RefBlog

Can I have your name, ref?

I remarked to the other referee that I hadn't had a red card all session; he only started reffing this year, so was amazed when I said that during the last two years it was not uncommong to have one or two red cards a month, or even more (in about 16 50-minute games in that month). Ever since they started keeping track, things have been a lot more civil. There's been a few people who've come awfully close to getting a second yellow, but nothing was even close to a straight red. But there's still two mroe weeks to go.

Despite that, people are always going to complain. I'm sure part (most?) of that is human nature - it's easier to blame an outcome on the referee than your own failings. And as a referee I admit that sometimes calls disproportionately go more against one team than another - this is not us being unfair, but simply not being allowed to keep a meter. In basketball, trying to figure out actual possession with a contested loose ball was extremely difficult, hense the issuance of the "possession arrow" - now if there's a loose ball, two people going after it, it no longer matters who came up with it, posession merely goes back-and-forth. In soccer, if we have to make a similarly difficult decisision (with no "possession arrow"), we make the best choice we can, and then move on - there's no possession arrow that says that the next iffy call goes the other direction just because of how it went the first time. In short, a team may get a collection of 60/40 calls going against them that individually wouldn't be as big an issue.

So people get pissed, and refs get accused of bias. The refs typically go, "eh" and move on about their business. But that doesn't stop people from trying to intimidate you: "What's your name ref?" I'm going to complain!" etc., etc. There are levels that this could spell the death of a ref's career; from what little I know about the college organization, coaches rule the NCAA, and they can and do bar refs from working their home pitches. Contrast that with the MLS, where carping about refs is as much a game as the one in the league name - but yet despite that, the same refs continue to work throughout the year - because their fate rests with the Assessors, not the coaches or fans. People don't realize that referees are very much held accountable to their performance - but the people they account to are neutral, understand what it takes to be a referee, and also know the Laws of the Game (sadly something few coaches or fans do).

But at the level I ref at, complaints against me really mean squat. Complaints about referees are like leaves in the trees - there's so many that it's hard to pick out any one... or to take any of them seriously.

31 March '04 - 16:15 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

I book you with... the Visa Card!

I showed up early yesterday, and lo and behold, there was our erstwhile referee coordinator with the whistle! This is something that would NOT happen in an affiliated league, but since this is well... what else can you do during the winter... it happens (actually, I'm one of the few certified refs in this league). I was, however, watchng the other game, until I heard another early referee hooting and hollering (he's as jovial as he is loud - which is to say very); I turn around, and there's the goalkeeper having what I shall politely describe as a massive attack of spazzus maxxus. Apparently there was one player on the blue side (keeper was red) that was just making a mockery of the defense - I've seen him do that before, the trick is to continually double-team him because the rest of his team has little offensive ability). Apparently this blue player had done his thing again, and the keeper slid in to stop him - he stopped the player, but not the ball, which went in for a goal. The keeper, who wears glasses, had them knocked off (keep in mind that he went INTO the blue striker), and claimed that they were kicked off. Not so, said the referee - you went underneath, and the striker was too busy flying (unsuccessfully, since the trick to flying is simply to throw yourself at the ground and miss). This led to the previously mentioned spazz by the keeper.

Now as I said, this guy doesn't ref very often (he's a player for the most part), and when he decided to book the guy for dissent, he realized that he didn't pack any cards with him. So he pulled out his wallet, and book him with the dredded visa card! It wouldn't work outdoors, but here, it worked and gave the two early referees a great laugh.

29 March '04 - 08:33 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

If Refs Were Sportscasters

I had this idea in my head, and pretty much had to write about it - but on the other hand, I'm also raptly watching Suttgart and Werder Bremen on Fox Sports World, which is hugely entertaining (3-3 in the 67th minute, as I write). What's causing me to type this, yet simultaneously crook my head left to watch the game (as well as be thankful for my ability to touch-type)? One little throw-away shot (the video type, not the soccer type), of a player complaining to a ref.

Opps... now four 4-3 Stuttgart; they beat the trap very nicely, beat the keeper outside of the area, and easily tapped in the ball. Ack! 4-4 less than a minute later - Bremen took advantage of a poor head back to the keeper - Hilderbrand made the initial save but the rebound was another easy put-in (71st minute).

I may not get this written before the game is over.

Currently, if there's a "controversial decision" made by the referee, the standard procedure is to show replay after replay to determine if the referee was correct, followed by much blathering (usually by people who don't understand the Laws of the Game), and close-ups of the referee or assistant in question. For all but 30 seconds of the 70+ minutes I've watched so far, it's been all the same. But after one foul, on Werder's left flank, they showed a close-up of the defender winging and complaining, and gesturing the referee to open his eyes... after he clearly fouled the Stuttgart striker - there was also a replay to prove that he was the villain.

And of course, we referees know that we have a thankless job, and that most players complaining about calls either don't know crap about what they're doing or saying, or are too pumped up by the game to be aware of the subtleties that we have to watch for - but because the sportscasters don't know these either (and this falls more into the "don't know crap" category), refs continue to get the reputation of idiots who need really thick glasses (OK - I do need really thick glasses, fortunately contacts can still handle my 8/8.5 prescription).

