PANJIM:?Men in black in Goa are often criticized for their poor officiating, however referees are only human so one can forgive them for that as even international referees make blunders at the highest level.
But can they be forgiven for failing to turn up at important matches? Goa Football Association (GFA) has failed to resolve this problem for a very long time now.
Velim MLA Benjamin Silva and Chairman of GFA Referees Committee is responsible to address their grievances and make suggestions to improve the same.
When asked what the problem was Silva said, “There are many inter-village tournaments in Goa and that’s the main reason why referees don’t turn up for matches. Referees are also poorly paid and that could be another reason”.
“We do not have enough referees and the main issue is that nobody is willing to come to officiate the GFA matches, if they don’t come what can we possibly do? I don’t think there is a solution to the problem”, he further added.
Silva, who was chosen by the Government to be a part of a study tour for not one but two international events namely the FIM World Motocross Championship of Great Britain and FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil has not been able to study the problem of referees and rectify it within the GFA for many years now. It remains to be seen what steps the new committee takes to resolve this issue.
What is worse is that last season even after two officials did not turn up, the matches were played. All thanks to the make shift arrangements of the GFA. What is really appalling is that in some matches representatives/players from teams are made to officiate.
When asked a GFA official, he said, “It is in the rule book of GFA that if referees don’t turn up the clubs are required to give one representative each from the team to officiate the match”.
But are the players really qualified to officiate the match and who guarantees that they won’t be biased in their decisions. If GFA plans to go by the bizarre rule book it wouldn’t be a bad idea to train representatives from all clubs on how to officiate the game.
Maria Rebello a FIFA certified referee feels that job of refereeing should be left to experts. When asked about why referees fail to turn up at matches on regular basis she said “This could be due to the miscommunication between the referees and the association.
I’ve heard and read about such issues but I don’t think referees will purposely not turn up for matches”, she added.
However, the problem may never be rectified due to all that internal politics that goes on in the GFA.
According to a source in the GFA one person from each zone has been designated to appoint the referees. “When the referees don’t turn up it is the responsibility of the zonal head to report to the GFA office so that show cause notices can be issued to the referees”.
When enquired in the GFA office, no referees have been reprimanded or asked to show cause for their absence from matches as there was no official record of the same given by the zonal heads.
“It is baffling that the zonal heads are given this responsibility because if they do so it exposes their incompetence of organising matches so it is obvious that they won’t report such incidences”, the source further added.
In Goa there is plenty of talent and more then hundreds of teams. However, the quality and quantity of officials must improve in leaps and bounds if we are to witness the true potential of the teams.
