The "Hockey Man" in charge ?

    After the MLS final, when I published the spurious press-release from FIFA, suggesting that the world organization was going to change the laws to allow some of the nonsensical things that have been advocated by officials in this country, and encouraged by officers of MLS, I received some surprising comments.  Here is the most intriguing one:

...officiating in the US will advance only when they get rid of the "hockey man" that controls the referees and the USSF referee program.

    The writer wished to remain anonymous, and after I found his identity, I understood why.  He has been around the refereeing of the game in this country for many, many years, knows what has gone on these last two decades, is familiar with the way that Chicago (the federation, not the city) works, and I have no reason to disbelieve him.  Besides which, his comments gave me the chance to do a bit of sleuthing, and I can’t resist that!

    It proved to be deceptively easy to find the identity, so I didn’t have to do much sleuthing.  I started with the most likely member of the “powerful pentad”, Joe Machnik, because I know from referee reports, public and private, that he wields all the power that determines who is acceptable to MLS.

    You can follow the path I took.  Google his name and the third item on the list gives the mystery away.  The site is the University of New Haven in West Haven, Connecticut, where Joe was Soccer Coach/Athletic Director from 1969-1980.  He served the University well, including this among his activities:

    Named as the New England Intercollegiate Soccer League’s Coach of the Year two times he also served as the hockey coach for three seasons.

    Voilá !  The mystery “Hockey Man” of my anonymous correspondent revealed!  The writer believes that if we can get rid of HM, we can start to advance our program. 

    We need to know why, and so next: the influence “Hockey Puck” (my preferred name for him, which I will explain in the next post) holds, and the heresies he has preached.

Comments

[Anonymouse]

When will MLS wake up and see that to become a better league -- and better respected not only by the referees and people in the USA, but those abroad also -- they need to have someone in charge who has actually officiated at higher levels, knows the sport and profession, and can improve the officiating. Not that it's that bad, as most fans of MLS would have you believe. Anyway.

The 'Hockey Man' has only one out of those four. And it shows when he speaks and writes. Would the EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, etc., have a coach as Director of Officiating Services (I believe that's what it is called)? Not in a million years. Not even smaller countries would do that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the "Hockey Man" is a nice person and a good coach, but get someone in there who has the proper experience to lead the referees.

[pat smith]

I would respectfully disagree with anonymous, who implied that to be in charge of a top-flight professional league refereeing dept., one should in turn have been a top-flight referee. The N.A.S.L had three Directors in its 17 years. The first was Eddie Pearson who had been a Football league Linesman when he took the job. The second, Keith Walker had bee a F.I.F.A. referee in England, but his ability lay more in administration; he had been General Manager of Sheffield Wednesday prior to coming to America. The third, and final Director was Harry Baldwin, who had been a National Referee. All three men were excellent administrators, all three understood refereeing to the letter. I know this because I worked for all three as their Director of Assessment.