Christian Schultz of Werder just picked up his second yellow (81st minute) - they're blaming the center, but the foul was called by the AR. I'm waiting for the reply to take a good look.

But if referees, people who's job it is to study the game, and to know it inside-and-out where in the broadcast booth, things would be a lot different. Yeah, coaches may be better tacticians, but if referee commentary is going to be fair play, let's at least get someone in who knows what's going on.

First, we wouldn't hear about this "new offside rule" - it's not new, it's been that way for years. FIFA issued a clarification because some ARs were jumping the gun (it caused me some self-doubt about my job as an AR last August). But we had a bunch of Premiership coaches act like prats and complain about the "new" rule and position their players to intentionally make a mockery of the game.

Second, if referees were in the booth (assuming they had retired from the professional levels), it would become quite clear that most coaches are prats.

Third, for every commentary over "controversial" calls, we'd have a commentary about coaches or players complaining about calls where they were clearly guilty. For added emphasis we'd have the sideline reporter sarcastically report, "Hey guys, you know what? You really can see better from here!"

Nope, I didn't made it before the game - ends 4-4; great game, but still no replay of that second yellow.

Fourth, the center wouldn't be assessed for a call made by the AR.

Fifth, the words "Play On" would be banned, except in it's proper usage, where the referee exercised the Advantage Clause.

Sixth, players exercising poor sportsmanship, regardless of how "worthy" their cause was, would be duly chastised.

Nope - no replay. Some commercials, then the fairwell. Oh, well.

Seventh, we'd understand why those people in the middle do this - because we love the game just as much as the players, coaches, and fans. Considering what comes with this job, a good argument would be put forward that we love it more.

28 March '04 - 10:55 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Refs in the news again

It's been a while since I've looked at the news concerning soccer referees - as per usual, very little of its positive.

FIFA has shown how much they care about referees; police armed with batons had to restrain Nasief Morris and several teammates from attacking a referee? What does it get? A piddly two match ban that only takes place during Olympic preliminary games... of which his side has already failed to qualify for. So much for the game of soccer learning from Rugby.

The British FA, who has also said they want the games to run more like Rugby (when it comes to decorum), have fined Stan Ternent £3,000 and given him a four match ban for just being verbally abusive.

Willi Reimann was fined over $30,000 and give a five match suspension by the German federation for shoving the fourth official, who was trying to keep him in the technical area.

Yet another reason the National Federation of High Schools have the heads up their butts when it comes to soccer: they insist that time be kept on a scoreboard, but half the time scoreboard operators don't know what they're doing - what where does that leave the referee? If it's a close game, in a very, very difficult place.

Is this a sign of things to come with the MLS? Freddy Adu makes his professional debut against the A-League's Charleston Battery, scores, and is fouled bad enough to draw a red card against Charleston. Does this mean, now that Freddy "He shall lead us to World Cup Glory" Adu is in the MLS, the league will allow the refs to tighten things up appropriately, or just protect the 14-year-old wunderkind? Alternatively, will we join the rest of the world by having a player assisinated when Adu's career is demolished after taking a cleat's up tackle to the kneecap?

25 March '04 - 09:02 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

The most obvious problem with the Dual

From time-to-time (usually during high school season) I talk about about the Dual system, and it's obvious inadequacies. In this indoor season (the dasher-boards one), we also use the dual, and we experienced what's probably the most glaring problem with the dual: consistency.

You see, both of us referees were perfectly consistent with ourselves, but not with each other - in the standard three-man (referee and two assitants), it's not an issue because the referee can always waive down the flag - but stick whistles in everybody's mouth... Basically, the situation was the other referee called things a lot tighter than I would - things I would take as normal contact or trifiling brought a whistle; I think I whistled about 1/5 as often as my partner.

Keep in mind, his whistles weren't wrong, and I don't have problems with the calls he made - we just had different tolerances. And while it didn't produce any problems or frustrations from the players or coaches, it can. Most referees come into a game with a preconceived notion of what is and is not a foul before the kickoff - if we're good we can modify that based on players reactions by either tightening things up or cutting some slack (there's a common practice of calling things tight for the first 5-10 minutes of each half, when boundaries are being set, and then holding back the whistle more and letting them play). But unless you work with someone several times (or longer), it's difficult to call the same thing the same way - even harder when someone's calling a very different game than you (as was yesterday).

I'm just guessing, of course, but I think that, more than any other reason, is why FIFA bans the use of the dual system of control, and sticks with the three-person diagonal. (more)

24 March '04 - 12:35 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Of turf and sliding

Playoff time is back again in indoor land - once again grown men and women are giving it their all for multi-colored T-Shirts. Hey, for some of us, it's the only type of championship we'll ever get to play for, so they really are giving it their all.

Playoffs are an interesting time for referees also, because on one hand, we recognize the importance of it all, but we're stuck in the middle (no pun intended) when it comes to controversial calls we will never be right, and now instead of being accused of blowing the game, it's of blowing the season. Not that anything has really changed, except the stakes, and the increased use of ourselves as excuses. What this all comes down to, is that our performance is scrutinized even greater than before, with more emotion, and (if even possible), less accuracy by either side.

