Soccer violence: Referees under siege

 A Dutch volunteer linesman is beaten to death, a teenage Spanish referee is violently assaulted, and in Germany a match official is hospitalized.

They are almost as essential to the functioning of the game as the ball they bring onto the pitch for kickoff, but soccer referees across Europe are feeling under siege.

Subjected to vulgar insults, threatened, chased off the field, attacked, hospitalized and, tragically, killed.

What is behind this apparent wave of violence, which largely affects those grassroots officials whose role is so vital in maintaining the development of the so-called "Beautiful Game?"

Some say it's the direct result of bad examples set by the elite echelons of the sport, some say it's a cultural problem -- and others point to the very parents who go to watch their kids play.

"You feel completely helpless," says Jose Giner, who looked on in horror from the stands the day his son was brutally attacked during a Spanish regional match in February.

Hector Giner, just 17, was savagely attacked in Burjassot, Valencia after attempting to send off a player who had insulted him.

As the teen looked down and began to write in his notebook, the player -- a policeman 10 years his senior, named as "Alberto M.M." in media reports -- struck Giner a blow in the face, then delivered two kicks to the body as he lay prone on the floor.

In hospital the young student lost his spleen and three liters of blood. His attacker has been suspended from his job ahead of the trial, for which the date has yet to be set.

A complex issue

That Sunday -- February 17, 2013 -- was an ugly warning for Spanish football, but it was far from an isolated case of arbitrary violence against the country's 15,000 referees.

"All parents will understand how I felt that day," Jose Giner told CNN. "I think referees in the lower leagues are definitely not as well protected as they should be. Those responsible should sit down together to take action."

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) acknowledges the need for solutions and says it has begun working together with the Spanish police -- the Guardia Civil -- to "initiate a protocol of security and prevention."

"Effectively, with the referees in lower categories we attempt to protect them in the best manner possible," Juan Castillo Jimenez of the Technical Committee for Referees at RFEF told CNN.

But the task at hand is a complex one, beginning with incessant verbal abuse from players and spectators which can be difficult to stop.

"Well, yes, there is a lot of verbal violence," admits Alejandro Urrego, a player in the same Valencia regional league where the Giner incident took place. "Referees are scared to show red cards to those insulting them for the possibly violent consequences."

The RFEF acknowledges that parents have become some of the worst culprits in aggressive behavior towards referees in Spain.

"Parents are worse than the kids," says Emilio Jose Ayuso, a 21-year-old referee who talked to CNN at halftime of a youth match he was officiating in Aranjuez, a small town one hour south of Madrid.

"There are a lot of insults from the sidelines. You just have to ignore it. There is nothing you can do about it."

Problem starts at home?

One Europe-wide manner of tackling the problem has been to move spectators further away from the touchline, thereby reducing their influence on referees.

Still, insults have become so commonplace that some refs have begun to take an aggressive attitude onto the pitch themselves, according to one parent.

"Parents are definitely to blame," says Cristina, a mother of two who watches her son play in the same match where Ayuso is the referee. She preferred not to give her surname.

"Two members of my close family are referees, so I know what kind of insults they have to hear, and ignore, every weekend.

"But I've also seen a referee who insulted the kids -- I couldn't believe my eyes when it happened in my son's game the other week. It also happens."

Another factor in Spain is that referees have traditionally been the target of abuse by football fans -- though usually verbal not physical.

"We blame everything on the ref," says Jose, a taxi driver in Madrid, who also did not want to give his full name.

"Even 'la crisis' (the financial crisis), if we could. The stadium is the place for Spaniards to vent their frustration. If parents set such a bad example, imagine how the next generation is growing up."

Bad role models

That lack of respect for match officials filters down from the top teams and players, according to journalist Cayetano Ros.

Last May, Granada forward Dani Benitez was suspended for throwing a water bottle at the face of referee Clos Gomez while his teammates contested the award of a penalty to opponent Real Madrid. The previous month linesman Cesar David Escribano was struck by an object thrown from the stands during a second division match at Cartagonova.

"I think we are all to blame, also the media," said Cayetano Ros, who covered the Giner attack for El Pais newspaper. "It is getting better than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but there is still a culture of pressuring the referees: it is definitely a danger."

At a La Liga match between Getafe and Deportivo La Coruna in early 2013, the referee sent off a home player early on, and was hounded by home fans for the rest of the game. Small children sat nearby listening to the verbal abuse.

Veteran Spanish football observer Phil Ball says it is a cultural model that needs changing.

"If you don't pressure the ref here, you're seen as stupid," says Ball, the author of "Morbo: The story of Spanish football." He calls it a "tactical" approach, and freely admits to talking to the linesman during matches his son plays.

"There's a saying in Spain: 'El que no llora, no mama' (he who doesn't cry, doesn't get the milk), and it's applied to football in Spain," Ball told CNN.

"I saw a particularly bad example in the Donosti Cup 2011 (a youth tournament), when a referee was chased off the pitch by a team called Ciudad Jardin from Valencia. You can't solve things unless you change the culture. You have to come down hard on perpetrators."

Ayuso believes that punishments are not enough -- education is the key.

"To become a referee, the Madrid Football Federation makes us take a course as well as two classes with a psychologist, because it is common knowledge that you'll be verbally abused," he said.

"I think a solution could be to give psychological classes to teams. That way they see that we too can make mistakes. But as it is, you definitely go to some grounds with a great deal of respect. Valencia and Holland are always at the back of your mind."

Dutch dilemma

The problem of violence against referees came to worldwide prominence in December 2012 after a shocking incident in the Netherlands.