BRATISLAVA. It started with a high school poster. It came out of lifelong passion.
Marcel Olša is currently the oldest referee ObFZ Bratislava – Vidiek and is only 35 years old.
He has had more than 1,500 whistled matches and many experiences.
Hen, crocodile goes!
“In high school, we noticed a poster that they were looking for referees. We signed up for three friends. I was the only one to stay, they ended up after a year or two,” Marcel Olša said.
He comes from Budmerice, he started deciding at seventeen, and at the same time he played football for two years.
“It’s a ungrateful role, but it has improved a bit. We were really afraid they were beating us.
Nowadays, clubs are already in charge of insulting the referees, so it will only happen exceptionally.
However, he listens to more than enough. “The grandfathers have to obey the grandmother at home, then they go to the match and shout,” the arbiter said.
The most interesting thing is in Záhorie. “I was coming to the game, it was not even played, and they were screaming at me: Hen, crocodile is going!”
This is one of the reasons why Záhorie in the arbitration industry was settled by the abbreviation UDH – valley of hollow heads. “All referees know what it means, every one knows it,” said Marcel Olša.
He also experienced insult
Throughout his career, sand in the regional competition, he was not attracted to the higher competitions. He had various other duties, taught at university, often attended lectures.
It suited him that in the regional competition he could be more flexible if he could not participate in the match over the weekend.
“My brother was inspired by me and gradually got to the third league. But I am satisfied at this level,” he stressed.
During his career he experienced one insult, in Vištuk. “He played some Záhorácky club there, even won 3: 1. At 87 I wrote a penalty for Vištuk and then the player drove me,” he described.
The problem was that the key to the dressing room was the delegate. Angry guests fled to the referee and he had to look for the delegate’s spectators.
“Thankfully I found him, we locked ourselves in the cabin and waited for them to leave,” he recalled an unusual experience.
In Doľany, he and his colleagues were on purpose in the cabin. The home team was unhappy because they lost points in the rescue match. The delegated persons eventually had to climb through the window.
Although the delegate called the cops, he was just from the village and every friend.
“At that time they paid us in their hands, but then they gave us nothing,” added an experienced arbiter.
The dog bitten the player
Despite the occasional inconvenience, he never thought he would cough up to decide.
“We have an excellent bunch of referees. Decisions gave me a lot of friendships,” Olša underlined.
He also looks forward to seminars and training where arbitrators will meet. “We also have tests where there are questions that never happen on the pitch. For example, what happens when the ball flies, hit the bar, the bar falls, but the ball goes beyond the goal line,” he said.
Otherwise, if the crossbar falls before the ball gets through the goal line, the goal does not pay, but if it falls only then, the goal is valid.
Marcel Olša also experienced a curious situation on the pitch. “Last weekend, it happened to me that the dog ran to the pitch and bit the player. But just poorly, so we played. I gave the referee,” the referee said.
He had to interrupt the meeting several times for the cloud break. In lower competitions, it is also common that the number of players in one team will fall below seven.
“In one team, there were about eight players who worked at the airport. When the Pope was in Slovakia, they all called to work. They only came to the match and since they were already playing 0: 5, one was injured and we ended the match,” said Marcel Olša.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum
In lower competitions, there is no VAR communication system, but the referees have their signals to help.
“If he is a foul, and the assistant bangs on the left pocket on his breasts, it is a yellow card, if he bangs on the butt, then there is a red card.
He admits he gives a lot of cards. “Once I put thirteen yellow and four red in one match. We’ve already gone down from the field and one player scolded all the selected words. I was already pulling out a red card, but the sideline pulled it out of my hand: don’t give him, we don’t leave!
In the beginning, he also happened that he gave a yellow card to all five players who stood in the wall when running out of the wall.
“At the same time, we had a lecture that in this case the card was awarded a player who built a wall. And I pulled out yellow and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom – all five.
It also happened that he forgot to bring the watch and since there was no timekeeping on the pitch, he ran with his cell phone in his pocket. His colleague forgot the football boots again, so he decided in the holiday shoes.
“Once we lost the keys to the cabin, we were looking for them all half -time along the line and the pitch,” he laughed.
With both right and left
They never wanted to bother him. In the beginning, he was thinking about how he would react if someone would try.
“I wondered how I would send those people to Hája. But it didn’t happen to me in eighteen years! Nobody has ever come to me,” he stressed.
Of course, from the grandstand he hears the buzz like “You know who are the home”, but he just smiles at it.
He loves football and enjoys deciding. He does not intend to end with him, he wants to whistle longer. It also has one curious plan.
He recently ordered new cards from the Internet and is waiting for a situation where he has to give yellow cards to two players at once.
“I want to show the card with the right and left hand once. I know it’s against the rules that they will summon me to the union, but I would like to do it. Just for the fun,” Marcel Olša said.
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