I had two interesting sitautions in two different games today, ones where I could see the reasoning for the side I ruled against, but not enough to change my mind. One had the potential to be a game turner, one was. Did the referee "decide the game", as it's popular to say? I don't think so - I just did my job, which is to make these tough calls - you never saw me even take a shot on goal.

The first had to do with slide tackles. As I've mentioned before, in this adult league slide tackles are not allowed; strangely enough, the indoor league for kids that just started does allow slide tackles - however, the general concensus is that we won't see them, because the astroturf is new and highly abrasive. The turf for the adults is AstroPlay, also known as the one of the "Next generation" of artificial turfs (you can read about it here - I'd link to SRI sports, who makes it, as well as the venerable AstroTurf, but they've recently ceased operations, and who knows how long their site will stay up), and there's no where near as much self-inflicted damage when sliding. Situation was simple: slide tackle... but in the box or out? From my vantage point, which wasn't far away, I saw contact from the offender barely inside in the area, and I awarded a penalty kick. The offending team didn't displute the foul, but did the placement - see the markings on the field where he slid (since the field infill is rubber pellets, they tend to pop up and leave a trail when sliding)? What kind of moronic call would ignore those?

The reason the moron in question (myself) ignored those trails is that while it did clearly show where his foot was on the ground, it doesn't mark when it's not touching ground, and making contact with his opponent. Desite the logic, it was not an argument I was going to win, so I had to brush the players aside. The penalty kick went wide left.

The second situation happened with less than 30 seconds left in the game. TV announcers would complain about the ref deciding the game, but in reality it's still our decision to make, and we still know more about the game than television announcers (I tend to agree with other referees that ignorance about the Laws much be manditory to be a television commentator). Actually, this was a non-call on my part and also had to do with slides... although not slide tackles. One of the most misunderstood words about soccer (and I'll limit myself to the US) is the word "tackle" - it just means to dispossess your opponent - steal the ball! A slide tackle is just one particular way of tackling, or.... stealing the ball. So, in this situation, the player makes a fine slide that wouldn't be give a second blink if it were outdoors (where it's allowed) - again, I said slide, not slide tackle, because we was keeping a loose ball from going into touch - an opponent was a few feet away, but was definately not in possession, nor in any danger of coming in contact with the slider. So? No call - it would seem obvious, woulnd't it? Keep in mind that this is (1) the playoffs, (2) a tied game, (3) nearly the end of regulation. No matter if it's obvious to your or me, one of those teams wants that call... and even moreso, because less than ten seconds later they are scored upon, and they would not have, had I called a foul. So they... well, I say they, but only one player was vocalizing enough to earn himself a yellow for dissent - although he came awfully close to going to abusive language - it wasn't until I said that if I gave him a second card he wouldn't be playing next week that he relented.

Keep in mind that if I had blown the whistle, I would have had someone just as mad (probably the guy who slid) in my face as well.

So yeah, maybe I made a call (or non-call) that "decided the game" - but it was going to happen anyway. Someone was going to be pissed.

21 March '04 - 16:14 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Back to the ranks of the youth

Last week, when I was doing that mentoring thing, myself and another guy I've known for a while (who was also mentoring) were discussing the relationship of cards and very young (say, eight years old) players. The discussion came out of two kids breaking a very stringent rule about not jumping the boards (ala hockey players), but instead going through the gates. Over the last three years, our assignor (and rules intrepreter) has been very adament that anyone doing it gets a blue card (you won't see them outdoors, but indoors it's a two minute, again like hockey, time penalty - three of them and you're out of the game). Naturally enough a kid jumped the boards, and a penalty was issued - later a second player jumped, and a second penalty was issued.

That discussion basically revolved around that particular rule, and not about any type of Law violations that are harsher; we both agreed that we really don't want to issues cards at that level, and usually a talk to the coach is sufficient.

But some kids are right bastards. Maybe it's because I don't have kids - maybe that makes me more neutral, that I don't see a little piece of my own loin fruit when I look over the kiddies - but I remember growing up, and even at that age I had a close to 50/50 mix of being the recipeint of outright nastiness as well as the purveyor of similar slime. It's a rarity at that age, no doubt about it - some some times, in rare times, it might actually be necessary. I've had a ten year old call me a "mother %$*er" - where did he go? It wasn't back to his bench.

Nothing like that happened in the games last night - I just thought about it a bit as I was driving home. The games itself weren't much of a mental strain (one 12-year-old boy screamed as the goalkeeper was trying to throw the ball, and I did give him a yellow card), but it takes some used to, doing kids again after doing adults all winter. There's a lot more of letting stuff go because of lack of skill or lack of coordiantion than you do with adults - as well a different type of attitude you need to adopt. It's kind of odd - then again, I'm told most State-level referees stop doing kids games because of the giant change in mental attitude they have to adopt going in - I can understand that.

Physically, because there were actually two refs (it's your classic dual system, except on an ice-rink with astroturf), I got a lot more side-stepping work than I've had all year, so despite the age of the kids, I was actually pretty sore before going to bed. Good - it'll get me ready for running lines during the summer.

