‘Bad losers make referees scapegoats’
Tony Amit
Veteran rugby administrator and former national coach Tony Amit slammed critics of referees for their double standard of finding fault with local officials and not foreigners, and to stop bullying young referees who are being made scapegoats when a team loses.
“What is so good about foreign referees? The fellow (Jonathan Markowitz) who came, what’s so good about him? He also made plenty of mistakes. They won’t talk about it. We are quite capable. Our fellows are above him,” said an irate Amit in defence of
Sri Lanka’s referees when it was suggested that most clubs prefer foreigners blowing in key matches.
“We have to give our own people the exposure to go forward, without getting foreigners to blow when they don’t get games in their country. We must give them exposure and give them experience to come into the limelight. We must give our own people. We are Sri Lankans. We all of us must think alike,” implored Amit who took over as president of the Sri Lanka Society of Rugby Football Referees’ (SLSRFR). “Aaqil is (Nizam) Jamaldeen’s son. Son and father are the same. Some people are instigating protests against him. I don’t think anyone is biased. I believe in their integrity. I believe they are doing the correct thing,” he said blaming people who are inactive as rocking the boat.
“Lots of people who are out of the system, they resort to this sort of thing.”
When told that some clubs had declared open war on the referees society, he said: “We go according to the World Rugby laws and the guidelines. We are not going out of that. We are not going to referee the way they want.” Asked if there may be a difference in the interpretation of rules, he said there was some form of uniformity since last year.
“Last year we had three critical incidents. Now in the first round there had not been any critical incidents at all. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen in the future also,” he said dismissing the mistakes made during the Havelocks-Kandy match as ‘minor’.
“We have a review every Wednesday and if the referee is wrong we tell them and correct them. That’s it. Only if there are critical incidents, we punish the referee. These are all minor things. The referee was wrong there (scrum wheeling) by not giving a penalty try. It’s a human error and he is a human being. What about the good things he had done right throughout the match?” he said vowing to shield young referees from being pressurized like a fatherly figure.
“These fellows are all young – aged 21 or 23. When Tony Amit, S.W. Chang, Dilroy Fernando, Roshan Deen, Anil Jayasinghe, Shamrath Fernando, all of us were over 30 when we started. We were mature. We were able to take the pressure. We were able to take shit out of these people and give shit to them. Because they are young, they are trying to bully them and pressurize them so that they will win. But they won’t as long as the society will always stand by them,” he assured blaming past officials for not helping their cause.
“When we were referees there were enough and more mistakes we made but nobody came to know about it because there was no TV and no replays. There was nothing. We made mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But by refereeing a couple of years and by gathering experience, then we knew exactly what to do. These boys, by the time they referee one of two years they will become top referees in the country,” he said confidently.
Asked why the expertise of past referees were not being used to upgrade standards, he said: “They don’t want to. They are only cutting and chopping. As an educator or match performance reviewer, they are not supposed to criticize or bring the referees down. They must always give them a hand to come up. That’s how it is done by the ARFU (Asia Rugby) and World Rugby. You never ever put them down. You try your level best. If he is bad, give him a hand to come up in refereeing and in life. That is what they say at that level.”
Strongly refuting allegations that referees were not up to the mark, he said: “They are up to standard. It’s all false allegations. They are all bad losers. I am president of the referees society. I have to guide these guys, monitor them and I have about 100 people whom I have to look after like my children.”
He warned that new people are unlikely to take up the whistle if this pressure game continues. “If they are doing this nobody is going to come forward and start refereeing hereafter.”
When suggested that referees have to pull up their socks since the stakes were high with clubs spending 40 to 60 million a season, he replied: “If they are spending so much, are they playing valuable rugby. Kandy were so wonderful in defence when they didn’t have the ball. What did Havelocks do at crucial moments – eight times they dropped the ball. So they want to blame the referee for that.”
“Coaches have to justify their jobs. They are getting good salaries and allowances not like how when we coached. They have to find a scapegoat. So who is the scapegoat? They want to find the referee,” said Amit.