"Toros, you are a gangster."
"Toros, you are a disgrace.""Toros, you are a (expletive deleted)."
Toros, you are a soccer referee.
Woe are the men who share your love for officiating this enigmatic sport. They have been spit at and stomped on. They have been humiliated, scorned and yes, even murdered.
Toros Kibritjian, a 37-year veteran of soccer refereeing, heard the aforementioned epithets while officiating a Major Indoor Soccer League game between Chicago and Cleveland in 1985. Curiously, they didn't come from the players or the fans, but from Chicago Sting head coach Willy Roy.
This is not a glamorous business, folks. Soccer refereeing is a dangerous job, and with the World Cup making its first-ever visit to North America, it's a good time to take a look at what these people have learned to accept as all-in-a-day's work.
"You never accept getting beaten up," said Kibritjian, of Monterey Park. "You never accept it. But it happens."
While players are often the referee's greatest enemies, others fit the description as well.
On Nov. 15, 1989, Jesus Diaz, once Colombia's most prominent soccer referee, and his linesman, Alvaro Ortega, were getting out of a taxi in Medellin after officiating a 0-0 tie between Deportivo Independiente Medellin, a local club team, and America de Cali. Two men jumped in front of them, pushed Diaz aside, revealed Uzis and put 18 bullets into Ortega. He died immediately.
A random hit? No way. The murder has since been linked to a $750,000 bet on an earlier game between those two teams, a game in which Ortega had made two controversial rulings. It is worth noting there has long been suspicion of drug-lord involvement in Colombia's national sports.
"It is a black mark on our sport," sighs Vincent Mauro, the head of the United States Soccer Federation's FIFA referees. "Unfortunately, there is too much emphasis placed on these isolated cases. There is a real beauty to our sport, a lot of good we do."
Unfortunately, these incidents seem to get less and less isolated. Several weeks ago, a referee was punched and killed by a player he threw out of a small-town soccer match in Algeria. Nourredine Terkhi, the referee, had handed down a red card to Mohamed Korti for insulting him. Korti, who played for Ain Boudinar, struck Terkhi in the temple and killed him instantly.
The dangers soccer referees encounter became a national story recently thanks to a video clip that ran on ESPN, CNN and most local sports show about a month ago.
It featured a referee pursued across a soccer field by dozens of angry fans. Ultimately, the referee scaled a fence and escaped from the madmen in pursuit.
"First thing I thought," said Kibritjian, "is good thing he's in good condition."
The referee had been officiating a lower-level (Division 3) match in the Catalonia region of Spain between Vilobi and Palafrugell. While the footage caused a bit of a stir in the United States, few noticed in Spain.
"It was not a big story here," said Pablo Brotons, a writer for the Madrid-based sports newspaper Marca. "It more or less happens every Sunday."
For the record, the game was called after the incident (Palafrugell won 2-1) and the referee escaped unscathed.
Every referee seems to have a horror story. Kibritjian, who was born in Syria, was once called a "Jew-lover" and a "Jew-hater" by two different teams within the span of a week. But his most frightening recollection, he says, goes back to the 1971 U.S. Open Cup, in an early round game between the Los Angeles Maccabees and a team from Mexico.
After cautioning Mexico's goalkeeper about unsportsmanlike conduct, Kibritjian felt a kick to his stomach. Suddenly, there were players and spectators all around, kicking and punching him. The crowd chased him to the other end of the field before he escaped, but not without lasting memories.
"One Sunday you referee one ethnic group and they're very happy with you," Kibritjian said. "They won and they go to the finals. The next round they lose and they call you all sorts of names - the same people who praised you one week before."
Apparently, the abuse soccer officials face comes at all levels of the sport. Ray Arnett, a spokesman for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), says, "We sometimes here about a parent going after a referee and an occasional kid kicking the ref in the shins."
The cast of characters.
To fully appreciate what these referees are up against, let's take a closer look at the players. Many are high-strung and emotional, says Angelo Bratsis, who is in charge of assessment for FIFA referees. "It is why they succeed. They pour everything they have, including their emotions, into the game."
They are also, well, uh, unique people. A study published in Soccer Journal by Bill Steffen, a sports psychologist and soccer coach at Greensboro (N.C.) College, revealed that more than 81 percent of professional soccer players adhere to some type of superstition. Among those he interviewed, one always kept a doll with him in the goal and another always had to walk into the dressing room backward.
The fans, too, tend to be on the high-strung side.
"Remember that in many countries, soccer is the sport," Bratsis said. "Sometimes the only sport. Wins and losses mean a lot, although this is not excusing the behavior."
Fighting back.
FIFA says it's doing its best to make life easier for referees and very often provides police escorts at big matches. The greatest problems still seem to occur at lower-level matches, where security is minimal (sometimes non-existent).
FIFA is also sensitive to the nationalities of referees and how their presence might be interpreted by the teams and fans of a game they are assigned. For example, in a 1986 game between England and Argentina, England protested about the Brazilian referee that had assigned the game (fearing an allegiance to South American teams) and got a Tunisian referee instead.
Also, Bolivian soccer referees last year began to wear tape recorders to get records of comments made to them during games by players and coaches. The tapes are then used during disciplinary hearings as evidence to determine suspensions.
One recent change by FIFA has left some wondering if it wasn't a change for the worse. Instead of black, referees will be outfitted in uniforms of fuschia, yellow or silver.
"We reached a full consensus that referees should also be adapted to our times and our times are colorful times," FIFA general secretary Sepp Blatter said recently. "The man in black will not be in black any longer, but he will still be the man in charge."
"I don't know why they did that," one former referee told the Daily News. "How much respect will a player have for a referee dressed in fuschia?"
Referees, too, are learning best how to handle volatile situations. For example, says Kibritjian, when officiating a match between, say, Mexico and El Salvador, never smile at a player.
"If you do, the other team will be convinced you favor the other," he said. "And you definitely don't want them to think that. Who knows what will happen then."