19 March '04 - 12:57 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

A couple quick notes

Got a late email that our opponents canceled, so I didn't play. Too bad, because I finially had enough energy to play (although I'm still vestigally sick). I have my first game with kids since last fall tonight - will have to see how I adjust.

Just as I was wondering about where the articles about how to be good sports were my prayers were answered by this article - I can only hope it goes into syndication.

A brief followup to an even briefer entry tells us that the fallout of the game in Norwich abandoned because too many players were red carded, is still up in the air, but still making waves.

18 March '04 - 09:04 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Etiquette Declining? Well, duh...

When I read this, I wasn't sure what to make of it; there's defiantely nothing new here (although Jonathan, if you think parents will treat you different once you start looking older... well, I don't want to destroy your optimism), but at the end the author entreats fans to let it all loose at the professional level. And I think that's what disturbs me.

It's a been a pretty well-known phenomenon in England that as soon as you see something happen at the professional level on television, you'll see it on your own pitch within a matter of days. It's even starting to become true here in the US, epecially after the World Cup, but even (if slower) what shows up in the MLS, shows up on my pitches. Both with players, and with fans. Over the last few years we've seen Marco Etcheverry run roughshod over referees (seemingly with the league's blessing, since he brings in more fans than the ref), and then both the players and fans do the same. I had one of the top female referees in my state tell me, after a game where the worst of the sport was displayed, that she as well, has been physicallly assaulted at games, and more than once.

On one hand, yes, the author is correct. Professional players (and referees) can, and are paid to, take more guff from others than amatures - but leagues the types of things that are explicitly ignored at the professional level affect those of us at the local. Like every other soccer fan, I want the MLS to suceed - but I want it to be at playing the game I love, rather than degrade it to the point where it's too dangerous to ref. Like it or not, profitable or not, MLS is going to have to take responsibility as a role-model or the children and adults who play the game. If they buck up and enforce the Laws, it makes it easier for the rest of us to just get down and play some footie.

And as an added benifit, maybe whenever MLS sides go play in overseas tournaments, they won't average a send-off per game.

17 March '04 - 12:47 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Super-Human Hearing

Let's go have a semi-private chat somewhere. No, don't worry, nothing big, we'll just walk down the hall a bit. Hey, there's a water cooler, let's stop, get a quick drink - I won't speak too loud, because further on down the hall there are people working. What was I going to say? Oh, yeah - just remember, it's between you and I, nobody else can hear me: "You're a jerk, you're a twit, you're ugly and even your nine-month-old niece Millie hates your guts."

Now what are you going to do about it? I tell you what I expect you to do about it - go running down to the end of the hallway, and ask the guy at the far end, yeah, the one in the glasses about 50-60 feet away, if he heard what I said, and get really incensed when he said that he didn't hear me, and therefor can't do anything about it.

Sound stupid? Why would you expect someone whom the comment is not addressed to, and when the comment in question is said in a hushed voice, to hear things that far away. Maybe if he's Clark Kent - but otherwise the expectations are unrealistic, right? One would think, unless, of course, you're a referee. I've never quite understood the need to ask the ref to punish something that you know he never heard - can you imagine what would happen if he actually acted on that "hot tip" that was just provided? Somehow I doubt that the player who promtped him to act will be just as forthright in protecting the guy when the other team starts plucking chickens and heating up the caultron of tar. What is it about soccer that can drive an otherwise reasonable adult human being back into a simpering five-year-old who thinks he'll get a sucker if he tattles on the other boy?

You know it from playing and watching, I certainly know it - the referee crew cannot be everywhere to even see some of the major fouls. But a couple choice whispered words that won't even get picked by parabolic microphones will get an entire side whinging. What are we supposed to do? Drop back from the majority of play in the small chance that the striker will say something "naughty" to the goalkeeper? Does it happen? Oh heck yes, and it can be darn effective, too, although I can't understand why - the stuff that pissed me off as a player was the public insults, not the private ones.

Maybe the next time someone asks me to do something about something I cannot hear, I should tell him he has my permission to reply, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

16 March '04 - 11:15 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

If he's unhappy, soon everybody's unhappy

Because this league doesn't require player passes, there's quite a few people who play for more than one team, or troll for other teams who are short players. In the context of this league, there's nothing wrong with it - you don't see it at the competitve-level teams (and if they do, they get their butts whupped), but the goal, for the most part, is that we just want the game to happen.

This also means that as refs, we see some players more often than others. I actually had one guy three games in a row last night. He's a good player, energetic, physical, and sometimes hot-tempered. Most of the time he's smart enough to know that when he's really pissed off, he needs to sub out for a while (sometimes, even a long while). Overall, a nice guy on and off the pitch, although the way he plays, he can sometimes by the flint, the fuse, and the bomb. I could have booked him last night (yelllow definately, red very possibly), but decided against it, and tried to work some finesse into my game where I knew plastic would just, no matter how justified, be a really bad idea.

