I like to think of myself as an international referee these days.
One Sunday lunchtime at the beginning of last season, I received a phone call from Reading Football Cub. They had made a mess up they told me. They had a game at their Hogwood Park training ground at Arborfield but had forgotten to appoint a referee, could I step in? What time kick off? I asked. ‘Now,’ was the reply.
I quickly crammed my kit into a holdall. One thing you learn in refereeing is to clean your boots after your last game and not just before your next one. This makes you always ready for a snap appointment, and they don’t come any snappier than that.
When I got to the ground, I discovered that the opposing team was from the academy of Sporting Lisbon.
I have always been a very verbal referee letting players know what decision I have made, not just by signals but with my voice and usually informing them what they have done wrong. I also use the quiet word to calm a player down or let them know I have spotted something that they might think had escaped my notice. Here I was suddenly faced with eleven players who didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
I had refereed touring American and Australian teams but they speak English (more or less) whereas these young players of course only spoke Portuguese. My one visit to Portugal was on business when everyone spoke English, so I realised that I would have to adapt my approach. It made me appreciate the job that international referees really have.
Take for example, an English referee being appointed to a match where both teams are from different countries, speaking different languages and who perhaps have a different understanding of the laws of the game. It can’t be easy.
This language barrier has now come to local football. Last month I made a presentation to Newbury referees. On these occasions I like to sit in on their meeting prior to my presentation and hear what’s happening in the area. Like most referees’ societies, Newbury have a problem spot, where any referee can relate an unusual incident which they have faced and members can discuss what they think the best way would be to tackle it.
At this meeting one referee told how when he was refereeing a local Newbury game, a player went down after a fair tackle. To check the player wasn’t seriously injured, the referee called out to him ‘Are you
all right?’ The player didn’t reply. He carried on with play but the player stayed down. ‘Are you
all right?’ He called again but still no response. The referee stopped the play and went over to the player, ‘Are you
all right?’ The player looked at him blankly.
His team mates then explained that the player was a Serbian who had a poor command of the English language. This opened the floodgates of stories by other members who had also experienced similar communication problems from a wide range of foreign players in local Newbury football.
Newbury referees are lucky to have as a member Paul Armstrong who as a Football League referee comes across this problem regularly with the great number of overseas players who now ply their trade in English football. His advice to his fellow members was to look the player in the eye and talk slowly and firmly.
Of course there is no need for interpretation when it comes to cautioning or sending off a player. That’s why yellow and red cards were introduced after the Argentinean player Rattin wouldn’t leave the field in the 1966
World Cup, making out he didn’t know what the referee was saying. This does, however, leave the problem of spelling their names when the referee has to write them in his notebook.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2007