Minto Cup championship series continues after referees ‘threatened with litigation’

A four-hour meeting between Minto Cup organizers, referees, and representatives from both teams ended with a resolution that will keep the series going, but the tournament’s referee-in-chief says they were only able to reach the decision after officials were threatened with legal action.

Game 2 of the Minto Cup Finals got underway Thursday night following a dramatic series of events that saw the suspension of a star player overturned and — as a result – officials refusing to work the game and walking out of the arena.

READ MORE: ‘A black eye for lacrosse’: Organizers postpone Game 2 of Minto Cup Finals after referees walk out

Minto Cup referee-in-chief Greg Hart said in a joint news conference Thursday evening that the resolution was a “very unsatisfactory conclusion to the situation.”

“The things that happened on the floor in Game 1 after the game were inexcusable,” Hart said. “The officials applied the correct penalties and it was overturned in what we consider not a clean process.”

Hart said the four referees who refused to officiate the games were prepared to follow through with their stand against the overturned suspension, but instead resigned under the threat of litigation. Hart said they did so to protect their livelihoods.

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Minto Cup convener Ron McQuarrie said as part of the agreement, the referees who resigned will not be disciplined and no legal action will be taken against them.

Five new referees have been called in to finish the tournament.

“Everyone is confident and optimistic that we can get past the issues we’re dealing with. You learn from good things and you also learn from negative issues. There’s a lot of work we need to do and we’ll make sure we get that work done,” McQuarrie said.

Hart believes the whole ordeal points to a larger issue of referee abuse in sport.

“We’ve seen a pattern of significant referee abuse for quite a while in sport and lacrosse in particular has had a lot of problems,” he said.

“We’ve resolved the situation to keep the games going forward in the Minto Cup, but we have far from resolved the issue around officiating in the sport.”

Game 3 of the championship series will be played Friday night. Games 4 and 5 will be played Saturday and Sunday if necessary.

WATCH BELOW: A contentious suspension decision, stemming from an incident on Tuesday, resulted in officials refusing to work the game, and eventually leaving the arena. Brendan Parker has the details.

4:05 ‘A black eye for lacrosse’: Organizers forced to postpone Minto Cup game after officials walk out

– with files from Brendan Parker