Because, when he's on the floor and unhappy, pretty soon everybody is unhappy; and for the referee, he can only wish to come up to "unhappy".

This is a small-sided game, while we wait for the last remnants of the snow to melt, indoors. The player I've been talking about (let's call him "Bob") is being shieded from the ball by an opponent. Bob's got him pinned down pretty good between himself and the touch - I've taken the precaution, given that the player Bob's defending also has a bit of a temper, of getting pretty close to watch for any mis-placed cleats or flying elbows. Bob's opponent deflects the ball off Bob's shin for a throw, which he leaves to another player, but as he jogs away, Bob lets the bird fly. Fortunately, the recipeint of Universal Gesture of (ahem) Friendship doesn't see it, and I confront Bob. (more)

15 March '04 - 12:57 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Totally Different Subject

I thought about tacking this onto the last entry, but I actually like each entry being one a single topic (even if that topic is pretty broad), so I decided to create a new one for this rather short entry.

My blog. My rules. Bleeach!

Bleaach is pretty close, actually. I had the "field training" for the other, dasher-board style indoor, today. First real exercise I had since coming down with the bug - only problem is I got there late, because my garage door is frozen shut - there's a half-inch (and I'm not exagerating!) of ice holding down the door. The same wide temperature swings that probably caused me to get sick, melted all the snow and ice, forming a nice little pool in my garage, and then refroze it solid, and I was unable to force the door open. I ended up getting a ride from my very dear, very patient, very wonderful girlfriend who was bored silly as I tried to train new referees on proper positioning during practice games with 8, 10, and 12-year-olds. I wasn't too bad, either. It was remarked to me that, even though I was sick, I was back-pedaling faster than people half my age were, and they weren't sick... or back-pedaling. Scary.

I'm going to do something I haven't done all winter for tomorrow, though. Bring some power-aide. It'll last longer than orange juice (although not as good for me), as I try to make my way through the four adult games tomorrow night.

13 March '04 - 23:53 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Reds, Yellows, and Justice

Since I've been sick (it looks like the cold has progressed into my chest), I've been watching a lot more TV lately, mostly because doing anything else is well... well is sucks. So, I got up this morning, and watched the second half the Hamburg/Herta Berlin (German Bundesliga - aka their top division) on Fox Sports World. German games are fun to watch because they can be... well, at the least the ones Fox Sports World chooses can be very emotional. This game was live, so I can't really make an inferances. But there was a comment by the (American) commentator that stuck me. The comment wasn't particularly ignorant (indeed, for the most part, I love the commentators of FSW), but something that seems really common when things are stuck in the moment.

Here was the situation: both teams struggling to avoid relegation, so this was a very emotional game, probably must-win for both teams. Referee whistles to stop the game for a foul - he's in great position, ten yards or less from the play, but a player from Hamburg ignores the whistle and keeps playing. This pisses off the players from Hertha and they try to stop him - meanwhile the ref is trying to stop the game with the only tool he really has: his whistle. As you can imagine, the Hamburg player is surrounded by annoyed Hertha players, who jostle him, and one of which gives a nasty open-palm shove that knocks him to the ground. The Hertha player (their captain) gets a straight red, and the Hamburg player gets a yellow; needless to say, the rest of the Hertha players were not amused. The commentator wanted red cards to each of them, and I can understand - the Hamburg player clearly provoked the issue, and as Hamburg was up one-nil at the time, it's a big issue.

But I say that the cards issued were just - and that Hertha's captain (Dick Van Burik) refused to let the referee deal with the matter. The referee is the official timekeeper, and can easily add the time back on - but the problem was that Van Burik instituted vigalante justice - he committed Violent Conduct, but the player he shoved (and who admittedly provoked the situation, Bernd Hollerbach) did not. Being a jerk is only a yellow card offence, taking a whack at someone is red.

Moral of the story is "keep your head".

Actually, Hertha really seemed to come alive after the send-off - they made some really nice chances on goal. Unfortunately, ten minutes later, another one of their players was sent-off for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (another righteous card);at that level, there's little you can do when you're team is reduced to nine players. (more)

13 March '04 - 23:36 - - default| three comments, already - § ¶

And more of the continuing story of John Runk... asshole coach

Yet another story from the Dundalk Eagle on coach John Runk, the man who definately is a prick on legs, who was allegedly pushed a ref to the floor... in front of eight-year-olds. The fun really starts when an armed off-duty police officer jumps in, and well... read stuff over the last week.

In the latest installment, we hear that Runk was indeed, ejected from the game and refused to leave (in front of eight-year-olds), and then after pushing the referee to the floor (in front of eight-year-olds), kicked him (in front of, you guessed it, eight-year-olds).

I think that gets the most about all of this, is that Runk is trying to play the victim here. I'm suspended as a coach! Wah! Wah! I'm suspended from my job (kid's skateboard park manager)! Wah! Wah! Dude - you made an ass of yourself and assaulted someone in front of eight-year-old kids. You deserve to lose your job! Go see if the WWE is hiring? (more)

11 March '04 - 13:06 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Not playing tonight

The temperature has been taking wild (and daily) 20-30 degree swings, and it's thrown my body into a loop, or should I say it's decided to curtail my normal energy flow into snot production? In any event, it's clear that playing tonight, and then going back to work on five hours sleep is just NOT a good idea.

