Referees deserve respect

| Friday December 5, 2008 00:00

The BFA leadership do not also give enough support to the whistle man. They let club officials ridicule the whistle men as they wish unlike in more advanced countries, like England where even top officials are fined for small negativity towards the referess.

Recently the top rated referee in the country who is also a FIFA referee, Joshua Bondo, was jostled and nearly manhandled by Centre Chiefs players and officials.

Stern measures should be taken against people who perpetrate such barbaric acts against match offials. Players rough tackle or even break others' legs and hide behind soccer being a physical sport. Referees are humans and to err is human, we sometimes make genuine mistakes and we apologies for them, you will never hear referees complain of ill-treatment by players or club officials, especially coaches. Soccer lovers should know that referees have feelings too and we hurt when we make mistakes. 

I was puzzled by Chiefs, public relations officer, Clifford Mogomotsi, when he said that  Bondo has a hidden agenda against Chiefs national team players. Truly speaking, the said players are softies and crybabies, their captain argues with the referees whenever a foul is awarded against his team. What do you call this? The said official has the misconception that Bondo has something against them. Truly speaking Chiefs is like a wave, which lasts for a few minutes. I wish BFA could impose stiff punishment against chiefs like they did against Gunners after the Orapa incident.

As the motherbody BFA should be blamed for the mess in local football. They always cry that the youth are not interested in becoming the whistle men, but when we heed the call they let us down. Lower division referees are not taken care of at all, we always sacrifice our time and resources for the betterment of the game with little or no reward at all. Somebody can be a referee for six months without having an official uniform. 

Othusitse Onalenna

The writer is a lower division referee; he is currently based in Palapye.