What to do if you're physically abused during a game
To abandon or not to abandon?
Saw 2 separate incidents today on Twitter of referees having drinks thrown at them from the crowd.
Takeaway: As referees, we always learn that what’s most important is the safety of the players. But that’s not actually completely right. What’s most important is the safety of the players, referees, team officials and supporters. If referees’ safety is in question, the game must be called off.
As referees we’ll always feel pressure to finish games for a lot of different reasons (personal pride, rescheduling is difficult, your assignors are pressuring you, etc). But until referees draw a line in the sand like the 2 officiating teams did above, we’ll never start to curb the groundswell of referee abuse we’ve seen this year especially.
Know a soccer ref? Feel free to share this with them 💙