Interesting game where there were six red cards issued, if nothing else because the referee was not blamed, and the coaches accepted responsibility. Wow.

10 March '04 - 13:19 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Yes, you can laugh later on

I have a special place in my heart for this guy; It was my first year reffing, and either my first or second week at the unaffiliated winter league that I'm still in. He very nearly got himself thrown out, and then his team was a pain in my behind for the rest of the winter. A couple times in the last few months I had the team again, and we actually got to joking a bit beforehand, because both he (the keeper) and I were early.

Unaffilaiated leagues tend to have house rules, I talked about what this league has here, but there are frequently unwritten house rules that you're expected to know, or at least find out about (such as when the ball hits the roof /pipe/wires/field-goal posts). As mentioned earlier, I was pretty new, and these were my first games for the league, and with adults. Uncentaintly can burn images into your head forever, and this one was pretty simple: the goalkeeper picks up his own team's throw in. Tweet goes the whistle, and I announce that it's an indirect restart. Keeper goes nuts, saying that he's done that all year, and I reply that I'll check at half-time if there's a house-rule, but my call is FIFA's laws, and no such house-rule was indicated to me by the management. "Go all the way! Give them a penalty kick!" I give him a yellow for dissent, but of course I can't give them a penalty kick - you can't ever give a penalty kick for a keeper's handling violation - it's always indirect.

This was also the team (although a different player) who said I coulnd't give a red card out five minutes into a playoff game (he was muscled off the ball, and gave a might whack into the other player's shin - goodbye!).

Anyway we joked about it a bit - we both remember it with humor now (we even laughed when I said I was still right); he said he plays with a different attitude and doesn't try to accumulate cards like before (gee, I didn't know I was actually helping him! I haven't had any problems with him or his team for the two games I've had them this winter. Of course, I haven't had to make any difficult/controversial calls either, so the attitude change hasn't been tested, either.

09 March '04 - 09:55 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

The most bizarre abuse I've ever recieved

If you ref long enough, you get to see some bizarre stuff. I had a coach last year warn me about his own player, who had a tendancy to moon the opposing team before post-game handshakes. You also see and receive a lot of abuse; but normally the abuse is from either a player, coach, or fan watching the game. Not from someone a field over, on a game that hadn't even started yet.

Apparently the guy was just thrown off his team, by his own team, and instead of going gracefully, he decided to make an ass out of himself - so he went to the corner (by my field) of the building, and starting making obscene gestures. First one bird, then a second, then he starting doing obscene things to those birds. I'm no prude (I created my own mind control cult, using the The Church of the Subgenius as a template - hey, why go through all the trouble of creating a new one when there's a perfectly good template available?), but I was getting unfomfortable. Partially because of the gestures, but also because he wasn't leaving; tack in that they were getting worse, too. I had a stoppage in that corner, and try to be tactful: "Dude, if you've been sent-off, why don't you just go ahead and leave, ok?"

His reply, screaming: "I'm leaving of my own free will! So FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!" Yes, he did say it at least seven times. Now he's edging into the field.

Apparently, trying to appeal to his better nature was a mistake.

Since I was now involved (I pretty much was, anyway - remember that this is an enclosed building), I really only had one option left. "If you don't leave, I'm going to call the police," following by my own walking toward my bag and cell phone.

"I'm fucking going!" This was following by another string of Fuck You's until he actually bothered to walk the five feet toward the door.

Absolutely bizarre.

08 March '04 - 08:31 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Indoor Training

I had the annual indoor re-cert class over the weekend. Of course, I've been doing indoor all winter long, but none of the places around here use the two official and legitimate methods of indoor soccer. FIFA's official indoor game, Futsal (run by the USSF's United States Futsal Federation) or the United States Indoor Soccer Association, which is the hockey-rink with astroturf variety. There's plenty of the later going on around here, but nobody's affiliated like in outdoor.

This also means that each organization uses different models to train, and different rulesets to play under. Most of the winter, the rules I play under are FIFA rules with these exceptions:

• Each team has six field players and a keeper
  
• Keepers cannot punt or throw past the half without the ball touching the ground or another player
  
• Goal kicks cannot travel past the half without touching the ground or another player
  
• No slide tackles

The new league, which is the hockey-rink variety, plays Major Indoor Soccer League rules... the old MISL rules from the 80's. So what you see if you watch Fox Sports World on friday nights isn't quite the same thing. So there's kick-ins, blue cards, timed-penalties, guaranteed substitutions, etc. etc.

Actually, I'm more than a little dissapointed this year. Apparently there was a falling out between the club I'm working for and other clubs, because there's no travel league for indoor, which means the level of play is going to be a lot lower than in years past. What's more, the adule league I'm with ends early this year, so I may be stuck doing a lot of mentoring. Don't get me wrong, it's a honor to be put into that type of roll - but this is only my fourth year and I don't feel ready to be considered a mentor when I'm still learning a ton of stuff about the game myself. Plus, I like the extra competition - it gets me ready for when outdoor starts - because the type of competition I see from the kids at that level are similar to what I'll see outdoors; a bridge to outdoors, if you will.

