While referee assaults have become common in Rwandan football this season, Aaron Rurangirwa, the President of Refereeing Commission at FERWAFA, suggests that stringent actions must be taken to end the vice to ensure that referees are safe and protected.

Last week, two La Jeunesse players were arrested over allegedly assaulting referee Toni Karemera after the club's 1-0 Second Division League defeat to AS Muhanga on Friday, March 3, at Muhanga stadium.

The duo was arrested after they were involved in violent assault on the referee accusing him of controversially ruling out La Jeunesse’s goal for offside.

Karemera, who was at the time in hospital before he was discharged hours later, is the latest referee to have faced assaults after weeks after international referee Salma Mukansanga faced violent insults from Kiyovu supporters.

Rurangirwa spoke to Weekend Sport on the current image of refereeing in Rwanda, assaults of referees and his take on what should be done to ensure their safety on and off the pitches.

Excerpts:

How do you see the safety of referees’ safety on the pitches and to what extent are they protected?

The referees are not safe at all nowadays and it’s a big concern for our football game that needs serious attention and quick action. We have cases of referees assaulted on different occasions on and off the pitch in both the topflight ad second division league matches.

They are vulnerable because they don’t have enough protection during matches and that is why measures should be taken to protect them. Their security is key in their job.

What do you think is the motive behind referee insults and assaults at football matches?

You can see the league has reached an intensive stage where some teams are competing for the title while others are battling to avoid relegation. Therefore, whoever fails to get the results, be it the coaches, the players or the fans, opts to blame the match officials for being behind their team’s poor results.

But there are referees whose decisions have on numerous occasions been at the centre of controversy. Are they really doing a fair job?

In general, refereeing is fair and referees are doing well except some people who want to interpret their decisions in a wrong way.

If they can officiate 100 matches and commit a few minor refereeing errors in just five of them, that shouldn’t sound like they are really bad in general. People should at least appreciate the job they do as well.

People should understand that they can make mistakes like any other human being.

Look, there are countries that use Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology and other devices of communication but referees end up making mistakes.

In Rwanda, we don’t have a VAR system to assist them but we even saw so many similar mistakes happening in the countries using the technology.

Although you’re saying referees have been officiating fairly, some footage captured from different matches show the opposite. What’s your take?

Like I said, referees are humans and they can make mistakes but I can tell you that people intentionally take some footage from biased angles for their own benefits.

There are instances of offside footage which can’t be captured well based on the angle from which the cameraman is positioned. Some do it intentionally to expose referees and make them at the centre of controversy.

When do you punish referees due to refereeing mistakes?

After every match played, we analyze referees’ performance by looking at all technical aspects. When we find that one committed some mistakes we analyze and decide taking actions against them.

Referees are punished for their mistakes according to the impact of their mistakes on the match results and we have been doing it frequently.

What should be done to stop or prevent persisting assaults against referees?

Security guards should do their job. There is a fence separating the referees from the fans, so the police should be close.

Serious measures should be taken to tackle this problem, Ferwafa should punish players and coaches who either assault or publicly criticize referees. They should be suspended for a certain period of time due to a certain severity like it is done elsewhere.

Some were punished. We were not happy with the punishments handed to them because they don’t match the gravity of the assaults they commit against referees. Measures and penalties should be tightened.

Are punishments enough to end the problem?

Punishments are never going to be enough to end this complex between teams and referees. There should be a mindset change on the side of players, coaches and teams in general.

They have to understand that referees are not gods and assaulting someone does not end the problem, they should also learn to take match results as they are and bear all responsibilities without blaming any outsider.