Londrina, 1985. A 13-year-old boy watches an amateur football game close to his home. The referee did not show up and he was called to put order in the duel. It went well and started a road that will bring him, decades later, a record number of matches refereed in the Brazilian Championship, a Copa America final, aggression, polemics and even shots. At age 44, Heber Lopes started last week his final season. He will hang up his whistle in July 2017, at 45 years of age, 22 of them dedicated to professional football.
Heber Lopes agreed to speak to the GloboEsporte.com about everything, from his bald head designed in a New Year's Eve 15 years ago to his favourite team, Londrina, which he asked the Referees Committee not to referee any of their games. The final of the Copa America, the Chilean and Argentine claims, the penalty missed by Messi "almost out of the stadium" and the lie about the party with women published by a Peruvian newspaper are still in memory. With 312 games refereed in the Brazilian Championship (a record!), four Cup finals in Brazil, 103 FIFA and CONMEBOL matches, Lopes remembered his long career. From his start in the Village Playground in Londrina, where, as a teenager, he was nicknamed "Satan" (note: he does not like that nickname received when his brother called him so after he escaped a punishment), security guaranteed by gun shots of an 80-year-old or going through tense moments in futsal in Parana, where he was assaulted by a coach and fans in Arapongas to professional football. His memories of his mother - Ursulina Lopes - who died in 2012, are many. From the opposition to the referee work in the beginning to the full support afterwards. The loss of his father - Fonseca Lopes – in the same year as his mother, still hurts. His power comes a lot from his marriage to Ana Paula Lopes, his wife who has suffered a lot watching her husband's games and consequently the traditional criticism of the referees. Today, Heber advises her not to watch his games, so she can stay away from tranquilizers. In the final stretch of his career, Lopes is already planning the next step. He is studying journalism, being close to the graduation and will apply for a job as refereeing commentator. But he opens the door and becoming a coach is one of the possibilities. "Why not?" he said. After all, football is always complicated.
- The beginning in the village football.
- I have not been so privileged in my childhood with respect to the financial part, but I had good orientation in education. I started very early, in the village football in 1985, when I was only 13-year-old. The beginning was by chance; I never imagined being a football referee. I refereed a game of Revisora, a team of a company that plays to this day on Saturdays. Jose Prestes, who is today the owner of the company, was the person who gave me the whistle. On that Saturday, the person who was supposed to referee missed. I was around the field and Jose handed me the whistle. At first I was afraid, but I did well. The next Saturday, the referee showed up, but they said "No, put Heber to whistle." My mother had a little trepidation at the time. They were in the amateur championships and I have been assaulted. Those fields had no fences and occasionally we had serious things like physical aggression.
- What have you learned refereeing in the village football that helped you later?
- I learned to survive, in the good sense of the word, of course. I went through strong moves, complaints, fights, shootings. Here I learned a lot in the subject part. When I got to referee the Brazilian Championship, it did not scare me much, because I said, man, who referees in the village football, referees anywhere on the planet. It was a very helpful lesson.
- Security guaranteed with gun shots by an 80-year-old lady.
- The village football had some sensational stories. One of the coolest person was the owner, Ana, which was at that time about 75-80 years old. She was one of the people who helped me in the beginning. When there were problems, she was coming here armed and guaranteed my security with gun shots, in spite of her being 75-80 years old. There are many stories, things that today make us laugh, but at the time it was very serious. Thank God we did not have any major problems. But here in the village football it was very difficult, the field was open, did not have much security. We had skilful players, but also violent actions. Everything was more difficult. The village football had this reputation, many people used to say that "if you did not play in the village football, you did not play anywhere." So we had this protection. I will be honest, without it, it would be impossible to referee football here in the Village Playground. If you do not have the cooperation and assistance of this security, it would be very difficult to finish a game.
- Your mother, who was against refereeing at the beginning, started to follow you from the fence.
- My mother was totally against it because she thought it was too much for me. But my brother, who was doing karate, provided support, saying that the sport was a good way. And, thank God, my mother could see me refereeing important games before passing away in 2012. She took me to many games when I was not driving. She was on the fence and heard exalted fans cursing me.
- You asked not to referee your favourite team.