Will just have to see how it goes.

07 March '04 - 10:04 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Video of Baltimore Altercation Now Available

Now that the 10 o'clock news is over, WBAL has placed the video on their website (I take back the bad things I said about you - thanks for making it available).

Only problem is that we can't see if the coach actually pushed the ref not. But what we CAN see is the coach coming out to middle of the court (it was in a gym). Basic stuff here coaches: You don't belong there; unless your beckoned out there to attend to an injured player, you ought to be prepared to keep on walking, because chances are, you're committing dissent (at the very least), and you've certainly entered the field without permission. In other words, the ref has every right to throw you out.

Also what's on the video is the referee clearly ordering the coach either back to the bench or out of the building. Guess what? The coach didn't leave, and in fact followed the referee who was trying to end the incident by simply walking away.

Coach Runk and the cop have their own matters to deal with, but judging from what I saw on the tape, yeah I can see why the off-duty cop came down. Runk is clearly agitated, clearly not following instructions, clearly invading the ref's personal space, and clearly (very) larger than the ref.

Apparently this guy's a teacher, too. I'm very frightened for our children.

You have view the video by following this link: http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2901344/detail.html#

06 March '04 - 16:42 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Maybe you don't have to be there, after all

Hey wow, video reply in soccer I support. Looks like the altercation between a ref, a coach, and an off-duty police officer I wrote about earlier today was caught on tape!

Unfortunately, the news blurp doesn't say if the coach actually pushed the ref or not, nor is it downloadable. Pooh, bad news-people! We're not all in Baltimore, you know!

05 March '04 - 19:49 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Don't Shoot! It's just Soccer!

Interesting story out of Maryland: coach leaves to argue call with referee, allegedly pushes referee, off-duty cop who's armed comes down and confronts coach, and allegations fly about said coach threatening the referee, cop threatening the coach, and lots of naughty words being thrown around.... in front of eight-year-olds.

I have some advice for coach John Runk: all of this would have been avoided if you just shut up and did your job. I mean, do you have the next Freddy Adu on your team? Did the other team bring in crowbars to beat your players with? I highly doubt it. But we do know that the players are eight frickin' years old! Why did you take that game so seriously? What did it matter? There's no money on the line; no trophy; heck, some league don't even keep score at that age!

I'll do Mr. Runk the honor of completely ignoring the whole "who said what" and "who pushed whom" thing - all that is strictly "you had to be there". But let's go through what we do know that happened:

• You showed very poor sportsmanship by argueing a call in front of eight year old boys and girls.
  
• You were standing close enough that, even if you didn't push the ref, your position was close enough to have people reasonably assume you did. You see, we have this thing called "Personal space", and in the US, it's huge. No really, I mean it. Go talk, face-to-face, to someone from France and you'll understand how much personal space we're accustomed to. Most of the time in the US (of which you are a part), it's barely touching distance, let alone shoving.
  
• It apparently was nasty enough to warrant a parent, a cop no less, to come down onto the floor to confront the situation.

As for the referee tripping over himself, yeah it's possible. But I have hard time believing it. I have tripped while reffing indoor, over seems in the carpet, even over my feet when running; but I can't think of the last time I tripped over my feet while walking. I think Runk's in it deep.

Apparently Runk's also the chair of the soccer club he coaches, and is afraid that he'll lose that job. I would hope so - do you want this guy setting an example for your kids?

04 March '04 - 13:54 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Michael Cotleur

If you've read this blog with any regularity, you know I'm a big fan of Socref, the soccer referee listserv. In my brief time on the list (about three years), I came to appreciate the writings and philosophy of Michael Cotleur. I met him once, in my first USA Cup. This was a man who loved to ref, and took it every chance he could get. That brief enouncer, where I was a fourth official, really cemented me with what I could learn from that listserv; and even if I didn't always agree with him, always made me look foward to his thought-provoking, often humours, postings. From what I'm reading on the listserv, I am not unique.

Michael suffered complications following a hip replacement surgery (he reffed until the end), and has been taken off the ventilator.

You can see an archive of his missives on SocRef here.

I'm not a religious person, a committed agnostic. But if there's anything up there, please send my best wishes. (more)

04 March '04 - 08:32 - - default| two comments, already - § ¶

Pretty tame night

I only got a few pages into Pierluigi's Collina's book, The Rules of the Game, but he said something rather interesting, profound, and contradictory to the common wisdom of referees. I don't have the book handy, so I'll just repeat his meaning, rather than quote. He said that he doesn't understand the idea that a perfect game for a referee is one where he isn't noticed; referee's have a job to do, and sometimes that means being very visible, even if it's a last-second penalty-kick call.

