Rugby Refs and Football Refs

"Earth turns slowly," Fireflies by Owl City.


Referees. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're there to do their jobs, which is to keep a match between two sides fair. But I'm not going to touch on their jobs here. I'm going to write about the differences between the treatment of the refs in two sports, which are football (or soccer) and rugby.
















Rugby-
A barbaric sport played by gentlemen. And it's true. The refs get treated very well. Rarely does a rugby player get in an argument with the referee, even if the referee is downright wrong in a decision. Even if one does try to argue, he admits defeat quite easily. The referee has very good control of the game and the players, and puts his foot down without as much as a groan from the players. If the referee needs to say something, he calls the captain as well as a wrong-doer for a little chat and that's the end of it. If the referee produces a card, the guilty player will turn on his heels and go to the sin bin without saying a word, most of the time.

Football-

Those above pictures happen almost every time the ref blows his whistle. Every decision is argued. If he was the fouler, he'll scream "Ref! The wanker obviously dived!". If it's the foulee, he'll say "You're not going to give a card for that??" after rolling on the ground feigning pain in the leg or head area. A red card will be greeted with at least 9 players from the carded person's team arguing all at once that it's a bit "harsh". The carded person will stay on the pitch, pleading his case for ten more minutes before reluctantly heading off the to the showers.

Seriously, I don't like that part of football. In 90 minutes, 15 minutes are set aside for faking injuries and arguments with the ref, and that's just the average professional game.

Any comments?

Cheers!