Just recently I wrote about the tragic and fatal accident of the Methe brothers. This event quickly caused speculation about the stressful existence of top referees. A few days later, there was the sad story of the Bundesliga football referee, Babak Rafati, who was found by his linesmen, just barely alive, after having tried to commit suicide hours before their game in Cologne. Here, of course, the speculation really took off quickly: did it happen for personal or family reasons, or was it related to the refereeing? Precisely to put a stop to such awkward speculation, Rafati bravely went out with a press statement soon after he was in shape enough to do so. Here he made it clear that the depression leading to his action was indeed caused by the stress of the refereeing.

In his statement, Rafati referred to the constant fear of making a major mistake and the pressure caused by the scrutiny in media. This had begun to affect him in his personal life to such an extent that even small problems started to seem insurmountable. It should be noted that Rafati had progressed to the level of international (FIFA) referee, but that his performances in the last couple of years had caused him to be rated lowly in unofficial media rankings, involving the opinions of players. Moreover, he had recently been informed by the German federation that he would be removed from the FIFA list in 2012.

During my many years in international handball, I always took a special interest in the psychological aspects of refereeing and their personal situation. Perhaps this came naturally to me, given my professional career in personnel management and international recruitment. As I see it, this field is considerably ignored, as regards both the ability of referees to handle the pressure during the games and the way the task can impact their personal life. The focus tends to be on technical skills, rules knowledge, fitness, and social skills in the handling of the teams. At the most, one tends to evaluate the courage in the decision-making during the game. But the job takes a toll that can have a heavy impact away from the games. So the personal strengths and characteristics of the elite referees become critically important.

The causes of stress

Whether you are talking about handball or football (or similar sports), there are several reasons for this: 1. the games at the top level have become much more demanding due to their intensity and complexity – so it is much tougher to avoid mistakes; 2. through TV and technology, with replays, close-ups and slow motion – so the mistakes become clear not just to a few players but to thousands of spectators and millions of viewers; 3. it is no longer ‘just’ a matter of pride and prestige to win matches and championships, because enormous amounts of money are involved — so a mistake that effects the result can have huge consequences. Talk about pressure…!

While it may sound strange to an outsider, the pressure may not typically manifest itself primarily during the game; because then the referee is fully concentrated and immersed, so the task may seem more concrete and manageable, and the extraneous worries may be less obvious or immediate. The adrenaline is flowing and the physical action and the excitement of being part of the game may overshadow everything else for the moment. Indeed, the duration of the game is likely to be the most satisfying part of the overall situation of the referee.

Instead, the anticipation of an important game, the determination to be optimally prepared, and the sense that one may never feel sufficiently prepared, may be factors that create real pressure. Similarly, the self-doubts, the second-guessing after a game, even in the absence of any problems or controversies, may be what prevent a conscientious referee from having peace of mind. If one then adds reactions to criticism, whether justified or not, from media or team representatives, the pressure can really mount.

With very rare exceptions, our elite referees in handball (and for the most part in football) are not professionals in the sense that they do not have any other job. So apart from family responsibilities, they must also handle the refereeing in competition with their ‘real’ job and career. Indeed, there is then a risk for a negative influence in both directions, between the refereeing and the job/family. I will not sidetrack too much into this topic, and in fact I am not necessary arguing that professional referees in handball or football is the way to go, at least not until the number of games would fully justify it (as in NHL/NBA). (Also, giving up another career for a risky refereeing career might become an additional stress factor, and an exclusive focus on the refereeing might not be the right kind of approach for everyone).

But there is a major handicap that is normally overlooked: elite teams and also top-level individual athletes have an impressive support structure, consisting of a coaching staff, administrators, physicians, physiotherapists, psychologists, nutritionists etc etc. Normally, none of that is directly available to the elite referees on an ongoing basis, so they must deal with all their different forms of preparations and their pre- and post-game concerns alone. The only burden sharing they can count on is with their partner (or assistants, in football). [By the way, this is a strong reason why the system of ‘fixed couples’ (or teams) is so important at the top level].

