Excerpt from The Rules of the Game by Pierluigi Colina
“One evening, while we were sitting alongside each other in the stalls at the Ariston theatre in San Remo, both about to receive a prize, Edgar Davids, a man of few words, but a man whose words usually hit the mark said to me, ‘There’s something I don’t understand, when I go out ton the pitch, I go out to win, for me and for my team. But you? What do you go out there for?”
So why do you go out there game after game weekend after weekend season after season through the wind, rain, heat and sometimes snow?
Some started for the money, some started to get in shape but others started just to keep in touch with the game they use to play. I think for me all of these might have contributed to it for me. I love competition and I love an environment where I can set goals and achieve them. Refereeing has been that for me.
While I am not directly a competitor in a game I am involved in the competition and I am surrounded by the competition. Actually I am not sure you can get any closer to the competition without actually being a competitor then you can as a referee. I also love the ability to work my way up in the ranks as an official. No mater what I am doing weather it is work or play I want to know what is next in line and how do I get there…..As far as the money is concerned I sit on two sides of the fence here. The money is not that important to me but yet it is from a respect issue. If given a choice between two different leagues and one pays more I will probably take the one that pays more. My entire referee pays goes directly into my son’s college fund account (I have ref pay set up for direct deposit). I will cover this more in another post.
I grew up playing soccer up through college. I took maybe a 6 month break from soccer while getting married before I found myself back at the game coaching. Again after my coaching was over I took about 6 months off. I couldn’t stay away from the game and refereeing allowed me to get back into the game but yet control my schedule.
Pierluigi Collina responded to the above question this way:
“Well, for me and for other referees like me, we go out onto the pitch to try and help the real competitors, the players, to play in full respect of the rules and therefore to play in the best possible way. Usually people play best when the rules are respected. The most spectacular games are those in which few fouls are committed, those in which the game isn’t interrupted continually and the pace is kept at a high tempo.
The referee is the person who helps the teams put on a show….”
So what are the reasons you are refereeing….
Tags: Pierluigi Collina, Ref, Referee, referee pay, Soccer, Soccer Ref, Soccer Referee
