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Nick Rosano: To solve the refereeing problem, Mexican soccer needs to address their treatment
Nick Rosano argues that Mexico's continued officiating problems may have less to do with referees themselves and more to do with how they are treated by the federation.
Feb 9, 2012 12:19:00 AM
By Nick Rosano
galindo - marco antonio rodriguez
In the world of soccer, referees usually get the short end of the stick. Despite having one of the most important jobs on the field, referees are almost always the poorest-paid among those on the pitch and the sidelines. From youth games to the professional level, they face questioning, criticism and even abuse from all angles.
However, in Mexico, this criticism, which flows from players, coaches and club directors, is only part of the struggle referees face to make a living.
According to a recent report on mediotiempo.com, referees not only have to deal with constant criticism from all areas of the soccer world, but living conditions that rip them away from their families and force them to live week-by-week.
For example, according to the report, referees are often forced to live and train away from their families and without a guaranteed salary or the opportunity to take a side job, owing to the distance from their hometown. The report further claims that six match officials live in a poorly-furnished apartment in Mexico City, waiting each week to receive assignments for the weekend in which they are likely to face abuse and criticism from nearly everyone else in the stadium.
“If you live poorly, you work poorly,” one match official who preferred to remain anonymous told Medio Tiempo.
It is a rather upsetting story, especially given the criticism that referees have reportedly received from their own federation. Federation president Justino Compean reportedly reserved heavy criticism for referees after the second round of games in the Clausura, which was highlighted by high-profile mistakes in multiple games.
 "It is time to start looking beyond the referees for the solution to Mexico’s officiating problem"
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While referees have obviously made mistakes – it does not take a lot of digging in the last few weeks’ highlight reels to find them – it is time for those other than the match officials themselves to take responsibility for this situation.
Interestingly enough, all the criticism of the refereeing so far has focused on the referees themselves, while little of it has focused on the entities that oversee the referees and their performances, such as the Mexican federation and the Referee’s Commission. Seeing as sub-par refereeing has become more than just a one-off instance, it is time to start looking beyond the referees for the solution to Mexico’s officiating problem.
If the reports on referees’ living conditions are indeed accurate, then providing the referees with a more comfortable living situation should be an immediate priority. At the beginning 2011, the new budget approved for the Mexican national teams at all levels was called described as “without precedent” by federation secretary Decio de Maria.
While the money available helped the national teams flourish in 2011, from the men’s and women’s senior sides down to the youth sides, the level of refereeing remained decidedly poor. This is not necessarily to suggest a pay raise for referees. Center officials net 20-25,000 pesos (approx. $1,500-2,000) per game, a fairly healthy income by Mexico’s standards.
(According to a report in El Informador, the best-paid official, Marco Antonio Rodriguez – who recently served a five-game suspension for showing two yellow cards at the same time in the Apertura 2011 final – made 350,000 pesos, or approximately $28,000 during the 2011 Apertura. Seven others made over 200,000 pesos, or approximately $16,000.)
Rather, it is to suggest that for the level of refereeing to improve, the federation and Referee’s Comission should not only improve the training that the referees get, but facilitate the chaotic life of travel, relocation, and extended time away from family that top-level referees lead.
Aside from improving referees’ working and living conditions, however, Compean and de Maria may need to face up to the fact that their man running the Referee’s Commission, Aaron Padilla (father of current Puebla striker Aaron Padilla), has done little to improve the quality of refereeing in Mexico. De Maria defended Padilla after a similar spate of refereeing controversies in 2010, and has done so consistently since.
Padilla has defended himself in the press rather blandly, trying to distance himself from responsibility, claiming that referees make “human mistakes,” that the issue of officiating is a “worldwide problem.”
 Marco Antonio Rodriguez, the best-paid referee in Mexico, made $28,000 in the 2011 Apertura
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While the referees in the Medio Tiempo report make a point of not blaming Padilla for their predicament, they do target the Commission’s Executive Director Rafael Mancilla, a Padilla appointee. Mancilla is the man referees claim is responsible for the restrictions placed on referees, regardless of their income or living situation, that require them to train three hours a day away from their hometowns and without a guarantee for their salary, since they depend on a week-by-week selection.
Additionally, the referee cited in Medio Tiempo’s report claimed, “Today, the human question does not exist on the Commission,” implying that the Commission is solely focused on getting results from its referees without taking into consideration living issues that may affect their performance.
It is clear that in refereeing, as in every other profession in the world, a person’s living conditions impact one’s job performance. Similarly, while those who underperform should not be rewarded for their work, it is time for Mexican soccer to stop demonizing its referees.
Instead, it should cast an eye to those higher up the pyramid and find a solution that gives match officials the tools they need to improve their performances – better training, and more importantly, a stable life.
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