Amateur sports referee - Who can I share my feelings with?
Most of the current amateur sports referees are officials of the sports sector, physical education teachers of general or professional schools. Most of them are referees because of their passion, because income is only a secondary matter. Referees are considered “kings” because they hold the right to decide in sports matches. However, according to many referees, even though it is only a part-time job, they are passionate about it, so they “live and die” because this “serving a hundred families” job is very ungrateful.
(Baonghean)Most of the current amateur sports referees are officials of the sports sector, physical education teachers of general or professional schools. Most of them are referees because of their passion, because income is only a secondary matter. Referees are considered “kings” because they hold the right to decide in sports matches. However, according to many referees, even though it is only a part-time job, they are passionate about it, so they “live and die” because this “serving a hundred families” job is very ungrateful.
Mr. Lo Trung Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that referees are an important and indispensable factor in every match. However, they are not always treated fairly, especially referees in grassroots sports tournaments.
First of all, the policy is too low. Currently, football referees are paid from 50,000 to 100,000 VND per match. Meanwhile, martial arts, badminton or athletics are calculated by session with a maximum of 50,000 VND/session per referee. In Nghe An, there are currently many national-level referees for sports such as football, volleyball, and martial arts. Although the salary for each provincial football or volleyball match is much lower than that of national tournaments, perhaps that is not too important because participating in the management of local tournaments is not only a duty and responsibility but also the affection they have for their homeland.
Referee of the 2012 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament. Photo: N.D.C
However, for referees working in the province's amateur tournaments, this is a matter worth considering. Many brothers confided that the current salary is probably the lowest of all professions. For referees who are teachers, the unreasonableness is even greater. Mr. Chau Nam Hung - Physical Education teacher at Hung Thai Nghia Secondary School said that referee wages are lower than teaching wages, so when being assigned to work as referees, teachers have to spend more money from their own pockets to pay for substitute teachers.
Not only low income, the situation of being insulted mentally and physically also happens very often with referees when running mass tournaments. Not to mention the right or wrong whistle, honesty or not, just not knowing the rules leading to harsh reactions of referees, especially with losing teams is not rare. Remember at a match in the Youth Football Tournament of QT ward (Vinh city), there was a scuffle between the audience and the referee, as a result, the main referee and the linesman were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized, some spectators were detained by the police and the Organizing Committee had to cancel the tournament. Therefore, there is probably no referee who does not know the emotional poem said to be by former national referee Duong Van Hien: "Before the match, the referee is "king" / After the match, the losing team calls the "king" "boy".
According to Mr. Nguyen Danh Nam - Deputy Head of the Department of Sports and Physical Training - Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on average, there are 15 provincial sports tournaments, 20 industry-level tournaments, and 7-10 tournaments per district every year. In addition, school sports are also organized enthusiastically every year with 5-7 subjects, attracting thousands of students to participate. To run these tournaments well is a very difficult thing because the province's referee force is still quite thin, and the expertise has not met the requirements due to the lack of professional training courses in the past.
The unreasonable payment regime for referees in general, and teachers working as referees in particular, has made many people afraid to go to work. According to Mr. Nguyen Danh Nam, localities and clubs need to have reasonable solutions to overcome this situation of "going to work and losing more money". Many referees said that for a long time, they have only been paid for their duties, and their food and accommodation expenses have not been included. Responding to these issues, Mr. Lo Trung Thanh said that the Sports and Physical Training sector has eliminated this unreasonable situation for many years by not deducting money from the time officials work as referees in provincial tournaments. "The tournaments take place in a short time and the payment regime for the duty is low. If the deduction is implemented, the coaches will not go to work as referees. Because the payment for the duty is much lower than the regime when they work as coaches. This issue needs to be considered and resolved in the coming time to help referees feel secure in their duties" - Mr. Thanh said.
According to research, the payment regime for referees is being implemented according to Circular 02 (January 12, 2009) of the Ministry of Finance - Culture, Sports and Tourism. Currently, the Ministry of Finance - Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued Circular 200 (December 30, 2011) to replace Circular 02. If implemented according to this Circular, the regime for referees will be better.
Hoang Nguyen
