When all goes well, they end their game by receiving a flood of insults, swear words and insults even to their family members. It happens that there may be threats and dangerous face to face with footballers or fans. But it also happens that their day ends in some Carabinieri barracks to report the damage to the car or, worse, in the hospital for an attack, as recently happened to a young man, in the province of Novara, hit with a fist by the coach. just expelled. The video of the vile act made the rounds of social media, sparking everyone's indignant reactions.

Refunds

This is what football referees experience especially on weekends, even in Sardinia. The island's "whistles", about 940 according to data from the Hague, the Italian referees association, travel to a football match in the regional or youth championships. They do it for passion, certainly not for money: the rates have stopped for eight years with refunds, for the matches of the championships from the Second category to the Excellence, ranging from 35 euros (for trips up to 25 kilometers) to 210 (for travel within 800 kilometers). If we are talking about youth tournaments, the daily allowances go down: from 30 to 88 euros for the junior and very young categories, from 25 to 40 for the beginners' games, with trips that can reach 200 kilometers. And for the assistants, better known as linesmen, the figures are even lower.

The cowardly aggression

The difficult job, if you can call it that, given the reimbursements, of the referee of amateur football championships has returned to the top after what happened to Andrea Felis, a young “black jacket” from Turin. During the first category match of group A between Oleggio Castello and Carpignano in Paruzzaro, in the Novara area (with the hosts ahead 2-0), he expelled the coach of the host team, Giovanni Alosi, for protests. The scene was immortalized with a cell phone. The referee was confronted by the coach who, after telling him a bit of everything, punched him in the face. As if that weren't enough, a Carpignano player seems to have said to the referee, even with gestures, "you went to look for it".

The final triple whistle was inevitable: the match was suspended. The video ended up on social media, it bounced on all newspapers. The condemnation was unanimous. Immediately after, the club from Carpignano made it known, in a press release, «to be sorry for what happened during the match, contrary to the sporting ethics that has characterized its centenary history. It reserves the right to officially communicate the decisions taken regarding the incident as soon as possible ». Obviously, the apologies also arrived «to the referee Felis, in The Hague and the Lnd Piemonte, to the Oleggio Castello club, to its fans and to all football fans».

Apologies and resignation

The coach at the center of the very ugly story has become the target of many comments on social media, with unfortunately also those who have come to threaten him and his family. Alosi, the next day, resigned as coach, apologizing to everyone, especially the young referee, also announcing his farewell to football. "I'm not looking for justifications," he explained. "What I did has nothing to do with values and with my way of understanding football, which is first of all a fun that cannot and must not allow tensions like those that led me to make this very ugly gesture and of which I am personally ashamed, because I too have seen the images but I don't recognize myself in them ». The technician spoke to the race director immediately after: «I immediately apologized. Just as I apologized to our opponents for having ruined a football match in which violent gestures like mine should never find a place and to my company towards which I feel responsible not only for the role I hold but also because we own a sector youth with many young people who should never be presented with examples like mine ». What happened at that moment? Alosi said he had "a second of total darkness, in which I misinterpreted an expression of the referee who, at that moment, seemed mocking, but this should never have led me to make such an ugly gesture".

Bad example

The resignation came immediately. Then there were the disciplinary consequences: five years of disqualification. «Amateur football», concludes the coach, «is above all a reason for recreation and entertainment. Certain attitudes must be banned from it so I hope to no longer see in any other field an ugly and wrong gesture like the one I committed and for which I take full responsibility ». There was no lack of equally violent comments, verbally, on social media: threats and insults, very heavy, not only to Alosi but also to his family members.

Cask in Sardinia and Daspo

In the past on the island there was no lack of attacks on referees. In the Second Category, two years ago, a young referee was hit in the face with the ball thrown by the player who had just been sent off: in addition he received a punch and a kick. The footballer was banned for two years. In 2019 a similar episode in Ogliastra with the referee forced to suspend the game because he was surrounded and hit by some players: the intervention of the carabinieri was necessary.

And in April 2019 two players from the youth teams of a club in Northern Sardinia received the Daspo of the Digos of Sassari: ban from sporting events for three years. The reason? The two, 19 and 17, attacked a seventeen-year-old referee during a junior championship match. The referee was hit with a fist and chased around the field: he suffered a broken cheekbone and various bruises. Daspo, for five years, also to a 37-year-old striker from a Cagliari team for having pushed and hit the referee in a second category championship match. Violence that unfortunately is often seen in football fields but also in the stands or in the stands: the parents-fans happen to be the first to blame the referees but also the opponents, triggering fights or clashes. One of the ugliest and, it seems, difficult to erase pages of the most loved sport in Italy.

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