“Religion shouldn’t come in to sport. Sport is for everybody and so are the rules,” believes Noel Blake, the referee who recently sparked a controversy by telling a 12-year-old Sikh boy to remove his turban at a football match. As reported in last week’s edition, the incident occurred on 29 November in Ashbourne, Co Meath.
“Religion shouldn’t come in to sport. Sport is for everybody and so are the rules,” believes Noel Blake, the referee who recently sparked a controversy by telling a 12-year-old Sikh boy to remove his turban at a football match.
As reported in last week’s edition, the incident occurred on 29 November in Ashbourne, Co Meath.
“Fifa rules clearly state that you don’t wear headgear at a football match,” said Noel Blake, referring to a section in the Fifa rulebook that lists players’ equipment which is permissible in a game. “In fact the rules don’t even allow you to wear different coloured socks.”
Was he aware of the religious significance of the turban? “I was aware of it, all right,” he said. “But as far as I’m concerned the lad’s religion has nothing to do with football. The rules are there for everyone irregardless of where you come from or what your religion is.”
The Sikh Council of Ireland believes the referee’s conduct was discriminatory and is set to file a formal complaint to the FAI. But Blake does not share this opinion. “I made no remark about the lad’s religion and in the end I allowed him to play. I’ve been a referee for 30 years and in my time I have had to deal with discrimination. I have banned people from matches and given red cards for racist remarks. In this case I was just enforcing the rules of the game.”
The FAI’s intercultural co-ordinator Des Tomlinson said that he could not comment on the case until it is properly investigated, but conceded that guidelines for referees on wearing turbans and hijabs were “a potential outcome” of the incident.
“At the moment there are no such guidelines in the FAI because nothing like that has ever been brought to our attention before,” he explained. “I would like to stress that this boy has played football for almost four years without any problem.”
Tomlinson said the intercultural training currently in place within the FAI and its affiliate bodies does not look at religion specifically, but is rather a more general programme to raise awareness of diversity and racism issues. He said it has been delivered to all FAI staff, but has not yet reached referees, this being a target for 2009.
Meanwhile, the 12-year-old’s father Surinder Singh has demanded an apology from the referee. “If the Dublin Schoolboy League tells me that my conduct was wrong I’ll apologise,” Noel Blake told Metro Éireann. “But in any case I’ll be happy to sit down with the father and discuss the whole thing.”
