No talk about referees

Roberto Rosetti

When you come onto the football ground, the eyes of the fans are direc- ted on twenty-two men dressed in shorts, ready to wager the score. Then there are the other three, dressed in black, holding whistles and flags. It’s doubtful that anyone has come to the stadium to see them; yet, without them, nothing can begin. It might seem a sad fate, that of a referee, often the scapegoat for the bad results of one’s favourites, exposed to ridicule, always in the eye of the storm despite the apparent invisibility.

One of the greatest Italian referees, Roberto Rosetti, knows this mecha- nism very well, and his excellent career on the pitch had a difficult and delicate moment when, during the South African World Cup, his missed whistle became for an instant the most famous whistle in the world. Ar- gentina - Mexico, in the round of sixteen, the offside goal of Argentinian Tevez considered valid: the fate of a match and millions of fans changes.

Roberto Rosetti’s story begins here, from this error broadcast worldwi- de, but before arriving at that twenty-fifth minute of the first half there is a life of training, preparation, hard work and provincial playing fields. In this book, Rosetti narrates what it means to be a great international referee. For better or worse.