Football referee since 2014, Julien Oliveira filed a complaint for the first time in his life, Sunday after an amateur match in the Paris region. This 24-year-old sponsorship assistant left the pitch at Cergy-Pontoise (Val-d’Oise) with a bloody face, after being attacked by a hooded spectator holding a selfie stick. The outcome of this Regional 1 match between Cergy-Pontoise and Paris 13 Atletico (0-1), marked by insults, death threats, spitting and blows against him, once again illustrates the insecurity experienced by the referees. “I am convinced that there will be a tragedy one day,” Julien Oliveira confides to 20 minutes.
How do you feel three days after your attack?
Physically, things aren’t too bad. My hematoma has deflated and my injury (which resulted in an ITT of less than eight days) remains superficial. But I still have a pit in my stomach thinking about my attack. I took the day off on Monday to write my post-match report. I feel mentally exhausted.
How much violence had you been confronted with up until then, during your ten years as a referee in the world of amateur football?
Overall, like every referee, I have become accustomed to the verbal violence that comes from the stands. On the pitch, I am insulted on average once or twice a year by players or coaches. I was already pushed by an assistant from the Quevilly technical staff, five years ago, during a Quevilly-Amiens national U19 match.
But was it very far from the level of insecurity that you felt on Sunday in Cergy-Pontoise?
Indeed, it really started in the 68th minute of play, when I asked the Cergy goalkeeper to replay a six-yarder because the ball was not in the right place. I gave him a first yellow card because he was making big gestures at me and saying that he “didn’t give a damn”. Then I called him to order, but that didn’t stop him from saying to his teammate right after: “He’s breaking his balls for nothing, he won’t have the balls to come back.” So I kicked him out but he refused to come out. He jostled me with his arm and after a few minutes of confusion, he came back towards me, this time to fight physically. He pushed his teammates away and told me, “I’m going to kill you after the game.” At that moment, I heard about twenty times people repeating in the stand “The referee, you’re dead”.
How tense was the situation at the final whistle, after Paris 13 Atletico’s goal after eleven minutes of added time (0-1)?
A second Cergy player had just been excluded for a shirt pulling (90th+7), then I expelled another player, an assistant and the Cergy coach who criticized me for my “crappy refereeing”. But most of the players returned to the locker room and accepted defeat. At that moment, one of my two assistants started to get scared because the people who were insulting us during the match came down to wait for us near the tunnel leading to the locker room. At the same time, a delegate insulted us in turn and a man introducing himself as the vice-president of Cergy told me: “Mr. referee, we cannot assure you as to what will happen to you after the match, it’s not our responsibility.” In my opinion, it was a threat and we felt this situation of insecurity. We had to quickly go and lock ourselves in our locker room.
So what exactly happened?
At first, I got sprayed by bottles that spectators were knocking over. Then I got spat on and given empty water bottles. I was already dismayed by all this, and I saw that we were facing hooded men. In my mind, I had to quickly call the police for my safety. And that’s when I got hit in the face with a selfie stick. I was in pain and knelt down once in the hallway. After locking myself in the locker room, I noticed that blood was running down my head. The firefighters then took care of me and I was lucky not to need stitches. When the police arrived, the attackers had already left so there were no arrests. They escorted me to my car and I immediately filed a complaint at the Cergy police station.
Have you received any messages of support since Sunday?
Yes, a lot of referees from the Ile-de-France League call me and tell me that they sometimes have a pit in their stomach when they discover their weekend club designation. The feeling of insecurity and fear is shared by many of us. Incidents happen every weekend and nothing changes. If I had not received a blow, but “only” death threats, we would not be talking about it at all today.
Can you ever imagine yourself returning to the field to referee an amateur match?
In the locker room on Sunday, I immediately told myself that I had had enough and that I would stop there. But stopping would mean agreeing with these people who want to disgust us with our passion. Afterwards, I understand my girlfriend who asks me why I want to continue refereeing. It’s true that I left for a football match at the beginning of the afternoon and came back late in the evening with a bloody face. My parents will now be worried every time I go to referee a match. So I’m going to come back gradually, not in the next two weeks anyway.
How did you react when you discovered that the video of your attack was circulating on social networks on Sunday evening?
At first I saw human stupidity in this because we can hear the spectator who is filming laughing. And then we see that by heading towards the tunnel, I was moving towards death. This expression may seem exaggerated but for me, the people waiting for us at the edge of the field were ready for anything. In any case, these images help me support my post-match report, and are further proof of the violence that exists in amateur football.
With three days of hindsight, do you understand how this R1 match could have changed in such a hostile climate against you?
Football is a very passionate sport and I understand that. But people have to come down to earth: there are no financial issues at this amateur level, the sporting stakes are still minimal at this time of the season, so how can we end up with such verbal and physical ? I am convinced that there will be a tragedy one day, that a referee will be attacked not with a selfie stick but with a knife. Everything is happening so quickly: at half-time, things were going well and I didn’t imagine for a moment that I would be able to come out of this meeting with a bloody face. When we see that even a professional referee in Turkey is not protected on the field, how can we one day be protected in the amateur world?