For the Good of the Game

Greetings footie fans. My name is Aaron Corman and like you I am passionate about football. Not only did I play for more than twenty years, but for the past ten I’ve been working as a referee. Does this mean that I know everything there is to know about the minutae contained in the rulebook? Not exactly. But it does mean that I know a little something about how the rules are to be interpreted.

And for this reason, I’ve taken on the task of sharing my thoughts with you with respect to controversial decisions throughout the World Cup.

However, I plan to post commentary on other issues as well. Because as an arbiter of justice on the field of play, I am also interested in social justice issues that affect and are affected by the game of football.

Here in my opening piece, I’d like to share with you the beautiful prose of Eduardo Galeano in his seminal masterpiece entitled “Soccer in Sun and Shadow”. For his words are quite insightful…
“The losers owe their loss to him and the winners triumph in spite of him. Scapegoat for every error, cause of misfortune, the fans would have to invent him if he didn’t already exist. The more they hate him, the more they need him.”

I appreciate Galeano’s sense of poetic license and irony. Sure the referee often makes decisions that place an imprint on the match. But it is the players who determine the outcome by their actions; only occasionally does a truly atrocious ruling alter this fact.

In the coming months I hope to share my decade of experience on the pitch, at clinics, and at meetings with you, the devoted football fan. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that many players with decades of experience are not as knowledgable about the application of the Laws of the Game as they think they are. After all, how many of you have ever taken the time to study a rulebook?

In conclusion, I suggest to you that whether as a player, a coach, or as a spectator, you should never forget that the referee’s presence on the pitch is for the good of the game. Sure, he’ll make mistakes in every match. It’s impossible to be right all of the time as there are literally hundreds of decisions to make throughout the full ninety minutes. But just try to imagine the anarchy that would ensue without his unbiased presence.

Until next time…

peace,
ac