May 7, 2013
A Whistle, a Punch, and a Soccer Referee Is Dead
By SAM BORDEN
A little more than a week after a 17-year-old soccer player punched a recreation-league referee in the head in suburban Salt Lake City, the referee is dead, the player faces charges, and youth sports are left with questions about the seeming rise in severity of assaults on officials.
Ricardo Portillo, the 46-year-old referee, is only the second official in the United States known to have died as a result of referee assault, according to the National Association of Sports Officials. But Barry Mano, the organization’s president, said that many serious assaults went unreported, and Portillo’s eldest daughter, Johana, said her father had been assaulted before, sustaining broken ribs in another on-field attack about five years ago.
To some observers, Portillo’s death is simply the most recent example of a growing problem. Mano said treatment of officials had deteriorated drastically since he began the organization in 1980. At that time, he said, the notion that an official would have insurance specifically against assault was “ludicrous.”
“It wasn’t on anyone’s radar,” he said. “But now it’s part and parcel of what we do, and not a week goes by where we don’t get at least two or three calls with reports of officials being assaulted.”
Reliable data on referee assaults at all levels of all sports does not exist, but there have been several violent events worldwide in recent months. In December, a soccer official in the Netherlands died after being attacked by a group of players. Three months ago, a referee in Spain was hospitalized and had his spleen removed after being assaulted by a player. Last week, a New Jersey parent was arrested and charged with assault after he slapped a 17-year-old Little League umpire.
Youth sports leagues are the most problematic, Mano said, and his organization has lobbied to increase the states that have specific referee assault laws. (Utah is not one of them.)
Johana Portillo said her family was aware of the potential for violence in youth soccer matches. When she picked up the phone shortly after noon on April 27, she said, she was not surprised to hear from an uncle that her father had been injured while officiating.
“He said, ‘Your daddy is hurt, and he is going to the hospital,’ ” Portillo, 26, said in an interview Monday. “I said, ‘Again?’ ”
Ricardo Portillo was in a coma for a week. He and his family had planned a trip to Disneyland during those days, but his youngest daughter, Valeria, celebrated her 15th birthday by his hospital bed instead. “We brought cake there and sang to her there,” Johana Portillo said. “We were hoping for a miracle.”
Portillo died Saturday. The player has not been identified by the police because he is a minor.
“I have a lot of anger in me,” Johana Portillo said. “People at these games — they act so stupid sometimes. They don’t think that the referees have a family at home? That they have people who are waiting for them?”
Her father was working in La Liga Continental de Futbol, a recreational league formed in 2009 to give Hispanic children an opportunity to play soccer together in suburban Salt Lake City, according to the league’s president, Mario Vasquez. The league is similar to many around the country, Vasquez said, in that it gives the Hispanic community a place to bond over a passion for soccer.
Vasquez said that he was at the game when the assault took place, and that the player had not played in the league before. “But this league isn’t one where this kind of thing happens,” he said.
Still, Vasquez said, he is considering having off-duty police officers provide security at league games.
James Yapias, the coach of the player’s team, was approached by the player earlier that day about joining the team, Yapias’s brother, Tony, said in an interview. Because the season was just beginning and the league is considered a community organization, Tony Yapias said, his brother did not hesitate to allow the boy to play.
After Portillo called a foul on the player for shoving an opponent following a corner kick, he cautioned the player and showed him a yellow card. While Portillo was writing the player’s information in his notebook, the player swung at him, according to the police. Witnesses said the player threw only one punch before Portillo crumpled. Police officers found him lying on the field when they responded to a 911 call.
“He was laying on the ground, on his left side in a fetal position,” a police officer wrote in his report, which was obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. “Ricardo was complaining of pain in his face, back and being nauseated.” The report added: “He had spit up a small amount of blood in his saliva.”
Portillo was taken to a hospital, and his condition quickly deteriorated. The player’s fate remains uncertain. He was arrested and charged with suspicion of aggravated assault. After Portillo died, the local police said additional charges would be considered, as would the question of whether he should be tried as an adult.
Johana Portillo said she did not know the player’s name and was not sure “whether I want to know him.”
As she planned her father’s funeral Monday, she said, she thought of her family’s plight: the Portillos moved to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico, 16 years ago, she said, and her father had worked for a furniture company ever since. Her parents divorced about nine years ago, she said, but her father found happiness in his three grandchildren and loved being part of the local soccer scene.
Even after his previous assault, he brushed aside his family’s requests to consider giving up officiating. Johana Portillo said that left her concerned for her father’s safety, though she said she never imagined a player doing what this player did.
“Maybe he is a boy, but he was old enough to do what he did, so he must be old enough to be responsible and take the consequences,” she said.
“Maybe he didn’t mean to kill him. But he meant to hurt him. And because of that, he has to be responsible. He changed everything. He changed all our lives.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/sports/soccer/death-of-soccer-referee-ricardo-portillo-raises-questions-about-assaults-on-officials.html?hp