DURING the semifinal round of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. high school football tournament, one parent from the crowd screamed at the referee, “Pila man bayad sa imo ref? Ako doblehon! Tuo ka di mi kabayad?”
At that point, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu was trailing the University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department, 1-0, and there were some calls that didn’t go Ateneo’s way.
I think the non-whistle that elicited the shout was when an Ateneo player fell during a clash, and the parents wanted a foul. The ref didn’t give it and from where I stood, it wasn’t a foul.
That wasn’t the first time when parents in the stands see something that referees see differently. During our tournament, I got a long winding message from a USC parent of how the refs screwed them by disallowing a goal when it was obvious to them from the stands that the goal should have been allowed. I simply told him,” You were in the stands, I was behind the goal during that particular call and the referee was right.”
To be fair, not all parents are like them, but just like in any other case, it’s the loud ones that get noticed. So, let’s put into the open what they’ve always been thinking.
Referees are biased.
Referees get paid to favor a team.
The Cebu Football Association officials look the other way.
Some referees make bad decisions; does that make them biased? A football ref has to make a lot of judgement calls, almost at a split-moment, and someone with perfect 20-20 hindsight might not make the same call but does that them biased? Paid to favor a team? A ref who does that will be banned for life.
Now, seriously, if you analyze such accusation, it’s ridiculous. Sometimes, it makes me think that the parents who love to throw these accusations are those who love to bribe their way out of trouble and they think everyone else is like them.
As to the CFA looking the other way, let me just say, no one will willfully take over Rodney Orale’s spot as head of the referees committee. He’s the most vilified and he’s been painted so many things. What the parents who love to talk don’t see is the work Rodney and the referees have undergone to change the culture in officiating in Cebu. What the parents only see are the missed calls or the calls they perceive as biased. They don’t see the time away from work for meetings, consultations and seminars refs and officials spend away from work and family to improve officiating.
Has it improved? Yes, by leaps and bounds. When I started covering football two decades ago, there was only one guy who was the center referee for all Aboitiz Cup games.
These loud and noisy parents demand perfection from referees and yet they can’t even act like the perfect sports parents. What are the perfect sports parents? They are the ones who stay in the background, don’t meddle with team decisions and especially don’t yell baseless accusations at the referees.
Those who demand perfection from the referees must conduct themselves perfectly too.