Madrid and Marseille lead anti-referee epidemic but no officials means no game

The Guardian

27-02-2025

It was so refreshing to hear one of the world's best players defend referees last week. Real Madrid's Federico Valverde reminded us that officials are people too – just like us. If you prick Darren Cann, does he not bleed?
'I'm not one to judge the referee,' Valverde said in the press conference before Madrid's victory over Manchester City. 'We are all human and we can make mistakes. Referees are also criticised a lot and when they do things well, they are not flattered either.'
Pity then that within the hour he had gone on X to apologise, or at least clarify, why he hadn't (yes, hadn't) criticised referees during the presser.
'I don't want anyone to misunderstand me, but above all I want to clarify for our fans: if today I don't talk about the refereeing we are suffering it is because I KNOW MYSELF, and I must focus on tomorrow. Everyone has seen what is happening to us in this league, and I don't forget it, but now we have to focus on tomorrow, and I will be 100% as I have always been.'
That pressure may have come from the angry bit of the Madrid internet fanbase – I don't know them well but I look forward to making their acquaintance after this article is published.
Or it's not inconceivable that it came from the club. Madrid are convinced the refs are against them, to the point where they sent a letter to the Spanish Football Federation and the government claiming that the 'Spanish officiating system is completely biased' and 'structurally designed to protect itself' with backing from disciplinary committees under the federation.
The decision that tipped them over the edge was Espanyol's Carlos Romero only being booked for a pretty wild lunge on Kylian Mbappé before going on to score the winner in their La Liga game this month. If I supported Madrid I'd have been annoyed, but for the club to write to the government – this is really helpful stuff guys. What football really needs is some liquid paraffin poured on to the online conspiracy theories from probably the biggest club in the world.
Madrid are not alone. The Marseille president, Pablo Longoria, has just been given a 15-game ban for accusing French referees of corruption after a defeat by Auxerre last Saturday: 'This is corruption! I've never seen anything like it. You can write it down: Pablo Longoria says it's corruption.'
It is hard to be sure, but it sounds as if he thinks it's corruption – at least he thought it was corruption. Longoria later backtracked: 'Everyone explained to me what it [corruption] meant in French, because in Spanish it has a broader meaning.' Does chinny reckon have a broader meaning in Spanish too?
Meanwhile over in Turkey, the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic was drafted in to officiate Monday's Istanbul derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.
Subsequently Trabzonspor made an official request for Vincic to officiate their games against Fenerbahce and Galatasaray. The Besiktas president, Serdal Adali, has also requested foreign referees for the same opposition.
Fortunately for Vincic, Besiktas haven't personally requested him. How much time does he want to spend in Turkey? Doesn't he have Slovenian games to ref? Slovenian places to be?
It is clearly unworkable for clubs to request who referees their games – not to mention what it says about Turkish clubs' attitudes to their own officials.
The real-life consequence is referees being targeted online and in person.
Of course, this isn't new. Anders Frisk retired after receiving threats from Chelsea fans in the wake of that 2005 Champions League last-16, first-leg defeat by Barcelona. The Swiss ref Urs Meier spent 10 days in hiding after the Sun printed his email address after England's defeat by Portugal in 2004.
But how many people who may want to take up refereeing, and who may be really good at it, will be put off by what's happening now?
In late 2023, Uefa announced that across Europe there was a shortfall of about 40,000 referees. Meanwhile according to 2024 data published by the Football Association at grassroots level, allegations relating to the assault and attempted assault of match officials increased by 32% from 2022-23.
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So what should we do about it? Clearly there are sanctions that governing bodies can take. But the responsibility lies with all of us.
Managers should stop criticising refs in their post-match interviews, deflecting from their teams' mistakes. Broadcasters should think about their content. Sure, you can fill hours with a former ref saying: 'Yeh that should have been a red, Sam Barrott will be disappointed with that.' But who's doing the show on all the correct decisions?
And some decisions are worth talking about: you can't review last weekend's Everton v Manchester United game without talking about the Ashley Young penalty overturn. Sensible criticism of real issues – the implementation of VAR, diversity within the PGMOL, the handball law – are important.
Supporters in the ground and online have to hold their tongues in the heat of the moment. Of course that is virtually impossible – a ground full of 30,000 partial people is not a place of logic; you remember the injustices, you forget the luck.
Amateur footballers have to take a beat when a ref makes a bad call. Say nothing. Just look up to sky and think happy thoughts. I have complained countless times to refs – never abusively. Once one stopped me to say he'd just read a previous column I'd written on the Respect campaign. We both laughed but it's instinctive. I'm an average player, I make bad decisions on the pitch all the time – I can't expect the person officiating my game to be elite.
People talk of the football family but attitudes to officials show just how much the game at almost every level is dictated by self-interest, exacerbated by bad-faith actors using their power or their platform or social media to deflect from their mistakes or shortcomings.
There will be very occasional cases of referees fixing games, as there are with players, but that does not prove endless baseless accusations just because the VAR once went to a Watford game.
It is simple: no ref means no game and if major stakeholders within football insist on putting themselves above the trust in the institution of refereeing, then this situation is only going to get worse.
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