Abuse towards officials comes in various forms, be it verbal or physical and it’s not uncommon to any sport.

Players play competitive and hate to lose and when this happens they want to pass the buck and put the blame of everyone else or someone else.

The first one to blame for the poor play of the individual is the referee or game official(s) and quite often leagues take the side of the team, rather than having an objective or unbiased view or the situation.

As an official I have seen this far too often and it mostly happens from an Adult (I use this term loosely) to a young official, who has been told (in most cases) to respect their elders.

Adults have to learn to put the blame where it belongs, but with parents paying astronomical amounts of money to play, passing the buck is easy.

While this happens in minor sports, it’s not uncommon for both Men’s and Women’s Adult sports to follow the same path.

We often see the abuse from so-called pro players who think they are above any rules imposed by the league and do nothing to curb this from happening – other than fining them.

Money to these so-called pro players means nothing as often the fine is paid by the team, so money to these so-called players or prima donnas means nothing.

Now we are hearing of a situating that took place in Sherbrooke Quebec during a soccer match in 2017.

This following a heated debate that saw the match referee issuing two (2) Red Cards to players for ejection and who also refused exit the field, forcing a suspension of the match with 38 remaining in the contest.

The referee ejected both players for being disrespectful to which the referee was surrounded by 10 to 15 players which now became a major concern due to the abusive action toward the official.

The official reported that he received a ball to the back of head striking him behind that he mentioned he received a concussion.

The Judge Helene Fabi of the Quebec Courts ruled Mr. Meza Lazaro has been found guilty of assault with a weapon directed in the direction of the soccer official.

He Rueben, (in his words) said that he was did not intentionally direct the ball in the Referee’s direction as the players surrounded the official.

Judge Helene Fabi of the Quebec Courts bench  fully disagreed with his argument as the court was convinced that the act in which the assault on the official took the blunt of the impact was intentional of the direction of the ball directed at the referee using force against him without consent at the time of the match.

Mr. Meza Lazaro had no real explanation as to why he committed the assault on the official who has suffered health concerns since the incident and has not been able to work or perform his duties on the soccer field.

“it is hard to apologize to an official when the intent was not for me intent to hit the referee with the ball.”

He did mention “I have no idea why I directed the object in his direction and if I wanted to harm the official I would have used my hands instead of the ball fired in his direction on the field in the scrum at the time when tempers flared and were heated.”

Being the class clown shown to be by his actions he chose to show why young people of today have no respect as he saluted the reporters with his middle finger while being escorted from the courtroom.

While he thinks he did nothing wrong, one has to ask “Is this what his Parents taught him when growing up?”

This is why players/coaches/managers should have to take an officiating course as well as an anger management course!!

WOULD YOU WANT THIS INDIVIDUAL TO COACH YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER??