The pressure on referees

[frank]

Cologne's fixture against Mainz in the Bundesliga was postponed today after the ref attempted suicide in his hotel room two hours before the game. He survived. They don't yet know what the motive was, but it's a reminder that not only managers and players are placed under enormous pressure but also the match officials.

[Shrek]

I heard about this earlier, I'm glad he survived and hope he is ok.

[The Left Side]

Yep very sad to hear, hope he recovers.

[PeterWithesShin]

Hope the fella gets himself better, both physically and mentally.

[PaulWinch again]

Very sad, and highlights how ridiculously high the pressure on refs is.

[frank]

More details are emerging in the German press. The referee, Babak Rafati, had come in for a lot of criticism in recent years. Readers of a football magazine voted him worst ref in the Bundesliga 3 times in the last 4 years, he's recently been removed from Germany's FIFA list, and earlier this season he cost Nuremberg a game with a series of wrong decisions. German papers are comparing his situation with the pressures that led to the suicide of the international goalkeeper Robert Enke 2 years ago.
Rafati's life was saved by the timely action of his assistant referees.

[taylorsworkrate]

A reminder that football is only a game.  No one should be pushed into feeling that way because of it.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I wish the guy a speedy recovery. Both from whatever immediate harm he has caused himself and from whatever has driven him to have a mind to attempt suicide ?

However, I do not think we should immediately assume it is the pressure of being a match official that primarily drove him to attempt suicide. We do not know what else may have been going on in his life. We do not know if he was suffering from depression which had remained undiagnosed and/or untreated.

There has been lots of research about which professions have a greater proclivity towards suicide. I remember reading an article once that there are much higher than average rates amongst physicians, but that vets were even higher still - twice the rate of physicians. Some professions may have higher rates of suicide because they tend to attract the very people who are naturally inclined to operate their lives generally in an on the edge very high pressured way which sees some tip over the edge.

Of course the difficulty with trying to analyse the statistics with jobs such as professional football manager or professional football referee would be that you are operating numerically with a very small group.

[Witton Warrior]

[quote author=Andy_Lochhead_There has been lots of research about which professions have a greater proclivity towards suicide. I remember reading an article once that there are much higher than average rates amongst physicians, but that vets were even higher still - twice the rate of physicians. Some professions may have higher rates of suicide because they tend to attract the very people who are naturally inclined to operate their lives generally in an on the edge very high pressured way which sees some tip over the edge.

The availabilty of very toxic drugs is one reason vets are more "successful" at committing, as opposed to attempting, suicide...

[taylorsworkrate]

I must admit, that some of the posts during nearly every match thread make me very annoyed.

The referee is not a "wanker", a "******" or an "anti villa bastard" because of a decision he makes, but a human being in a near impossible job, under ridiculous pressure.  Why anyone would want to be a referee, with the abuse they get is beyond me.

[Hookeysmith]

I agree unless you are a bottling C*** who did not send off Vidic and your name is Dowd

[davevillan]

The guys at the top level are all under tremendous pressure, with the amount of tv cameras at each game. every decision is scrutinised, and then they decide if the ref got it right or wrong. look at the games at the weekend, yes there were errors, but they were honest mistakes, and the refs in question get slaughtered for it. Yet Scott Sinclair misses an open goal, and he isnt abused in the media like the refs are....That was a mistake, just as a wrong call is a mistake, yet refs get dogs abuse at times...Having said that, i spent 10yrs as a match official at level 4 status, and by being a ref/ A/R, it allowed me to be involved at a level of the game, i could only have dreamt about, and for all the stick i took at times, the good games made the hard games worthwhile...

[philthebar]

Nothing yet to suggest this had anything to do with football.

On a side note - most suicide attempts are a call for help - hence the reason they fail - if this is the case then I wish him a speedy recovery.  But if life was that unbearable that he really wanted to die, then form your own conclusions.

[N'ZMAV]

Nothing yet to suggest this had anything to do with football.

On a side note - most suicide attempts are a call for help - hence the reason they fail - if this is the case then I wish him a speedy recovery.  But if life was that unbearable that he really wanted to die, then form your own conclusions.

Agreed on all this, nothing suggests it was football related. And, if he had really wanted to kill himself surely he would have? I don't know. I wish him a speedy recovery.

[Concrete John]

Hope the guy has a speedy recovery.

In terms of pressure/abuse to refs, I think we have to distinguish between mistakes and bottling a decision.  Herd's red card against WBA was a mistake, but Vidic not getting one at Wembley was bottling it.  I can easily forgive the former, but not the latter.