One sour point from today was the amount of sexism against the female official. It’s depressing to hear and just so backwards.
I have run the line many, many, times in junior football and my 14 year old son has taken his Referee's course and officiates in games where the players are younger than him.
All I can say from experiencing both situations, is that,
1) if you haven't been in the position to have to make decisions in a split second,
fairly, and;
2) haven't been subject to the abuse of partisan supporters, managers and players, for making honest calls,
then you probably have no understanding of how hard the job is and how often the decision made by the officials is far better than the opinions of the average crowd at a game, who are not in the optimum location to make the call.
If I watch a game, I tend to follow the ball, as most supporters do. If I run the line, I am watching the last defender, in the context of when the ball is kicked. The two are very different; believe me. I thought running the line would be easy until I started to do it. I realised very quickly that if I wanted to do it properly, I had to concentrate on the job, not the game. As a result I have an enhanced respect for the position of the officials and
All of us should have a lot more respect for officials than we do (especially in the heat of a game), regardless of age, gender or reputation. Without them we would have no games.
For anyone that wants to shout abuse at an official, let alone a female official, just think about whether you would be happy to witness your mother, wife, girlfriend, or daughter standing in front of 2,000 individuals shouting obscenities at them from 30 yards away; all for just trying to do their job to the best of their ability? Then think about whether you want to be that knob that joins in to the chanting. Your choice. It isn't mine.
