After the interruption of six Ligue 1 games since the start of the season, the government has tightened the screws by announcing several measures on Thursday, December 16, such as the permanent interruption of a match in the event of attacked players or referees, and the ban on plastic bottles in stadiums. Measures welcomed by the technical director of arbitration sur franceinfo, Pascal Garibian, who considers that “absolutely secure the field to protect players and referees”.
franceinfo: Can these measures help calm the situation?
Pascal Garibian : Yes, it is absolutely necessary to make the field safe to protect players and referees. It is not conceivable that the players or the referees who exercise their profession could be afraid on the pitch. All the players agreed that from now on, when a referee or a player is physically injured by a projectile from the stands, the match will be systematically and definitively interrupted. It is a preamble which is indeed very favorable to dissuade delinquents, minority, to endanger our football.
One of the measures consists in giving a central role to the referees in the decision-making to stop or not a match since from now on, the crisis unit will be activated without the presidents of the clubs concerned. Is this a good thing?
Yes. I welcome the clarification of everyone’s responsibility for the continuation of a match. The referee will be responsible for planning whether or not to continue the match from a sporting point of view. And, on the other hand, the public authority, it will endeavor to assess the safety aspect of the course of the match, and that, of course, except in the case where a player or a referee is injured. The referee is the guarantor of ethics, sporting fairness, and the continuation of the match. And afterwards, it is up to the professionals of the public authority in charge of these responsibilities to assess the management aspect of public order.
Does that take some pressure off the referee?
In any case, he remains in his sporting domain because, of course, it was not audible that the referee was placed in front of global responsibilities. Whether or not they are the last decision-maker to resume a match or not, while potentially having on their shoulders the responsibility, in the event of a final stop, of having to assume possible disturbances to public order, it is no. The referee must remain on the athlete’s field, assess whether, from a sports fairness, ethical and match-level point of view, we can continue. And then afterwards, there are the professionals and those responsible for public order who take a stand within the framework, indeed, of a crisis unit where only those responsible for club security will be present.