January 04, Colombo (LNW): The tournament’s review committee has reportedly examined videos pertaining to allegations of contentious situations surrounding referee decisions in the inter-club rugby match between Kandy Sports Club and Police Sports Club. As a result, the committee has proposed a 50 percent reduction in referee fees.
It was seen Instead of focusing on enhancing the knowledge of the referees, the umpiring affairs and ethical conditions, the people involved in the officiating judgments affairs paid more attention to being part of opposing the previous administration. Several individuals in the field hold the view that this could be attributed to the diversion of attention towards other matters, rather than making substantial improvements in the domain of officiating judgments.
Despite the significant debt burden and the loss of previous sponsorships, the initiatives undertaken by the former president’s administration, such as introducing new events, securing fresh sponsors, and reducing the debt load on Rugby administration, had acknowledged. However, critics contend that greater emphasis should have been placed on preserving their professional standing by ensuring accurate judgments as officials.
“Although the referees association did so, the Rugby administration also commended the Judges who worked with the judgmental virtues and shrewdness and understanding in various matters to be especially appreciated.” An opinion
holder further commented on the leadership of the Rugby administration, which had to face various problems due to political leg-pulling.
However, to prevent the creation of a new bench when the referees fail in this way or to prevent new people from joining the official bench, it is also known that a prominent figure within the referees’ association is reportedly engaging with
voters of referees’ association through online platforms these days. We also received the same message, and the person who forwarded it said that instead of holding power as a group, what is needed at the moment is for the people coming to the referees’ Association to focus on the weak referees’ decisions and should propose what needs to be done to improve the quality of the profession and about what are the suggestions.
*Adapted from original article, “රග්බි විනිසුරුවන්ගේ සංගමයේ නිලවරණය අවුලක” by Nishman Ranasinghe published on 29.12.2023
