Who wants to be a ref?

Cases of idiot youth soccer parents accosting, berating or downright assaulting referees are well known. But referees of top class professional soccer aren't immune from the heat. With ridiculous amounts of money at stake, the pressure clubs, managers and players face is enormous. They transfer that to the officials. Referees and assistant referees of top level soccer are under obscene amounts of pressure. They must get every big decision right (and most of the little ones as well too), even though the game has increased exponentially in speed and skill in the last 20 years. So has the technology to second guess the officials. I seriously doubt the amount they get paid is enough.

Take this Wednesday's European Champions League final between Barcelona and the London club Arsenal. The contest widely regarded as the most prestigious club soccer match in the world was won by the Catalans 2-1

The big decision in the match occurred mid-way through the first half when the Norwegian referee gave a red card to Arsenal's goalkeeper for fouling a Barcelona player on a breakaway; there had never been a red card in the 49 previous finals. The referee could've played advantage (allowed the play to continue) since the resulting play ended up as a Barcelona goal anyway. He could still have given the keeper a yellow card after awarding the goal. But instead, Arsenal played 10 vs 11 for most of the match.

Both teams surrounded the ref protesting the decision. The English side demanded the goal be awarded and the card be yellow so they could preserve their 11 men (even if they were down by a goal). The Spanish side were happy with the ejection but wanted the goal awarded too.

The game, which had all the makings of a classic, was obviously transformed by the sending off. Arsenal played defensively for most of the game yet actually scored first and led for almost half the game. But two late Barcelona goals won them the trophy.

The red card against the Arsenal goalkeeper, I'm sorry to say, was completely appropriate. He intentionally fouled the player outside the penalty area (the region where the keeper can use his hands) thus preventing a clear scoring opportunity.

According to the laws of the game, the ejection was beyond question as far as I'm concerned. The has since admitted that he may have blew the whistle too quickly... but later retracted the statement. Though even the reprimanded goalkeeper admitted that he understood why the ref red carded him.

While the ref got the red card right, some of the other calls and non-calls were pretty strange. Did they deny Arsenal a deserved victory? No.

It's not surprising that Arsenal's manager and their captain blamed the ref for the team's defeat.

As a netural, they are probably one of the most enjoyable-to-watch teams in Europe; far more than any other English team, that's for sure. But they have a tendency to whine every time things don't go their way; not as much as their fellow Londoners Chelsea but it's still annoying.

Captain Thierry Henry complained of being kicked all the time by Barcelona's defenders, who went unpunished. A fair assessment, if you ask me, but did the normally classy Henry really need to suggest that the ref was wearing a Barcelona shirt?

Manager Arsène Wenger complained that the Catalans' first goal was offside. Video replays showed that it was indeed. But only by the slightest of margins and you could only tell by showing the replay as in incredibly slow motion. The play happened so quickly and the offside so tight, it was virtually impossible for the referee's assistant to make that call. The officials don't have the benefit of watching it several times in super, duper slow motion. They have to make calls at full speed in a split second.

Late in the first half, Arsenal defender Emmanuel Éboué suffered a phantom foul (he lost control of the ball and fell down like he was shot). The resulting free kick led directly to Arsenal's goal. For all the English side's pissing and moaning about the officials, it's odd that none of them complained about that controversial call.

It's not surprising that the losing team and their country's press sniveled like spoiled brats who didn't get the Christmas presents they wanted. But even some segments of the Spanish press claimed it was their winning side that suffered the most from incompetent refereeing. "The Norwegian referee Terje Hauge was prejudiced against Barca with an officious and cowardly performance," sniffed a Catalan sports daily.

The thing that no one likes to admit: referees are human. Players make mistakes. Managers make mistakes. And yes, refs do too. No one called for Henry's head when he missed a couple of sitters. No one called for Wenger's head for not making a substitution earlier in the second half when his valliant but exhausted charges were barely holding out. But everyone wants to lynch the ref when he makes a mistake. And most fans accept this hideous double standard without a second thought.

It's bad enough when the refs are being attacked by the participating teams; I'm sure they expect that to some extent. But when even the head of the international soccer federation (FIFA) starts second guessing officials, it makes you wonder who'd ever want the job. Sepp Blatter (henceforth referred to as Blather) opined that the Norwegian ref was too quick to blow his whistle. He added that, "It was a great game but it was not helped by the refereeing from the very beginning."

I'm sure people are used to Blather, of whom it was famously said that he has 50 ideas every day, 51 of them bad, flapping his gums about nonsense. This is the guy, after all, who infamous called on female soccer players to wear tighter jerseys to increase the popularity of the women's game. But I think referees have the right to expect that when they are under pressure, they will at least be supported by those administrators who claim to represent 'The Good of the Game.' They have the right to expect to not be undermined by soccer's most powerful figure, especially when the most controversial call in question was technically correct.

Fortunately UEFA, the European soccer confederation, actually defended their official, as Blather would've done if he had any sense of decency. (I wonder if Blather's hatred of UEFA's president played into his decision to attack the ref)

Last year, Swedish referee Anders Frisk quit the game after being accused of dishonesty by Chelsea's manager. In 2004, a Swiss refere Urs Meier was forced into hiding after receiving death threats when he made a controversial call against the England national team; he also quit.

In both cases, Blather rightly attacked those people who were putting intolerable pressure on referees. He even gave an award to Frisk after his departure from the game.

As the head of world soccer, Blather should've said something like, "The ref did the best he could under difficult circumstances." Or maybe he could've consulted with someone who actually knows the rules who would've told him that the ref got it right. Or maybe he could've read the papers where even the goalkeeper who got sent off admitted he understood the ref's decision. But Blather's decision to attack the referee is absolutely disgraceful, even by his standards.

It's bad enough modern referees get screamed at by crybaby players after making calls that even a blind man in the upper deck would've seen. It's bad enough the officials get villified in the press by managers who need scapegoats to save their own skin and who see or 'not see' incidents according to what is convenient for them.

Referees never have a home game. They never have 70,000 people cheering them on. They hardly ever get praised by the media, fans or anyone else. But now even the suits who should be backing up honest officials are stabbing them in the back... even when they get it right.

I'm not sure why anyone would want the job.