The referee job is subject to certain unwritten rules of the football world that tend to keep to a critical level the perception that fans and the wider public show toward this activity: These rules are as follows:
- Since the dawn, sport has been a social phenomenon in which there has always been a symbiotic relationship between athletic performance and spectators, and it must be remembered that the early events of which we have knowledge date back to 5.220 bc. It means that spectators have always sided with the athletes who competed for the different groups.
- Football is a ritualized version of the hunt, where players are the hunters, the weapon is the ball, the prey is the gate and the referee is the tribal judge on which no one can interfere when taking a decision.
- The decision of an referee is against the interests of the other. Whenever the referee communicate a decision, half of the players, the coach and the audience feel some form of disappointment. This is at every level the nature of competitive sport.
- The reactions of the players to assigning a negative decision for them are significantly influenced by the communication style of the referee in that situation
- The perception of the referee’s fairness by the public and players is extremely important, but in football this type of perception is also strongly influenced by the expectations towards the referee, for example, know that he is a referee who never gives a penalty against the home team in the last five minutes of the match.
- The perception of referee’s fairness depends on how the players shall evaluate his competence level, independence of judgment and respect for the teams.
