The referee is never right...

The Referee is always right, aren’t they? They have to be, right? Referees are not always correct, why… Because we are humans and humans make mistakes, I know you and I have. When the ref makes a wrong call against your team you feel pretty ripped off, but what would you feel like if you were the ref and people were giving you a hard time about it?

I have refereed a heap of mini ball games, Miniball is basketball but downsized, more mini courts, more mini balls and more mini people- only year 3 and 4’s play it. If I had called all the mistakes I had seen, the kids would have only played 2 minutes or so of actual mini ball. So I kind of had to let a few little things slip, but when I do all the other kids start saying “WHAT! He (or she) Travelled, OUR BALL, OUR BALL!!!” Refereeing is a hard job, and it is even harder when people pressure you about it!

This year I played rippa rugby and to be honest our team was really good, but we got totally ripped off in the semi-final! Paroa and Karoro were tied and we had to go into after time, both teams scored 1 try each and karoro had the ball, One boy who had the ball had his shirt over his belt, a rule in rippa rugby was that you have to have your shirt tucked into your belt so the opposition could get to your tags, anyway he had the ball but we couldn’t rip off his tags because his shirt was covering them. He went for the try, HE SCORED! “What!” We said to the ref “How does that count his shirt was over is belt” But no matter how much we argued the referee still counted the try, Karoro School had won and now they're in the finals! In this instance the ref was wrong and he should have been our ball! But remember referees can never be right 100% of the time!

Another time the ref was totally wrong was in 1966 when the referee was refereeing a world cup match, England vs Germany, Germany was up 2-0. Then moments later Frank Lampard of England sent a shot soaring through the air it hit the crossbar and then clearly bouncing over the line before bouncing back out! GGGOOOAAALLL! Or so they thought… The ref did not realise the ball had gone over the line from the angle he saw it,  and in those days referees did not rely on cameras to help make the decision although they did have the technology! So to everyone's surprise the referee called play on! The protest from the crowd carried on for the rest of the game! Germany ended up winning 4-1, but who knows what would have happened if the goal had counted? After that match the referee was sacked from the rest of the tournament, although something good did come out of this, this mistake led to goal-line technology and TMOs to help the referees with their calls!

Although Referees cannot always be correct all of the time you have to respect them. When I ref Miniball people come up to me at the end of the game and then thank me, which I really appreciate. Without Referees who knows what could happen at sports matches, fights, no rules, cheating, which would lead to more fights.etc. They may not be right 100% of the time but they are right about 75% of the time. When you play a game always thank the ref for giving up their time to make sure you and your teammates can play a game and have fun!