Referees are crucial in sport to ensure that athletes play by the rules and do not harm each other, and to guarantee that the fi nal result is fair. Refereeing decisions usually are subject to intense media scrutiny, particularly in football, the world’s most popular sport. Consequently, football referees, who rely on their own image to exert authority, are largely dependent on the public’s perception of them. For this reason, the different techniques used to depict referees during football games have a huge impact on their working conditions. In this article, the author assesses how a group, in this case football referees, can be affected by its public representation. The article examines the role of the media in these representations, and the extent to which this role demands a sense of social responsibility.
Keywords: refereeing, football, journalism, authority, responsibility