linesman Richard Nieuwenhuizen by hauling him to the ground and kicking him repeatedly in the head, neck and stomach?
It's not just badly behaved teenagers in recreation leagues. Experienced players in professional leagues exhibit this rage and egotistical behaviour, too. Last month Pieter Rumaropen, 29, a player in the Indonesian Super League, bloodied a referee's nose after the match official awarded a penalty to the opposing team.
In Italy, AC Milan's Sulley Muntari, 28, physically restrained the referee to prevent him from taking out a yellow card. For his insolence, Muntari was sent off. Only the week before, Muntari snatched a yellow card off the referee who was about to book teammate Mario Ballotelli. It virtually showed the vainglorious Ghanaian taking the law into his own hands.
These examples demonstrate the total lack of respect towards not just match officials but the game itself. These self-important individuals either do not understand there is a code of conduct for how people should behave on the soccer pitch as well as in society, or they choose to dismiss the game's regulatory system in favour of their own biased interpretation of justice.
Either way, the result is anarchy. What can be done? Aside from education, with responsible coaches playing a crucial role in instilling respect for the game, the answer is to have an effective disciplinary system to nip the problem in the bud. Yet time and again, Fifa, Uefa and other competition organisers have shown inconsistent and ineffective disciplinary outcomes that do little more than "slap the wrist" of naughty, misbehaving offenders and their clubs.