For the Integrity of Soccer

A New Referees' Committee. Now What?

With the announcement that U. S. Soccer will have a new Chairman of the Referees’ Committee, which itself will have several new members, do I see a glimmer of hope for change?

Last of the Shameless Advertising..

This morning the Oakland Tribune published the first of the weekly articles I will be writing for the organization.  Find today's with this link, but note the caveat from the newspaper: Just copy the link and use it wherever you like. Articles are only guaranteed to remain in our system for 14 days. Older articles can be found using the Advanced Search feature on the site.
    Any referee with normal vision will notice a spelling error in the title, so please don't write a comment about it, since I didn't make it.  Titles are tacked on by staff at the newspaper, irrespective of what the writer has named the piece.
    The latest blog for the Tribune asks: What does the U.S. world ranking mean?  Feel free to comment! 

Oakland Tribune soccer blog

The soccer blog I am starting for The Oakland Tribune is at Inside Soccer.  This brings you to insidebayarea.com, where you will see The Oakland Tribune on the left.  Scroll down and you will see "Featured Quick Links", under which is Blog: Inside Soccer.  That link gets you it. 

The soccer column will appear in print every Tuesday, starting on the 30th, which coincidentally is the day I am allowed to start riding my bike again after the disemboweling of April 18th.  I like the synchronicity: a new venture starts and an old practice resumes on the same day, allowing me to get fit again, and look forward to a public conversation about The Beautiful Game.

   

News and responses to contributors

 

  The news is good: I have been commissioned by The Oakland Tribune to write a weekly column on soccer, and to accompany it with a blog several times a week--daily even--in the newspaper's online version.  The first column will be on Tuesday May 30th, and after that you can see the Tribune blog   under The Oakland Tribune and Featured Quick Links.  The range of the pieces will include anything to do with the sport: players, teams, events--in other words, The Beautiful Game. 

He who does not hesitate is lost…

    Warming up for the World Cup, I sat down yesterday to watch the European Champions League final from Paris.  What a match it promised to be!  Two great teams, one unscored upon in more than ten matches in the competition; half-a-dozen great players, and at least a dozen who will be in the World Cup. 
    So when it was all over, why did I sit back disappointed?  I’m not an Arsenal fan, wishing and willing them to win.  No, that wasn’t the reason, although over the decades, Arsenal did let some great Welsh players perform for them.  It was simply this: I was disappointed because in a match that promised much, the thing that left me deflated was unsophisticated refereeing, far below the standard of what was required by the contest.  Take this one incident among many…

Free kicks: A spectator’s viewpoint

    

Not long ago (April 7), I wrote some comments about referees who seem unable to deal with free kicks as required by the Laws of the Game, the most important items of Law 13 being: opponents who delay the taking of the free kick; and opponents who refuse to respect the required distance of ten yards.  (I made reference and gave a link to a short paper I had written showing how players cheat at free kicks.)  That was the viewpoint of an experienced referee; now read the opinion of a first-class player, coach, spectator and enthusiast of this great game of ours…

The ranks are diminished again…

   

In the last few days, the refereeing world in the United States lost another significant name from the days of the North American Soccer League…Gus Constantine of New York.