When Josef Topinka first took office with a whistle, the Czechoslovak president was Ludvík Svoboda, the Prague metro had just opened, the later Olympic decathlon hero Roman Šebrle was born and the world went crazy from the ABBA band. The year 1974 is a long time ago, Topink’s football career is still the present; at the age of 79, he is the oldest judge in the country at the regional level.
“I wanted to make it to the eighties, but after the season the whistling will be over. I’ve decided. I’m running out of energy and I’m angry at my knee,” said a vital pensioner from Teplice.
As a goalkeeper, he caught the highest regional championship for Krupka, shortly after the age of thirty he dressed in black and blew the referee’s whistle for the first time.
“I should have started two or three years earlier, then maybe I would get into the first league. After the age of thirty it is too late, I didn’t break up. But I whistled the second national league for eleven years, I waved the first national league on the line for half a year, which It was the second highest competition, I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am satisfied, I have had a nice career. “
He likes to remember how Viktor Žižkov and Příbram judged the match. Famous actors Josef Bek and Ladislav Pešek sat in the stands, next to them Topink’s friend, who listened to the artists talk to each other.
“Bek allegedly said to Pešek: Come home, it’s two minutes to go, nothing will happen anymore. They left and I ordered a penalty for Žižkov a minute before the end, which won 1-0. So these acting legends didn’t see it anymore,” says Topinka. story for good.
He received the Dr. Award for his devotion to football. Václav Jíra for the year 2017 and for a celebration in the Břevnov Monastery in Prague he bought a new suit, supposedly so that he would not be considered a shooter. “They chose people who make football out of love, not money. They hold this sport.”
Toast is one of them. Last autumn’s IB class match between Hostovice and Chabařovice also decided. He managed it with bravura and after him he was interviewed live.
“I almost didn’t sleep, it was an honor to whistle in front of the TV for the first time in my life. It’s a reward for me and my wife, who doesn’t know what Saturday and Sunday are for 48 years,” he said.
“I’m a normal referee, I don’t have full stadiums, those thousand spectators in Hostovice were probably my record. But I wasn’t nervous about the atmosphere, the scenery was amazing.”
He milked his daughter and wife, and his eyes did not stay dry. They saw the match on TV, because when Topinka caught and his wife came to the stadium, he got three goals. So then he forbade her.
He didn’t just have nice moments, he needed to be in the King’s Court, where the spectators were groping for him after the defeat of the locals. He got in the car, but had to back off, which was not possible due to the raging fans. The police helped him. Since then, he has been parking so that he can go ahead.
They also tried to bribe him with a keg of beer, for a few crowns. He refused. He admits that if the team is decent, it is a lot better for him. “That’s the way all judges have it.”
But to prevent someone from having a pedant, that’s a rarity now. “I’m already hardy, but I’m sorry that people are so bad, bitter these days. They see a mistake in everyone, only not themselves. And that’s wrong. We are a small nation, we have to respect each other and love each other. because times are tough. But you see the insidiousness, the slander. “
That’s why whistling no longer fills him like before. “I liked it, I don’t like it anymore. The players, especially the young ones, are behaving unruly. They don’t have such a performance anymore, but they want the referees to whistle everything. I don’t have the nerve for that anymore,” the referee from the spa town annoyed.
“They used to have respect for the referees and they were good footballers; I didn’t dare them and they did me. Now someone plays IB class and thinks they’re kicking the league.”
Maybe due to these conditions, the judges become an endangered species. “Five years ago we had 113 referees in the Ústí nad Labem region, today we are forty-five. I have two to three matches a week, which is a lot. I said that one week is enough for me. When you are in your 80s, you have to save . “
Movement is the life of Topink that keeps it going. “I’m years old and I can’t fly on the field anymore. But when the field is nice, you want to run on it. I like it.”
Then he comes home, kisses his wife, opens his beer, turns on the television, and relaxes. “But I don’t whistle at home anymore, my wife whistles there,” laughs the respected referee.
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