Referee blamed again

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 19

Referee blamed again

New Zealanders were rightly incensed about the soccer disturbance at Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, recently, when the national team met Kuwait in the World Cup. "Poor” refereeing was given as the reason for the incidents that occurred during and after the match. As a “riot,” however, it came a very poor second to what happened last month at Bogota, Colombia, when the refereeing again was suggested as the cause. GEOFFREY MATTHEWS reports from Bogota: Unfair refereeing is widely blamed in Colombia for triggering the worst soccer riot in years. Others, however, blame drink and drugs. The result on the field, in a needle match last month, was a. 1-2 victory for Atletico Junior, the visiting team from Barranquilla, over the local club, Atletico Bucaramanga. The result on . the terraces , was four dead and 50 wounded. Almost 30,000 spectators had come to watch the game,

guarded by 200 heavily armed soldiers. Trouble started after local fans took fierce exception to three of the referee’s decisions: the first early in the second half allowing the Barranquilla team’s winning goal which looked decidedly offside to them; then for not awarding what they viewed as two clear penalties to the home side. Ever since entering the stadium, up to four hours before the kick-off, many young fans had been drinking hard liquor and smoking marijuana. The irate chairman of the Bucaramanga club did not help matters when, in the last 15 minutes, he started to wave fistfuls of dollar bills at the referee. His meaning was clear: the referee had been bought by mafiosas from Barranquilla. Another factor was that soccer fans in Colombia, as indeed in most Latin American countries, always take transistor radios to the stadiums to listen to running commentaries on- the game

they are. watching. Radio commentators fuelled the passions of the fans by raging hysterically against the referee. By now the match was a powder-keg waiting for a flame, and in the view of many observers the flame was provided by Colombia's controversial Statute of Security, a law which allows the military to shoot first and ask questions afterwards in civil disturbances. When fans started to tear through the wire barrier surrounding the pitch, troops opened fire. Soon the terraces looked like a battlefield. Bodies lay everywhere and the moaning of the wounded echoed round a suddenly silent stadium. Now a national inquest has begun. Officials of Colombia’s premier division soccer competition are standing by the referee and his linesmen, although the Bucaramanga club is considering court action against them and is also demanding they be banned from handling professional soccer games.

Others say that it could only have happened in Bucaramanga, one of Colombia’s most beautiful provincial cities whose proud people are well known for fiery passions, whether in soccer or politics. It was in Bucaramanga, and the Santander province of which it is the capital, that the April 19 Movement (M-19), the fiercely nationalistic guerrilla group which today is the most active on the South American continent, originated more than a decade ago. Newspaper editorials have argued that the problem is not regional but national, and that the cause is alcohol. They urge that the ley seca (dry law) should be introduced at soccer games throughout the land. The banning of the sale of alcohol is normally implemented only on election days, certain religious holidays, and during periods when the Government fears social unrest. Copyright — London Observer Service.