Sunday, we were at the Boussac – Agen-Gages match in D2, arrived and left with the referee Faridi Aboubacari. Thanks to the exceptional agreement of the District Arbitration Commission and without revealing our quality on the spot, we did not let go of him one step, even in his locker room. Immersion in this world of amateur refereeing where passion and tensions coexist.
It’s hot for the season. But the small bucolic stadium, at the bottom of the valley, green and bordering a stream carrying its share of ladybugs and weaving insects, is fat, very fat. Tall grass. “The terrain is not good! We will have to ensure the passes, even if it means going into touch, I prefer that rather than the balls not arriving “, repeats the local coach from the warm-up. A few meters away, Faridi Aboubacari also warms up his body. He is the referee of the match. We arrived in Boussac, with him, in his Seat which must have seen him start arbitration in 2016. “I always stay in my corner, as far away from both groups as possible“, he said, chaining lengths behind the handrail, even wading a few meters from the watercourse. “Given the terrain, I will have to stay very, very close to the actions.“And he was right. However, and despite his pedagogy acquired on the job, and to which we will return later, the meeting will not come to an end. Well, yes, almost. But no.
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Also revealing of this amateur Football where passion and tension try to go hand in hand every weekend. SO. The score is 4-3 for the visitors. The few dozen supporters – from both camps and some of them noisy – at the edge of the pitch know that the end is near. The referee obviously remains the master of time. But it is ultimately the local, captain, striker and scorer that day who will play against his side. Sanctioned, he explains sharply with his own volunteer club manager officiating on the sidelines (at this level, the District can only send a central referee to the field, the assistants being provided by the two clubs). It’s too much for the latter, to whom the public and staff did not stop talking – even to quibble him – during the meeting. Beret, jeans and walking shoes, he lowers the flag for good.
Well-filled suitcase, 42 small euros, bitten on the ear
Our man in black (in fluorescent green that day, after having chosen between the five or six different colors carried in his suitcase and according to the colors of the jerseys of the two teams and goalkeepers; black being the one he never wears that as a last resort, not lacking humor on the subject, with a big smile: “All in black, no one would see me“) does not hesitate. He does not let confusion set in and decides to whistle the end of the game.
Aveyron Press Center – AP
Once back in his locker room, he explains: “I wasn’t going to put myself in an awkward situation (by having to appoint a new assistant). Regulation time was over. I had calculated that there were normally three minutes of added time remaining. Too bad for them. “
A choice among perhaps more than a hundred that he had to make, alone, during the three and a half busy hours at the stadium, from the color of the respective jerseys, to the control of the pitch and nets, to the screwed-on crampons , or even the identities of the delegates, not to mention the sporting decisions on the ground. Revealing this role as thankless as it is crucial; awarded at this level only 42 euros plus travel costs. In this case, he put an end to a tense situation, although the Boussac locker room was still boiling to such an extent that we were unable to open its door when Faridi Aboubacari had to relieve the injured – as much as a suspicion of Crusaders had arrived on the Boussac side during the match. An administrative responsibility, in addition to a sporting one, which does not frighten the postman in the city.
“Football is my passion. When I’m on the field, I only think about that, I forget all the everyday problems. “A devouring passion for the one who is, moreover, also elected at home, in Aubin. Because beyond the whistle, which he holds for the JSBA club, he is also a veteran player despite his 35 years and his top athletic condition (at first glance better in any case than many of the players on the field this Sunday) or in the reserve team but also coach of the Combes pennant, also in D2, but in the other group. I refuse to referee teams that I meet with Combes“, specifies the one who is well known around the fields, shaking hands before or after the match this Sunday. “Sometimes, when I referee, some people talk to me like a friend, but I know how to tell them that here, I am the referee. “
“Big bullshit”, love and humanity, crucial role of staff
Enough to make for busy weekends. Moreover, only a few hours before, he and his protégés had won 2-1 in Laissac. A place that brings back not only good memories for him, as a referee. Indeed, the native of Mayotte who arrived in mainland France at the age of 22 did so “a big stupidity “last season. To the point that the commission sanctioned him, demoting him from referee from D1 to D2.”It’s normal, I assume “, he says, while in the District, this “ranking” of referees is part of the desire for improvement, necessarily difficult to implement with regard to the allocated resources but also the staff; and this even if the latter have returned at very high levels (125 currently in Aveyron), while entry training into arbitration is looming at the end of the month in Onet (see District website).
“I made a double mistake that day, by giving a red card to one team, even though it was the other that should have ended up inferior. I thought about it the whole match, it affected me, and I wanted to cancel this red card afterwards, I shouldn’t have.“Testimony full of humanity, despite the facade that the role requires. Testimony also of a personal journey far from being linear. Because before that, Faridi Aboubacari had also had a great rise. He who is still playing in D1 and R3, had thus officiated during the final of the Aveyron Cup in 2023, flag in hand. Proud of this success despite past setbacks. Indeed, his name had found itself in the legal chronicle, despite himself. as a victim, after he had his ear bitten off, in 2020 in Foissac, by a goalkeeper then on parole, and subsequently sentenced again by the Rodez court for this attack. the entire community of Aveyron game directors calling for a strike, nothing to disgust him.It was an isolated act.”he confides today, after having taken a break of several months and found “a second family in Unaf (association of referees who supported him).”I love football too much to let this kind of behavior take it away from me. “However, other clashes subsequently pushed him to ask to no longer officiate for a particular club in the west of the department, as several other Aveyron referees request each season with other clubs. Without forgetting, the last season again, this president who verbally threatened him during the post-match snack…
Let’s return to Boussac. “ I’m having fun today “, sends “FA” while mopping his forehead in his locker room, during the break. “It’s hot. And I feel like it’s going to continue to go up. I might have to take out some boxes.“A fairly detailed knowledge of this microcosm, very singular. There is no shortage of it, of the eight yellows he handed out this Sunday, seven were in the second period.” At the beginning I remained conciliatory in the speech. But then I saw that if we wanted to stay 11 against 11 on the pitch, we had to go to penalties. “
Aveyron Press Center – AP
A balance between firmness and sense of the game called into question several times by certain players and the benches during the match, adrenaline not necessarily having only good sides. “ The players are fine. The most important thing is the staffhe said knowingly. If you lose the coaches, it’s much more complicated, over even. They are the ones who most influence behavior on the ground.“While the barbs and other jokes heard from behind the handrail, Sunday from the 3rd minute (!), flow on him.”Of course we hear them, as I heard that a lot of people talked to this volunteer on the sidelines throughout the game. But, I have a rule, I turn a deaf ear. “As he refuses to look at the ranking of the two teams before going to referee them.
Sense of play, training and abstraction of context
A framework that he sets for himself. He who came to arbitration for “understand the law, the rules of the game much better because, (il) took a lot of cards as a player without really understanding why. “However, his increase in skills in this area remains difficult to measure objectively, despite the one or two observations by a supervisor with which he meets each season. In any case, there is no real training other than at the entry into the role at this level And, according to him, the only physical tests as written at the start of the season are not eliminatory, nor even sufficiently debriefed.
Nevertheless, on Sunday, once the pressure at the end of the game had dissipated, and in the middle of half a beer served, the reward came from a midfielder, who had lost, moreover. “So we can’t finish the match?he laughs first with the referee who has showered, changed and who has been served a glass of snack. No, I’m joking. Well done for the match, thank you. “
Enough to get into the Seat, this time, peacefully. “Everything went well. My mind is free today. “