- I live for forty years in Londrina. Before becoming a CBF referee, I followed many games of my home club and I have a great respect for them. Professionally I could whistle, yes. But I try to avoid. I asked our chairman Sergio Correa to not only avoid any games of Londrina, but also games of any team that is competing with Londrina. I always warn Sergio not to put me on these games, being a resident of the city and having friends who were leaders, presidents, players, former players. Because Londrina, despite being a city with over 600,000 people, is small. Everyone knows everyone in football.
- Aggression in indoor football in 1991.
- Our indoor football here has been very strong, now is not so much, but it was. At the time, it was a championship with 25 to 30 clubs. I was assistant referee in a game in Arapongas. The referee was Valter Luis, popular here in Londrina. A player kicked an opponent and the other elbowed him. I witnessed the incident. I called Valter over and reported the assault. He could have sent off the visitor player first and then the local player. He applied the rules, but lacked a little procedure. He sent off the local player first and the crowd understood that only the home team player would be expelled. He then moved towards the other side of the court to send off the visitor player, but the crowd invaded the pitch. I ran away and went into a tunnel. I got hit in the back and in the buttocks. It was a lesson. Later I met the person who assaulted me (Altair Sartori). He was in the locker room and was only joy and laughter. But I took it as a lesson, as a good teaching. Of course, I am totally against aggression, not only in football as in any industry. Then it was funny, but it was difficult, because I even thought to stop refereeing. To the young referees I say they have to be persistent because now comes a stone but then you can see a flower.
- I went to Italy in 1991 to try to referee. Once there, they opened the doors to me, but I would have had to start at the base category. I thought, here in Brazil I was already refereeing adult games, so I will not give that up. I did not have Italian citizenship. I started washing dishes and then I worked two years as a waiter.
- The referee routine.
- Watchin games is a must, to see the profile of the athletes, the tactical schemes, knowing how a team plays. The preparation has to be a different thing because I recently completed 44 years. 25 is one thing, 35 is another. I thank God for helping me to avoid any serious injuries, just muscle. If you go out on Monday to have a wine with friends, you know that on Tuesday and Wednesday you have to recover what was lost. Eating carbohydrate and salad the day before the games and, of course, having a good night. I have been very rebellious in this regard, but today it is no longer possible to disregard it. It is almost the life of a professional athlete, only that we are amateurs. Each referee has its procedure. I, for one, have physiotherapist and nutritionist. The Santa Catarina Federation, through the President, Dr. Delfim, opened the door for me. But 90% of my colleagues do not have this support. No doubt, with the professionalization, the income would be much better.
- Professional refereeing.
- In the past five years, I was pleased to sign a contract with the Santa Catarina Federation, which gives me an important support within the financial and social follow-up. But most referees do not. Most have to have another job. But it is difficult for a referee to work in a company since he often travels Tuesday to a game back Thursday and Friday already has to leave again for another game. So it would be important to introduce professionalization, so that the referees had all the support mental and physical. No doubt we would have better training and more quality on the playing field.
- Bald head.
- At the end of 2001, actually the New Year's Eve 2002, I was in the house of my mother and I said: I will make a surprise, I will shave my head. I took the little machine there and on the way it crashed. I said, now what do I do? Then I picked up the razor and I went to zero. It took me almost an hour. Today I do it in five minutes. I do it myself. They told me "you are crazy!”, because my hair was long to the shoulder. Many said that I wanted to copy Collina, but Collina refereed the World Cup final in the middle of the following year. Soon after I shaved my head I refereed Rio – Sao Paulo, match televised live.And then immediately had the Rio-São Paulo Tournament. And I did a television set. The late Armando Marques, who was very important in my career, nearly had a heart attack. After that I never let my hair grow. Since that New Year's Eve I always shave my hair before the games and it turned into routine. If I do not do it, it looks like I am missing something.
- What are the best games to referee?
- Copa Libertadores is better because the players play more, they do not get complicated. Sometimes, a player is fouled, gets up and go play. It's a different spirit. We do not referee games with Brazilian teams, only from other countries. When you look at the clock 15 minutes have already passed, then you look again and already passed 30. The games flow more. And with Brazilian players you have to be careful with the simulations.
- Preparing by studying players.
- We have to be careful with "prepared" or "premeditated". Going to field with the idea of sending off such player is not fair, but it is important to know the profile of the player. For example, I recently refereed the final of the Copa do Brazil between Palmeiras and Santos, and I watched the first game, where I saw some things difficult to interpret. I am not criticising my fellow referee Luis Flavio. I looked at the run-ins, interviews, all this is important to get prepared. I believe that 99.9% of the referees know what they will face. The player behavior, coach, whether it is a knockout game, a goal can make a difference by taking or not a competition team.
