Ahmed Umair

We have all heard the phrase, “It is easier said than done”. Well, just let me apply that to the criticism faced by referees, players and football in general from the sports journalists and the football “pundits”. Speaking of football pundits, John Motson has never played a single minute of a football match himself on a professional or on a semi-professional level. I am just saying…

Anyways, it is a norm now a days that people in the media will flame the referees for making a wrong decision, a player of diving and winning a crucial foul and stuff like that. And I find it ironic but the majority of the fans will agree to them or maybe they have given media the right of making their opinion. Sure, when decisions go against Barcelona, I get furious as well but it is not like I finish watching the match, sit down to write, think about all the incidents in the game, write about them while adding flame to it. Trust me, I will get distracted by Facebook the moment I sit down on my laptop.

Lets not talk at European level or even Barclays Premier League level where hundreds of thousands of fans are watching you. Lets talk at a much lower level where less than a hundred people are watching but more importantly, it is a team that you have built yourself from your neighborhood or your college. The reason being you will have a much smaller amount of pressure on you and plus it is something that I can relate to.

Now lets hold it right there and ask a couple of questions from the football journalists about a situation. The situation is, there is this team A from a university and you have worked along with your captain and vice captain to build a team from scratch and then there is another team B who are your traditional rivals for years even before you were born. There is an inter-university tournament held in your university and you make it to the final. Your opponent is team B. Now, questions:

1. Have you played a football match that is a must win for you and your opponents?

2. Have you been a referee in a football match that is a must win for both the opponents?

If you have done either one of those, you would know what I am going to say. If you have not, you do not have the right to rant about a wrong refereeing decision or a dive because you do not understand the situation and you do not know the sentiments involved. Just like we all agree that if a player starts thinking he will stop playing, referees too have to make instant decisions.

I was refereeing a practice match before the start of the inter-university tournament and there was a foul and i whistled. But half way through the whistle, I realized that the player had dived. But it was too late. I had stopped the play and everyone understood that I have given a foul. I am not saying that I am as good as any of the referees out there in the big leagues but they are also human after all and there are millions of people watching them when they give a foul. It will hugely damage their credibility if they keep going back on their decision a couple of times every match.

I would like to quote Ahmed Bilal here. He is a blogger, consultant, the brains behind Soccerlens.com and a very old Manchester United fan. I can not recall his exact words but after watching the recent Liverpool-Manchester United match at Anfield (the match was played at Anfield, we watched it at his friend’s home), he said somethings along the lines of ‘since referees are allowed to watch replays during the half-time and of course after the match, FA should let them apologize and explain the refereeing mistakes they made during the game on their website.’ I can not agree more.

As far as players diving around is concerned. Well, as much as I hate it and as much as I have hated some of the best players for it (e.g. Drogba, Cristiano, Anelka, Gerrard, Torres, etc.) but I also understand why they do it apart from being a part of the strategy (which is again very sad, like our coach always told us to play a fair game even if we are losing and that is what I stick by). Getting back to the point: Inter-university final. Team A (us) vs. Team B (our traditional rivals). Full time result is 0-0. After extra time, it is still 0-0. It all comes down to the penalties.

At that point when I went to stand between the posts, there were nearly 200 people behind the goal watching the match, including my friends who have moved from the center of the pitch to there to support the team. As much as the cheering of the fans (and/or friends and fellow-students) pumps you up to perform it also adds responsibility which in turn mounts pressure on you to perform. At that point, the only thought that was going through my head was to somehow make more saves than my players will miss. We scored all four; they scored two, I saved one and they missed one. I was the hero of the game. You can contact me for video evidence by the way.

Anyways, the point is… players dive because they are either asked to or they feel the immense pressure of the expectations fans have from them. Referees make mistakes because they have a huge responsibility to assure the well-being of the players and get the match over with or maybe they are asked to. You never know.

The press, the electronic media and the online media should put themselves in the players’, referees’ position and ask yourselves what would you have done if you were in their shoes with all the pressure there on you. Most of us (and by most, I mean almost all of us), will not be able to do even as good as they did. You can not sit at home comfortably in your favorite chair and say he should have rather done that because my friends, it is easier said than done.