Chances are you’ve shouted at a match official from time-to-time. Maybe you’ve thrown something at your TV following a bad decision, or joined in a chorus or two of “the ref-er-ee’s a wanker” whilst at a match.
But we’re betting – hoping – you’ve never tried to bomb the 80-year-old mother of a referee.
That’s precisely what happened this week in Cyprus. Following a somewhat tumultuous 2-2 draw between 1st division sides Apollon and Othellos – in which referee Thomas Mouskos awarded a penalty and sent a player off inside the first 22 minutes – his mother’s house was attacked. Fortunately, the matriarchal octogenarian was upstairs at the time, and unharmed.
This is the fourth bomb attack on Cypriot match officials in 12 months, and the second on Mouskos: he had a grenade, which failed to detonate, thrown at his own house months earlier. Back in October, a pipe-bomb – which did detonate – was thrown at the Referees Association’s offices in Nicosia.
The attacks come against a backdrop of match-fixing scandals, elevating dodgy decisions to the point of criminality in the eyes of some supporters, rather than simple human error.
All of which has led to a boycott of league football by referees in Cyprus this weekend, with a vote to be held on Monday regarding further strikes.
We dare say the FIFA Fair Play Award won't be landing on Cypriot shores any time soon.
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