Professional Blog

Today's topic is referee abuse

A specific incident of physical referee abuse that occured in Livonia, Michigan. John Bieniewicz was 44 and a father of two when he was struck and killed June 29th, 2014. He was an official on a men's game, when he was going to deliver a red card to Bassel Saad. Saad proceeded to punch the official and he was knocked unconscious. It is a senseless act to strike an official. The game is meant for enjoyment and somebody lost his life over a player taking the wrong actions after being ejected. After the incident Saad ran to his car and put his middle finger up at the teams and officials and fled the scene. The act that Saad had while fleeing the scene was a representation of his lack of maturity which led to the referee abuse. The 2014 incident was not Saad's first time he assaulted someone. The act of assaulting someone should have been taken seriously, and possibly John Bieniewicz would have never lost his life that day. In 2005, Saad assaulted a player during the match. Since Saad now has multiple incidents, he should not be allowed near any type of youth or amateur soccer events due to his lack of maturity that has been displayed. In the court sentencing John's wife delivered the red card to Saad, because John never had the chance to before he was killed.  Saad took a plea deal with brought his sentence down from second-degree murder down to involuntary manslaughter. His sentence is 8-15 years in prison. Saad must pay $9,200 in restitution and because he was an immigrant from Lebanon he also faces deportation after his sentence. Referee abuse, can be seen as amusing by the fans when the players get in the referee's faces. There is nobody to protect the officials at an amateur game like at a professional game. This leads to situations getting out of hand before any help is offered to the official. Referee abuse is a growing concern in today's wide world of sports and needs to be dealt with. The abuse has gained awareness with a great amount of incidents that have happened in the recent past, and with that ways of avoiding or to help lower the probability of the abuse have been brought to the attention of the officials. However it should not take great media attention to fix this issue. Morally as human beings, we should conduct ourselves better towards each other. Referees are people too, and should be treated as such.  They have been treated as less of a human than everyone else due to the fact they are an official. This outlook needs to change if there is any chance on making sports enjoyable for everyone involved. If steps are not taken to stop the abuse, then the problem will continue to grow and will lead to a bigger controversy down the road.