Wednesday, July 04, 2018

How do referees communicate in international soccer games?

Have you ever wondered what language referees and international soccer players use to communicate with one another? "Anything that works", is the short answer.
Watching the World Cup, it is clear that there is an awful lot of talking, shouting, swearing and explaining going on on the field of play. But, when Brazil plays Croatia with a Japanese referee, how does that even work? (Actually, in that particular game, it DIDN'T work very well, and there were complaints that the players could not understand the referee...)
The official languages of the FIFA organization are English, French, German and Spanish, but that does not mean that World Cup referees have to speak all those languages in order to officiate, much less that the players are expected to speak them. It was only in 2006 that FIFA brought in a requirement for referees to have a working proficiency in English, which, in soccer, as in almost every other sphere these days, is the closest thing we have to a universal language. Before that, they were just expected to muddle through using any smatterings of different languages they had managed to pick up along the way, and for the most part they did just that, although there definitely were muddles at times, and occasionally quite awkward ones (for example, the sending off of the Argentine captain in the 1966 World Cup game against England).
Having said that, experienced referees are actually a pretty cosmopolitan bunch, and many of the players at these exalted international levels are also surprisingly polyglot, especially given the macho, doltish, hard-man image that still adheres to most soccer players. For example, Belgium's Romalu Lukaku reportedly speaks Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Swahili, and team-mate Vincent Kompany speaks five languages. Many other big names (e.g. Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Arjen Robben, Edin Dzecko, Cesc Fabregas, etc) speak at least four. Remember, modern European club soccer, particularly in the high-profile premier leagues of England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France, relies heavily on imported talent, and it is not at all unusual for a German to be playing in France, and a Brazilian in Spain, and then for those players to be traded for millions of dollars to other clubs in England or the Netherlands. Some top-flight teams (like Arsenal, for example) may not contain a single player from that country! That said, the Belgian national team (bear in mind that Belgium has two official languages, French and Dutch/Flemish) is still as likely as not to speak English to each other in practice, as the safe, common lingua franca.
So, if a Greek referee is able to use some Spanish to placate an irate Uruguayan player, he will do so; otherwise he will default to English and hope for the best. The few conversations that are audible (e.g. the coin-tossing and pre-game administration) are almost always in English, from what I have heard. But remember, they are unlikely to engage in an actual conversation - they are dealing in relatively simplistic exchanges. Sign language and body language are also employed extensively, which is partly why many of those exchanges look so melodramatic and histrionic. All the major fouls and decisions have a pretty obvious sign language indication, which transcends any language barriers, and if a player objects to it (and he ALWAYS does, on principle), then the referee's usual response is simply to wave him away, and maybe smile wryly.
After the shenanigans of a nasty, high-stakes game like England v Colombia yesterday, in which the referee all but lost control of the game for extended periods, it makes you wonder why anyone would even want to get into refereeing. Maybe it pays well? Who knows?

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