les arbitres

Les Arbitres, a documentary about football referees filmed during last year’s European Championship premiered last night at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland. The documentary portraits the difficult job of the football referees, and the immense pressure they’re under while refereeing in a major tournament.

I love this section from The Guardian’s article:

The tension is spelled out in an opening sequence featuring Swiss referee Massimo Busacca during the Greece-Sweden game. The only sound is snatches of dialogue between him and his assistants on their radio communication system.

“Matthias, are you sure?” Busacca asks an assistant before showing a yellow card. He later snaps at his fourth official when warned a storm is on the way. “It’s not my problem, shut up.” At the final whistle, he looks to the heavens and wipes his brow, before telling a Greek player: “We are not gods, we make mistakes.”

The 77-minute film is already set to be distributed in Germany and France with other countries still unconfirmed. Let’s hope the film gets distributed across the continent as we need people to see how the referees operate and prepare.

Update: A pdf with more info about the film. Note the title “Kill the referee” was the working title.

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