The father of a high school football player is accused of attempting to use his influence as a referee to fix the outcome of a game in favor of his son’s team, according to a lawsuit filed against the Illinois High School Association.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the Simeon Alumni Association, the Blue Machine – the team’s booster club- and the parents of several Simeon Career Academy players, follows the Chicago school’s quarterfinal loss to Nazareth Academy earlier this month.
In that game, “a number of questionable calls were made” by the “officiating crew,” according to the suit.
It alleges a parent of one of the Nazareth Academy players wore his referee uniform to the game and communicated with referees from the sideline, even though he was not officiating the game.
The suit also included screenshots of Facebook comments allegedly written by the parent stating “I didn’t make one bad call. I made sure the best team won.”
Both Nazareth Academy and the IHSA declined to comment on the suit. IHSA said while it was aware of media reports about the lawsuit they “have yet to receive any official notification about any pending litigation” and would not comment.
IHSA did not respond to requests for comment on whether the man named in the suit was in fact an employed referee.
Local
The lawsuit claims the man’s actions are a “breach of contract” and violate IHSA’s rules. It calls for a judge to stop IHSA from declaring a winner in the game and asks that the parent and other referees involved in the game no longer be allowed to officiate any games.