- Watching own errors on TV.
- First is the cell phone. If you see after the game that you have more than 200 messages, either a family member died or something serious happened. But we watch sports programs, yes. Just a way to improve, watching the mistake you made and review what was the reason. But I think the referee should have the power, when the game ends, to attend the press conference, and give their opinion about what he saw, but FIFA prohibits all kinds of technical review and we cannot make any kind of comments. And now, doing the journalism course, I understand much more the reporter function. Some look for polemics, but most are giving you the opportunity to give your opinion in relation to the match. What gets me upset is to see a journalist ignorant of the rules. That hurts. If the game was over and we had the opportunity to speak, to give a clarification, solve the problem. Even for fans, managers, club presidents, you give your technical view of what happened.
- Superstition: shave the head before games.
- At the hotel, I always try to stay on the right side of the room. Also, the haircut. I always do it on game day, when I shave it with the blade. Each person has its own superstition. The most important thing is to always believe that there is a greater force coming from above. I am a person who strongly believes in God.
- The story with women published by a Peruvian newspaper.
- It was an ugly story (laughs). I was traveling back from the match in New Jersey. I stopped in Mexico City and when I turned on the phone, I had thousands of messages. When I saw the first pictures, it hurt. For those who followed the Copa America, I was very proud to referee the final. I just wanted to celebrate, but to open the newspaper and see a lie that is a sad thing. The matter was recorded and now I am just waiting to see if we file a lawsuit in Brazil or in Peru. The lawyer is studying the laws of the country to see what the appropriate measure is. The story was reflected in more than 180 countries and is not true. Who wrote it will have to answer, especially now, as a journalism student, I know the responsibility with a pen.
- Lawsuit for errors on the field.
- I did a match once, Santos - Botafogo (in 2005). I awarded a penalty kick and it was controversial goal. After 15 days I was here in Londrina and got a letter. A fan filed a lawsuit because at that time a person could win the Sports Lottery with 13 results, he made 12 and just missed this game. He filed a lawsuit wanting 9 or 10 million, wanted me to pay the lottery jackpot because the penalty that I awarded was no penalty. When we arrived in front of the judge, the judge looked at the boy and said "You do not have anything else to do?"
- Whistle mafia. In 2005, your name was cited in the Whistle Mafia by Edilson Pereira de Carvalho, who advised a businessman to bet on the home team because Heber Lopes favours home teams.
- This citizen that I do not like to mention his name (Edilson Pereira de Carvalho) was bad for football. It was a disastrous testimony. On that day, the National Journal was read in my house. It was a bomb, "look, Heber also has a problem," and it was nothing like that. The Federal Police had many thousand hours of recording, because I am sure our cell phones today are monitored and I prefer it that way. At that time I opened my bank and phone records and made them available for any Brazilian citizen to check. It was something that shocked me and brought me many problems. Then when I went on, the fan was in the momentum. I was called names. We had to redo those 11 games and it was difficult because it changed the ranking of the championship. We had to redouble security, every day stay in a different hotel, going to hire security guards in and out of the stadiums and walk safely on the plane. This citizen put all referees of Brazil in a very great loss. We were despised and treated as outlaws. But in fact it was a one-off thing because the Brazilian refereeing is one of the most honest in the world.
- In a book written by journalist Camila Mattoso, he said that he did not want Heber to referee more games of his teams. For five years or ten games, Corinthians did not win with Lopes refereeing.
- I did not have access; I am waiting to buy the book. Or maybe I will see if I can get it on the internet because I will not spend money on it and I will analyze, see the comment that was made. And if there is something derogatory about my name, I will punch it. This (not wanting a referee in his game) is a normal thing, a right he has. There are more than 400 referees in CBF and he has every right to think that A or B should not whistle. But it is not he who does the ranking. I do not know why he thinks so. It is a matter of choice, taste. It was always a polite and quiet person. And speaking as a professional, he deservedly gets the post of coach of the Brazilian team. My concern is when there are some errors. Numbers… sometimes you whistle games of a team that won six straight games and no one will make any kind of comment. If you have a sequence of errors against the same team, you have a problem. But numbers are numbers. I refereed the decisive match Atlético – Corinthians (0-3) last year. We had a wonderful evening. When things happen in favor of a team, there are no comments. Then suddenly, when a mistake happens, they will get a whole profile and history. But now, at 44 years old, I can absorb and manage it.
