In the midst of crowds cheering on their favourite player, often drowning out the instructions screamed out by the coaches and the constant cries for the ball to be passed to them by the players. There is the lone ranger running in the middle with a whistle in hand, officiating the game.
That whistle is many a time the only thing loud enough to pierce through a passionate group of fans roaring with all their might. Their only words are spoken using that whistle they are holding and any verbal words they have we never hear. This got me curious as to what the referees actually said during game pauses, as well as to the players and assistant referees.
Thanks to the YouTube channel, FOX Sports Australia, I finally got to see or should I say hear a glimpse of it. A-League referee, Jarred Gillet got mic’d up for his 159th and final game officiating in the A-League. The Championship bound ref really gave me a good idea of what sort of conversations referees have between themselves and players. Granted this game seemed to be more relaxed and cheerful than the games I’d normally see, lacking the seemingly verbal abuse from players body language would usually suggest in most games, it still was a good indicator in game-based decisions.
Mic’d up referees would be interesting in Africa, especially CAF games where a lot of fans including me feel referees are biased towards the home team or have been somehow corrupted. Hearing CAF referees could get us to understand their decisions or finally get the confederation acting on what is sub-par refereeing. I’d love to hear what our local PSL referees like Victor Gomes, Christopher Harrison, and Victor Hlungwani say during the games, especially in the big games.
Can you imagine the type of sound bites we would get if big league referees would be mic'd up? Referees would start being their own stars.
Watch the video below. Which referee would you love to hear mic’d up?
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