What a disappointment!

Yesterday night at around 8:30, there was a match between Rompe Redes F.C. and the College of the North Atlantic in the latter's campus. The fact that the CoNA's team was hosting a football match seemed like a wonderful moment since it was providing a medium to show everyone that football (soccer to others) was still a gentleman's game.

What a disappointment!

Being present during the match, I could see how the College's players showed the utmost disregard to the rules of the game: cursing constantly, fouling the adversaries with unnecessary force and forgetting about fair play. Don't get me wrong, in the excitement of the game players usually roughen up the game a bit, nevertheless, yesterday's game was a charade. The best example being the instance in which an attacker from the Rompe Redes F.C- being unable to stop his print in time whilst trying to reach the ball- collided with the College's goalkeeper accidentally and fell, in an uncalled for action the said goalkeeper stood up and punched his adversary on the ground. Anywhere else, this incident would have meant a red card for the goalie due to his savagery, however the referee deemed a yellow card to be more than enough (guess in what prestigious college does he work at).

Which reminds me about a second disappointment: the refereeing.

A referee should be fair and unbiased in a normal football game but not in yesterday's match. Let's start with the referee's rules for the match:

-Swearing once was allowed when fouled but a warning was to be given, swearing twice would gain you a yellow card.
-Making a rough foul would give you a warning, a second rough foul would mean a yellow card.
-If two yellow cards were given to the same player, he was out of the game.

This said rules were apparently applied just to the Rompe Redes F.C, for which a yellow card was given after one of his players was very roughly fouled and started swearing. The same can not be said about the players from the College whose every other word was a swear word and the referee did nothing (not even a warning was given) for example when the College's captain argued with the referee about where one of the players from Rompe Redes should rot.

Now, rough fouls: one of Rompe Redes' players was dribbling the ball through the College's team unhindered until two of the latter stood in his path and tackled him hard, getting up he retook the ball and kept running, again until he was roughly tackled and flew through the air. Result: no yellow cards for the College nor a warning. However, when one of the College's attacker bumped into his Rompe Redes adversary and fell, there was no doubt in the referee's mind that a yellow card had to be given. The only yellow card given to the College was after the goalie depicted a caveman's attitude towards a Rompe Redes player(see third paragraph).

If there has ever been a rotten and biased referee, he is the clearest example. A third yellow card was given to Rompe Redes when one of his players-about to kick the ball at about mid thigh height- made a "dangerous play" since his CoNA adversary lowered his head to hit the ball. Whom in his right mind would give a yellow card for this action since it was the College's player who LOWERED his head and NOT the Rompe Redes memeber who raised his leg.