There is another important comparison that may not always be so obvious: the teams have the advantages of playing half of their games at home. Not just does it reduce travel for them, whereas for the referees every game is an ‘away’ game. But it also has its psychological advantages. The home crowd provides a strong and loud support for the team and the players they adore. Clearly, this is a special thrill and boost. By contrast, the best our referees can hope for is to go unnoticed or to find a reluctant tolerance for their efforts. But more likely they have to be prepared for the wrath and the insults of a partisan crowd! Similarly, successful teams and players get to experience the satisfaction of winning, but there are no similar rewards for strong referee performances.

What needs to be done

At this point, perhaps some readers will wonder why I go to such length in painting a negative picture. Or you may wonder how it is possible to recruit referees for this kind of ‘torture’. But the reality is, of course, that refereeing, to some extent precisely because of the difficulties, has its rewards. Referees thrive on the challenges and are proud of how they overcome them! It is not an occupation for masochists. So I am not asking you to feel sorry for them! But my objective is in part to
create a more widespread appreciation for some of the problems. And even more important, while most of the challenges are an inevitable part of the job, the typical lack of an adequate support structure is neither inevitable nor excusable!

The elite referees are such a vital part of the game and contribute in such an important way that they clearly both need and deserve strong support, not just for their sake but for the sake of the game. We need them, moreover in top form, and we cannot have a large attrition after we have managed to recruit and train suitable persons. Part of the problem is that most educators and administrators in refereeing do not have all the specialized skills needed. So most national federations have neither the personnel nor the resources to acquire the added expertise.

This means that for what is essentially a relatively small and select group of elite referees, the international federations (IHF in the case of handball) and the continental federations, who are the ones who really depend on this group of referees, simply must assume the responsibility for putting in place the necessary support structure. This involves much closer contacts and monitoring, modern support with technical and physical preparations, but also continuous access to expertise on psychological and social aspects. Generally speaking, a network is needed that creates a sense of making the referees part of a team, not just on paper or as a cliché but in a very practical sense. The national federations and clubs are fully capable of taking care of their teams; now it is time to take care of the referee team!

The preliminary round of the women’s Olympic test event was completed today in the main handball arena for the Olympic Games. These test events generally do not matter much in terms of results, and the main thing is to check that everything in the arena, including the technical staff, seems to be functioning in a way that holds out promise for an impeccable show in the ‘real’ event nine months from now.

However, on this occasion, with the Olympics taking place in a country without handball traditions, there was a special interest in observing how competitive the team of the home country might be. In the build-up for the Olympics, the British team has made remarkable progress in recent years. While there is clearly no expectation that either one of the teams, women or men, will be in serious competition for the medals in August 2012, it is always important to feel that the home teams are capable of putting on respectable performances.

And the British women offered a pleasant surprise in the opening game two days ago. They played Angola, African champions in recent years and normally competitive also in World Championships. The Brits were not timid and took the lead in the early going. They managed to stay even throughout the game, but it looked ominous when they were behind by two goals 10 minutes from the end. But four straight goals, combined with a strong goalie performance, allowed Britain to win by 22-20.

Yesterday, Angola beat Austria by 35-33, so the British objective today was to avoid a worse result than a one-goal loss. However, the performance today was not equally inspired, so the more experienced Austrians could win comfortably by 31-23. This meant that Austria and Angola qualified for the semi-finals, while Great Britain will play for fifth place against Slovakia tomorrow. The other semifinalists are China and Poland, who played to a 30-30 tie against each other and both beat Slovakia.

While many among both media and spectators seemed to have a rather confused idea of handball at the start of this event, one can hope that both the good showing of the British team and the seemingly good performance of the event staff have now helped create some added interest in the Olympic handball tournaments. And it seems that the home crowd will not have to worry about embarrassing results.

