Ask me about being a FIFA-certified soccer referee

[Frelo]

Yeti > IMHO because football is one of the most simple team games. You only have a few rules (comparing to rubgy, basketball, volleyball...) and basically everyone watching/being involved in a game thinks he could be better than the referee (I'm no exception). These simple rules are part of what makes football the most popular sport worldwide.

The only tricky rule, as said OP, is the positional offside when the guy isn't involved in the action.

BTW line of the week in french 1st division :
Coach of the team standing in the bottom : "Referring has been ugly blablablah"
Referee : "If he was in my place, there would be a riot every single week. If I was in his place... Well it couldn't be worse, as they are already on the bottom"

[cognito20]

[ QUOTE ]
why is football such an undisciplined sport? by that i mean countless times you see players surrounding the referee, tearing after him when he retreats, swearing in his face, yet they rarely get so much as a yellow card. its pathetic.

[/ QUOTE ]

In many cases, it's because the referee does not have the intestinal fortitude to pull a card out of his pocket when that happens. The times I've had to deal with that, I find that it's best to set an early example. If I hear profanity and I think it's directed towards me, another official or an opponent, especially early in a game, the player's name is going in the book. If you do it early and show that it's not going to be tolerated, the players will generally fall into line. There's nothing like seeing a teammate have a yellow card waved at them for dissent in the 3rd minute to get a team to shut up and play proper soccer.

Of course, most of my experience is NCAA, high school and youth level. The few games I've worked with professionals, in the A-League, you have to let more go, but there's still a line that has to be drawn. One common convention regarding dissent that is followed by referees in MOST sports, not just in soccer, is that when the dissent gets _personal_, that's when the line has been crossed. A coach that says "that's horrible" is probably going to be able to get away with it. If he says "YOU'RE horrible, ref", he's going to be disciplined.

[cognito20]

[ QUOTE ]
I've always heard that the higher end soccer players are all giant pussies and aren't that tough compared to baseball, hockey, and football players. What's your take?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd like to see the people who said that take a two-footed sliding tackle from the likes of, say, Gennaro Gattuso and see if 1) their shin or ankle bone is still in one piece, or 2) if they can still walk afterwards. In the case of most baseball players I've known, I'd like to see them play a full 90 minutes of competitive soccer and NOT go into cardiac arrest.

Anybody who says that soccer is a sport for pussies has never played it.

[Bulldog]

When a guy fakes an injury rolling around on the ground and then hops back up and continues to play as if nothing has happened, why don't you penalize him? This is the single reason why American non-wuss sports fans will never embrace your silly game.

[cognito20]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeti > IMHO because football is one of the most simple team games. You only have a few rules (comparing to rubgy, basketball, volleyball...) and basically everyone watching/being involved in a game thinks he could be better than the referee (I'm no exception). These simple rules are part of what makes football the most popular sport worldwide.

The only tricky rule, as said OP, is the positional offside when the guy isn't involved in the action.

BTW line of the week in french 1st division :
Coach of the team standing in the bottom : "Referring has been ugly blablablah"
Referee : "If he was in my place, there would be a riot every single week. If I was in his place... Well it couldn't be worse, as they are already on the bottom"

[/ QUOTE ]

The referee was out of line and unprofessional to make those sort of comments in a public forum, but that's still one of the funniest things I've heard all week. I have to admit that that IS the sort of thing we referees say to each other behind closed doors when no one outside the fraternity is around. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[cognito20]

[ QUOTE ]
When a guy fakes an injury rolling around on the ground and then hops back up and continues to play as if nothing has happened, why don't you penalize him? This is the single reason why American non-wuss sports fans will never embrace your silly game.

[/ QUOTE ]

I DO penalize it. It's called simulation, and it's a bookable offense. Any player who commits an action intended to deceive the referee can be shown the yellow card. If the kid's being blatant about it, I'm gonna put him in the book without a second thought, and I'm not going to particularly care about anyone's opinion regarding it. To be fair, I can more easily summon up the courage to make that sort of call since I am using dealing with college kids and youth players, not professionals, and am not going to face the same kind of jeopardy to my job (since they're desperate for referees at the non-professional levels) if I'm wrong and the guy actually WAS injured.

Just for the record, I AM American, and have been a fan of all the "big 4" American sports all of my life, as well as soccer. I'm also a cricket, rugby and Aussie Rules fan from having lived in Australia. And as far as "American non-wuss sports fans never embracing my silly game", who the hell cares what the typical American sports fan thinks? All one has to do is listen to the quality, or lack thereof, of discourse on ESPN or Fox Sports Radio call-in shows to realize that the opinion of the "typical" American sports fan is generally not to be taken seriously by anyone with a working brain. It's not going to affect my enjoyment of or involvement with the game one single bit.

Actually, the REAL reason most American sports fans don't follow soccer is that we are one of the world's most insular societies, and soccer is a sport that we didn't invent and are really not particularly good at. That, however, is another topic for another thread.

[matt85]

Jeff Winter, ex Premier League referee has ask-me threads on another message board if anybody is interested...

http://middlesbrough.rivals.net/defa...p;stid=8454980

[Frelo]

The line is not from a public forum, it's been published in the most read football weekly magazine in France, and on their site.

First time a referee talks like this in public, dunno what the consequences will be, he's one of the best here (Bertrand Poulat, officiated in last WC).

[Hume]

[ QUOTE ]
why is football such an undisciplined sport? by that i mean countless times you see players surrounding the referee, tearing after him when he retreats, swearing in his face, yet they rarely get so much as a yellow card. its pathetic.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're just not as civilized obv.

[traz]

What's the pay like (if you don't mind answering)