Following the FFF’s announcement to ban match interruptions for breaking the fast during Ramadan, a district referee deplored the decision.
While Premier League and Bundesliga referees were asked to interrupt early evening matches to allow Muslim players to break their fast during the month of Ramadan, this choice was not followed by the French authorities.
“It has been brought to the attention of the Federation of match interruptions following the breaking of the Ramadan fast. These interruptions do not respect the provisions of the statutes of the FFF “thus informed the Federation in an email sent to the referees, before quoting article 1 of the statutes: “This article recalls the principle of the neutrality of football in the places where it is played, which also appears in point 6 of the Charter of Ethics and Deontology of Football, which provides that football takes no account of political, religious, ideological or unionist of its actors. »
Enough to cringe … Elias Nassif, district arbitrator, does not understand clearly not this decision of the FFF. “I’m not really concerned because I referee during the day but I was surprised because we have groups between referees but we’ve never heard of it”thus confided the young official on Friday for RMC Sport.
“Thirty seconds never hurt anyone”
“Of course we’re not going to take five minutes in a match, that wouldn’t make sense, but like a cooling break that is part of the regulations, taking 30 seconds or a minute to drink something thing and eat a little, there is no problem, he continued. As a referee, we are there to protect the players, support them and protect their health. Especially as amateurs, we are not going to prevent seniors or children from drinking a little water to play football. »
“The press release is a bit contradictory because we are told “no discrimination, practicing football while respecting others”… Thirty seconds do no harm to anyone, launched Elias Nassif. It takes up articles from the statute of arbitration, like what we must not engage in politics, propaganda, proselytism… I understand, we have to. Afterwards, to say that taking a 30-second break to drink is proselytism… It’s not for me to judge, but we’ll see. »