In the past, issues related to sports in the Middle East have often tended to focus on the impact of religion and culture on the opportunities for athletes. In particular, the impediment for aspiring women athletes have been the subject of discussion, from outright prohibitions to the complications caused between the mismatch between traditional garb and the prescribed uniforms in different sports.

There have also been reasons to discuss political aspects, including strife or tensions between different Muslim countries or in their relations with Israel or with East Asia, the latter given the importance of continental Asian competitions. But over the past year, I have had reason to write articles about the impact on sports during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, both of which are prominent handball countries, and about the outright persecution against athletes during the political protests in Bahrain.

It was therefore with great interest that I looked forward to the theme of Sports in the Middle East on the agenda of the ‘Play the Game’ conference. To some extent it was a letdown, as some key speakers cancelled, but this was made up for by the presence of an engaging and knowledge speaker in the person of James M. Dorsey, a Singapore-based scholar who also has a great blog. I can really recommend the blog (mideastsoccer.blogspot.com), where James combines his intimate knowledge of the region with a great passion for soccer and other sports. My search efforts on the web have been greatly facilitated by the discovery of his site, and some of the tidbits below have been provided by him.

Apropos Bahrain, James has followed through on the sad situation where, among others, a major soccer star by the name of Alaa Hubail remains jailed (and apparently tortured) for no clear reason, after his brother and other friends have been released. It is also intriguing that Bahrain was drawn against Iran in the preliminary rounds of the qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in soccer. After all, one of the stated fears on the part of the Bahraini government is of course the potential Iranian influence over the Shiite population in Bahrain. (Iran easily won the home game, and the game in Bahrain resulted in a tie; Iran is through to the next round, while most likely Bahrain will be eliminated).

In countries where the population is suppressed, one of the few types of groups that could emerge as strong, determined and well-organized are the fanatic supporters of the top soccer teams. This has been particularly obvious in Egypt, where these groups played a strong role in the initial uprising and now again when in recent days Tahrir square again has become the scene of massive protests and violence. This connection has repeatedly caused the military to undertake crackdowns against the fan clubs and to cancel matches that could be suspected to fuel the flames.

Qatar has of course been in focus after the FIFA decision to award the 2022 soccer World Cup to this country with an almost surreal plans to construct a huge number of air-conditioned stadiums to deal with the +50 C (122 F) temperatures. These plans now seem to have been dismissed as unsustainable by the architect charged with designing them. At the same time, major protests from large global trade unions, such as ITUC, have become a new concern. It is well-known that 90% of the work force in Qatar consists of imported workers who live and work under extremely difficult conditions. The charge from the ITUC uses labels such as ‘modern-day slavery’.

The current uprising in Syria also has elements of politics mixing with sports. It seems that successes in soccer is such a propaganda tool, that the cynical Syrians are now accused by their Lebanese neighbors of blatant cheating in international games at the junior level. In a desperate effort to have better results, apparently the Syrians did not hesitate to insert a large number of ineligible over-age players in their line-up. A somewhat more sinister story involves the family of their young national team goalkeeper, from the town of Homs, which has been a focal point for the uprising. The goalkeeper has emerged as protest leader, after his brother and several friends were killed by government troops.

Finally, Israel has often been found in the center of conflicts in sports, when its teams and athletes have received a less than friendly reception in other countries, or when certain Arab countries have forfeited games rather than having to play against Israel. But now it seems that internal politics is having an impact. A small number of soccer teams in Israel consist primarily of non-Jewish Israeli citizens, typically of Palestinian origin. Some of the players are good enough to make it to Israeli national teams at different levels. But now there has been legislation introduced in the parliament, under which this would not be allowed, unless these non-Jewish players declare allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, and furthermore sing along in the Israeli national anthem which talks about a Jewish state and about ‘free people in the land of Zion’.

Yes, sports can indeed be (mis)used as an effective weapon in politics!

