‘Sometimes players call me Mr Ref' - PSL referee Akhona Makalima BraMahlatse
When you see Premier Soccer League referee Akhona Makalima flash a brief smile during the match, it is probably because one of the players has shouted “Mr Ref” in her direction.
“Some of the funny moments are when players don’t know what to call me. I am called ‘Mr Ref’, ‘Ma'am Ref’ or ‘Ausi Ref’, or whatever comes to their mind, and I find it very funny,” said Makalina who calls herself “SheRef”. “I remember the other day I was doing a women’s game in the Hollywoodbets Super League, and one of the players called me Mr Ref and I was like, 'girl I am not Mr Ref'.
“You will get a lot of those heated moments when players are unhappy with your decisions, but I don’t give them that space. There are things that I demand from players and I tell them 'you can’t just shout at me like that'. “There are people who are going to doubt you but you don’t have control of that, the most important thing is to never doubt yourself.
“As a referee, it is about whether you have passed your fitness tests or are you performing on the field? But unfortunately I still get stupid comments [from people saying the] players were distracted [by her presence] and could not focus because there is a woman on the field. We get those negative comments, but we rise above them.”“It is not about what people think about me, it is about what I think about myself, because I don’t have control over what people think of me.
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