Sports Official Says ‘It Will Happen Again’ On Soccer Referee’s Death

The death of Michigan soccer referee John Bieniewicz, who was punched by a player in an adult league match this week, has the head of a referees’ group warning, “It will happen again.”

Barry Mano, president of Wisconsin-based National Association of Sports Officials has spoken about the violent death of a soccer referee before after Ricardo Partillo was punched by a 17-year-old during a game in Utah in 2013.

Mano was asked during an HBO interview last year if he believed such an incident would ever happen again reported mlive.com.

“My answer was ‘Yes.’ And, sadly, I have been proven right about something I wish with every bone in my body I would have been proven wrong,” he wrote in an article to be published in Referee magazine.

Bieniewicz was declared dead Tuesday at Detroit Receiving Hospital after being punched in the head by a player. He was being kept on a ventilator until his organs could be harvested and donated through Gift of Life.

Bieniewicz was the lead medical assistant in the Pediatric Chronic Dialysis unit at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Bassel Abdul-Amir Saad, 36, of Dearborn was arraigned Monday on a felony charge of intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. The death has been ruled a homicide after an autopsy was done Thursday reported ABC News.

“There are days you just want to stop,” Mano wrote. “You want to say: ‘The hell with all of this.’ Tuesday July 1, was one of them. That is when we received word that John Bieniewicz, a much respected Michigan soccer official, had died from a blow to the head delivered by a player on the cusp of ejection. John reportedly never saw the punch coming. He was looking down in the process of pulling out his red card. Sadly, the last thing he might seen in this life is that red card.”

An online fundraising page to help Bieniewicz’s family has raised almost $60,000 by Wednesday afternoon.

“John Bieniewicz was a man who lived life to the fullest,” the page reads. “He had a passion for his family, a passion for the kids at Mott Children’s hospital, and a passion for soccer. John died doing what he loved: officiating a soccer game.”

“I speak for all his friends when I say we are devastated. Crushed. Just a senseless way for a great guy to go out,” friend Jim Acho said. “He deserved better.”

As reported this week in The inquisitr, Bieniewicz leaves behind a wife and two sons.

[Image via The Detroit Free Press]