In the recent ‘Play the Game’ conference, I took the opportunity to follow some of the lectures and discussions in the area of anti-doping, just as I tend to follow the media debates that tend to flare up when some prominent case has emerged. This does not in any way make me qualified to comment on an expert basis, but I did find several aspects quite interesting and intriguing also for a mere observer.

It has always seemed to me that anti-doping discussions have focused on a few specific topics: how can the testing keep up with continuously emerging new methods of doping and concealment, how strict should the world of sport be in its attitude of generally prohibiting performance through doping, and how severely should one punish those who are caught. But additionally aspects have emerged.

Nevertheless, the most fundamental question seems to remain, both on grounds of principle, and due to difficulties in consistent enforcement: are there reasons to rethink and suggest that certain forms of doping should be allowed and, if so, on the basis of what criteria would one draw the line? It seems there will also be people who suggest that stimulants that are readily available, and therefore would make it possible to retain a ‘level playing field’, should be allowed as long as they do not fall in the category of creating major health risks. Or one would go even further, arguing that the individuals should be allowed to decide for themselves in weighing risks against advantages. To some extent, it mirrors the debate about taking steps towards legalizing certain drugs in the society as a whole.

Of course, many will then say that it is not enough to ensure a level playing field. The positive side of sports is to see what the human body and mind can achieve without stimuli. Moreover, in some sports, where part of the interest in not just in fair competition here and now but also in historic comparisons, doping makes it impossible to see how skills and abilities improve over time. Many argue that, for instance, many of the old world records, achieved in earlier days of inadequate control, now render the performances of top performers, for instance in track and field, uninteresting because they cannot match the old results.

Some of the arguments involving ‘civil liberties’ do not just concern that basic right to choose; they also affect the entire process of testing and fair treatment. Here one general problem is related to the reality that, although testing methods constantly improve, the experts who work on making the use of doping impossible to detect always seem to be one step ahead. This may happen because of new drugs or because of methods that help mask the use of drugs. It is suggested that this makes the drug testing too capricious and therefore inherently unfair, both to the individual and between individuals competing with each other. This was recently highlighted also when it was found that contaminated meat could lead to positive test results, something that provided excuses in the case of a number or Mexican soccer players and created serious concerns in connection with the PanAmerican Games in Guadalajara.

The reliability of testing also becomes an issue from legal and civil liberties standpoint, in the sense that testing methods may have become much more accurate and sophisticated, but the processes in the handling of test materials and test results continue to rely on human intervention, with an inevitable scope for both manipulation and honest mistakes. This means that cases of positive findings may lead to legal battles that effectively undermine the overall anti-doping efforts and also create doubts in the minds of the general public.

Finally, while It may be realistic to establish fairly clear and consistent ‘punishment catalogs’ for different types of doping violations, there will be always be an element of differences in circumstances that requires a subjective judgment to be applied. Perceived inconsistencies will then become yet another reason for those who want to question the overall fairness and moral underpinning of the anti-doping efforts. It becomes even more complicated if the spectrum of international sports federations attempt to follow WADA regulations and determine punishments accordingly, only to find that the IOC wants to apply a separate policy of keeping violating athletes out of the Olympic Games for periods that may not match those of the initial sanctions. In a recent ruling, the Court of Arbitration for Sports determined that this approach violated principles of avoiding double punishment. IOC and WADA will now need to rethink.

All in all, it clearly appears that the overall issue of anti-doping efforts is becoming more complex and therefore more controversial, well beyond the debate about the underlying moral and philosophical aspects. In some ways, scientific progress may add to the complexities rather than being helpful, and the increased focus on human rights and legal considerations makes for a much more difficult atmosphere in all the forms of decision-making. Legitimate concerns are pitched against other fully justified considerations. It is a sad distraction that is not helpful to the focus on other aspects of sports, but it is an issue that cannot be dismissed and will not go away.