Argentina players complaining to referee Szymon Marciniak after a foul in the 2022 World Cup. Photo courtesy of CNN.
MARIA CLARA KOLLER | STAFF REPORTER | mkollerfernandez@butler.edu
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where the Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
Arguing that referees intentionally fix games or are against a specific team is one of the weakest arguments in sports.
Whether it is the Kansas City Chiefs, FC Barcelona or the Los Angeles Lakers, an overarching argument made by sports fans and teams is that referees favor specific teams. When a team loses or wins a game, fans are quick to contest that the referees were either prejudiced against them or handed them the win, an argument with virtually no standing.
Victim mentality
On Feb. 23, Real Madrid’s president Florentino Perez encouraged fans to chant “Corruption in the Federation” in the 12th minute of their game against Girona. This came as a response to Madrid’s Feb. 1 game against Espanyol, in which defender Carlos Romero escaped a red card for a challenge on striker Kylian Mbappé. Romero later went on to score the winner in the 85th minute.
Real Madrid’s actions highlight an epidemic that plagues sports fans and teams alike. Fans, clubs and players resort to a victim mentality since it is easier to scapegoat the referees than to own up to a team’s mistakes.
Senior finance major Juan Septien mentioned fans’ frustration with referees.
“That culture has always been present because at any given moment a referee can make a mistake and it happens,” Septien said. “Fans are typically frustrated at the fact that they cannot do anything about the outcome of the game.”
In this case, it was hard for Real Madrid to accept they dropped crucial points against 15th placed Espanyol. The team would rather blame the referees than accept they failed to score within the 85 minutes before Romero’s winner.
This epidemic is not unique to soccer as it is also present in major leagues such as the NBA and NFL as well. A similar situation happened last NBA season, in Game 2 of the first round between the Denver Nuggets and the Lakers, which ended in a narrow victory for the Nuggets.
Following the game, head coach Darvin Ham, guard D’Angelo Russell and forward LeBron James criticized certain calls that they disagreed with. The most notable play was in the third quarter when Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. hit Russell in the face — a call later overturned following a Nuggets challenge.
“D-Lo clearly gets hit in the ace on the drive,” James said. “What the f*** do we have a replay center for if it’s going to go … it doesn’t make sense to me. It makes no sense to me. It bothers me.”
Although it was a controversial call, James missed a wide-open three-pointer in the final 16 seconds of the game, and Denver went on to win the game on a buzzer-beater by point guard Jamal Murray. James’ missed three-pointer was equally as influential in the outcome of the game as the reversed call; however, similar to Real Madrid, James and the Lakers preferred to blame referees rather than accept their own mistakes.
First-year sports media major Isabella DiVernieri pointed out that there are some cases where blaming referees could be beneficial.
“In one way, it keeps [referees] accountable,” DiVernieri said. “Sometimes they need to be reminded of their own biases. In another way, people use [them] as a scapegoat when their team loses.”
Realistically impossible
Moreover, the argument that referees favor a team is illogical and misguided. This past NFL season, fans argued that referees were intentionally helping the Kansas City Chiefs win games. On Feb. 4, the labor union representing NFL referees hit back at those claims.
“Officiating crews do not work the same team more than twice each regular season,” Scott Green, the NFL Referees Association Executive Director, said in a statement. “It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team.”
It is remarkably difficult to become a professional referee at the highest level. In order to become a referee in the NFL, a prospect must have worked their way through numerous accreditations at the state and national level.
Potential NFL candidates are then placed in a database and scouted depending on their performance. This meticulous selection process is the reason the average age of a referee in the NFL is 51.1 years, since it takes years to even get to the league.
Additionally, first-year biology major Lucas Drew said that despite controversial calls, the Chiefs have not benefited from the referees as much as the media depicts them to.
“I would argue that although some of the calls were ridiculous, the Chiefs won on the back of pure luck in most games,” Drew said. “Besides the changes made to roughing the passer calls, the Chiefs didn’t benefit from penalties to a statistically significant degree.”
According to Fox News, since 2022, the Chiefs have been penalized 120 more yards than their opponents during the regular season and playoffs. Moreover, they have also benefited from 10 fewer first downs by penalty on key third/fourth down plays than their opponents.
“Not saying [referees] are never biased but not for just one team,” DiVernieri said. “There are too many eyes on games nowadays and technology to prove bias to risk it.”
There is an important distinction between being perfect and remaining impartial. However, arguing that a referee did not remain impartial due to errors made in a game is incoherent.
“Referees are human, they make mistakes and of course sometimes they might fail. It’s something that has always happened and will continue to happen,” Septien said. “Nowadays, there are virtual aids and technologies that assist referees.”
It is impossible to be perfect. Every sport is a game of inches, and sometimes, calls are so close even trained officials get calls wrong. Blaming a referee for an imperfection might have made sense 30 years ago, however, today, referees are aided by virtual technology, allowing as little error as possible.
“Refs aren’t perfect, and especially at college levels, aren’t going to always make the right call,” Drew said. “Although you can disagree with their decisions at times, it can get out of hand for sure with the reactions that some fans can end up having.”