- Copa America final.
- At the Copa America I was along with great referees. We went day-by-day, training to training. We tried to respect the nutrition, for example, because we were in the best US hotels and, if you do not respect your nutrition program, you end up having a change of weight. The CONCACAF and CONMEBOL made weight controls every Sunday and we tried to respect it. We tried to study very recent changes of the Laws of the Game not to commit any mistake, we took seriously every day. The Brazilian team did not have a good tournament and it opened the doors for us and increased our responsibility. It was one of the most important games of my career. The stadium was packed, 88,000 people, important people watching. Not to mention the responsibility to our committee because we were representing the confederation.
- Complaints of Chilean and Argentine.
- When the referee makes 190 decisions per game, a decision may be wrong, in either way. But I believe that in general we have adopted a balanced way, both for the team A and team B. The most important was that we did not interfere in the outcome of the game. Now, there were some mistakes, of course, but generally we adopted a balanced criterion in the final.
- Difficult challenges in the final.
- Who referees Libertadores, referees any competition on the planet. Most players from Copa America are playing in Europe, but it's amazing how when they put their national shirts on, their thinking changes radically. The behavior of the South American players in European clubs is very different from when they come to play for their national selection. We knew which were the most skilled players, which were most targeted, we were prepared for everything. We had no unfair things, but we had expulsions. They respected enough, but played the ball too hard.- Messi.
- One of the most educated players that I refereed in my career. He is very polite with the referees and with the opponents. There were no problems during the game. Sometimes he questions, of course, but it's normal. I see him with a sharp humility. We see players with much smaller CV and a totally different behavior. I was privileged to have refereed him in the U-20 Tournament in Colombia and now in the qualifiers and the Copa America.
- What did you feel when you saw Messi missing a penalty in the final?
- The ball was almost out of the stadium. It scares you? Would you think, a player of that level, right? At the end of the game, an image that struck me was that he had gone to the bench, he sat and stood alone. We felt the pain of him having lost, because every moment was on the big screen.
- Does your family suffer when dealing with your referee life and the criticism you receive?
- My wife was already ill and even takes medication. That's because she reads a lot, watches everything, hears everything, and that is not good. So I speak of the responsibility of who is narrating, commenting. The fan not so much because we know that the fans are passionate. But the professional who deals on a daily basis have to understand that is not only hurting the referee, but his family too.
- Did you former boss, Armando Marques, make you cry?
- Armando made us cry often (with reprimands and charges); not only me, but also Paulo Cesar Oliveira or Leonardo Gaciba. You can even ask them to confirm. He was the person who understood refereeing the most, the referee of the human being. He had mouthed. But at the same time, he was able to form many referees. He held us as children with protection. If a club made a claim, in another round you would referee the game of this club in their city. He had these follies. He was a person who helped me a lot. It was a person who many saw as controversial, with a different behavior, but for us, referees, he was the best leader in the Brazilian and international refereeing.
- This is your last year in refereeing. What is your plan for the future?
- I had a recent chat with the president of the CBF Referees Committee, Sergio Correa, who has a project for me to go beyond 45. Today I can say that I would close the cycle of 45 years. It is not just the physical side, it is also the mental side, travel, etc. Everything has an expiration date. I am programming to end my cycle at 45. I intend to close the loop with 45 years. When I finish it, let's see what doors God can open. As a referee who studied and understand the rules for a long time, I am thinking to become a refereeing commentator. It is a field that is open, we now have great commentators, like Leonardo Gaciba or Jose Roberto Wright, who recently retired, but it was one of the pioneers who opened this field. Armando Marques had a short period, but his temper was a little difficult. Arnaldo (César Coelho) and finally Paulo César (Oliveira) are opening an important door for others like Renato Marsiglia. I think it is an interesting field and a thing where I will be participating in football and talking about a topic that I know well. I think that is the most important.
- Could you become a coach?
- I intend to do the coaching course of the CBF. Being so long in football, with all due respect to the coaches, I see that is something that will not be simple, not easy. It will not be Heber alone. If I'm a coach, I will try to get together people with more experience for aggregating our work. Who knows?
Source: Globo Esporte