I'm going to read into this a bit futher: For a good referee, it's the players that decide how visible we are; if they respect our decisions that we can call that last-second PK and there's no issue. It has been done before, but in the last few decades we've become a culture of whiners, protesters, and crybabies; a culture that expects rules to be followed at certain times, but not (such as during playoffs, and so for) at others. Yes, in soccer there are a LOT of grey areas, but even the classics such as a referee wanting to make damn sure there was a foul in the penalty area before giving an 80% chance at a goal should not be tempered with the time of the game of which that foul occurred. There's a difference and I hope you see it. I had games where the teams are what we want them to be when I had to make critical calls, but unfortunately that's a small minority.

I think Colinna's point, and again keep in mind that I barely cracked the cover before having to drop it to take care of other business, is that Referees are there, not just to administer justice, but to keep the game from decending into chaos, and in either of those situations, the referee that tries to be invisible will fail miserably. Sometimes we have to be boisterous, loud, and to throw in a great referee who's worked on the North American continent has said, lie through your teeth if necessary, to do what's right for the teams and the game.

No, that referee was Dr. Bob Evans, not me. I like to ref, and I think of myself as pretty good, but I'm not that egotistical!

This is, of course, just one big lead-up to the recap of my games earlier in the week. And the lead-up is probably going to be longer than the recap, because the games themselves were pretty tame. Actually, very tame. The usual sea of plastic that I'd experienced the last two years at this point of the winter just isn't there - it's amazing! I only had a single card, and I saw it coming a mile away. Blue player was challenged for the ball, and the challenge was hard; blue player thought he was fouled, I disagreed. Blue Player now runs like a freight train to the player who challenged him, and charging him very hard. As I card him, he complains about the other challenge - again, I disagree with his opinion (this was not stated - I knew he was not in a conversant mood). That was the only issue of the day.

Some referees, most of them the invisible variety, might say that the yellow card was a failure not just of the player, but of myself as a referee. I would be remiss if I didn't state that there are times, and I've written about them here, when I knew the cards I handed out could have been avoided by better man-management; but to blame the referee is to dismiss the responsibility of the players - even in the games where I made tactical mistakes. In this case, I don't think I made such a mistake, even if I did it does one foul justify taking retialatory action? Where does it end? It ends with me. The Bue Player is booked, and nary did another incident spring up.

02 March '04 - 15:16 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Switched to Updated Blog

Just finished doing the final update (barring any unforseen difficulties) of the blog from Pivot version 0.12 to 1.02. Well, I can think of one other thing - link the graphic on the left to the main page - make it handy to everyone.

On the front page, things should be pretty obvious: The layout is a little cleaner, the ubiquitious calendar is on the page, so if you missed a specific date (I can wish I had such regular readers) you can check that instead of mucking about in the archives. Speaking of which, the archives are now organized by week, instead of month - if they get too long (again, I can wish), I can change them back to monthlies. Probably the two biggest features for you are going to be the links looking what links are expected to look like, and the search feature. Both of which I could have fixed myself if I were any real kind of programmer, but I'm not. I'm leeching off this fine piece of software (In case you missed the first link, here it is again), instead.

There's a bunch more in the back-end. Allowing me to do more customization than I could before, and in different browsers.

If you see something that isn't working, drop me a line.

01 March '04 - 18:19 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Results of IFAB's Meeting

IFAB's general meeting has concluded, and we have the details of just what changes officially go into effect on July 1st (although most leagues already in progress will use the existing set of Laws). My originally commentary on it is here.

Law 1: No big shocker than the field of play change (allowing FIFA-approved surfaces like FieldTurf).

Law 3: Drop in the number of substitutes in "friendlies" - the request was to drop from seven to five; the final number worked out to be six.

Law 5: Adding the Fourth Official into the actual laws. Looks like there were some changes into where the fourth's duties lie - we'll have to wait for the actual publication.

Law 10: Extra Time will now be determined by two periods (no more than 15 minutes each) followed by kicks from the penalty mark. Golden Goal (aka sudden death), which was in the original proposal, is now gone.

Law 12: The it's a card/it isn't a card yo-yo has been stopped, and removing your jersey after a goal is now unsporting behavior.

Here's what didn't make it:

Law 7: Increasing halftime to a maximum of 20 minutes. Germany asked it for increase concession sales, FIFA said that it would hurt the players to wait that long.

Law 13: Adding 10 yards to any unsporting behavior designed to keep a quick free kick from happening. Disappointing, yes, but not unexpected. Sometimes radical changes like this need to be pressed for a few years. According to the BBC, however, it's use as an experiment in selected leagues will continue.

Cameroon's one-piece kit has been officially outlawed as well.

01 March '04 - 13:14 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶

Followup story to "Bits of Web Violence"

Last week I seemed to run into a bunch of stories about violence perpitrated upon referees; now we have a followup story:

And it's that the refs are going to strike over it. It looks like just a one-day deal; and while they admit that it'll also affect plenty of teams that don't cause them any problems, what other options do we have to get it out to the teams that we're not there to be punching bags? Lectures and pleas sure haven't worked.

The local FA is working to make sure there are still refs on all the fields for the weekend's games, and while I can understand their position, I don't think sympatheic words are just going to end the situation. The best people to end the violence are from the teams themselves, and maybe the best way to get them to do that, is to threaten to not work their games anymore.

01 March '04 - 10:39 - - default| No comments yet - § ¶