A football without referees. Without assistants, without fourth referees, without those in charge of the VAR, without VAR assistants, without support from the VAR, but above all without the main referee. Football without sanctions or punishments. What would happen? 22 men or 22 women fighting to the death for a ball, violence unleashed, fights everywhere, blood on the grass… Chaos. But… what if not? «In the ultimate there is no referee and nothing happens. “The players respect each other, they establish limits between themselves and they don’t need to pretend because there is no one to fool,” he explains. Juan RiveroSpanish coach of a sport that has never had referees, controversies or obscure Technical Committees and who has made it a flagship.
In fact, at the end of each tournament, be it a World Cup or a regional competition, the cleanest team receives a larger trophy than the winner. And who decides which team is the cleanest? Your rivals! It seems like an idyllic game, the benevolence to which the rest must aspire, although it also has some darkness.
Ultimate, to begin with, is a kind of American football with frisbee. Or a basketball with frisbee. Or a football with frisbee. The fact is that with frisbee. On a grass or sand field 100 meters long by 37 meters wide, two teams of seven members each compete to get the puck to a rehearsal area. Players cannot move with the frisbee in hand, but they can make passes in any direction. Whoever reaches 15 wins touchdowns or whichever adds up to the most after 100 minutes. It is simple and, therefore, it is growing. Worldwide there are 304,000 practitioners registered by the International Federation (WFDF), although the majority are concentrated in the United States and Canada. In Spain there are only 1,366, for example.
Since the sport arrived in Gran Canaria in 1995, ultimate has been developing little by little in the country – there are now 37 clubs – and above all it has advanced in its beach modality, where the team won a silver and a bronze. in the last World Cup. In some colleges and universities it is explained and even practiced by its spirit, because it does not need referees, although at the beginning the question always arises. How is peace maintained?
«It is self-refereeing and it works. I started studying INEF, I learned about the sport and I was hooked, but I didn’t know that it didn’t have referees until I arrived at my first competition. I had played soccer and I was very surprised. That ended up making me fall in love. In principle, ultimate is a non-contact sport, but we are the players themselves who determine the limits. In a World Cup, for example, you put your elbow in, but the rival allows it, you negotiate it with him,” he details. Diego Lorenzoa member of the mixed team that this November in California was proclaimed runner-up in the ultimate beach world championship.