"BALANCE": IT’S WORSE THAN I THOUGHT !

    When I dove into the murky waters of criticizing our referee program for allowing heretical concepts to dominate our upper levels of refereeing and play (and by the trickle-down effect, eventually the entire game in the U.S.), I did not expect to see things quite so clearly as I do now.  But if you look at the recent comments the blog received, you can understand how I can now say, as I come to the surface of those dirty depths, that the problem is worse than I thought.  The waters are thoroughly adulterated by poison that will sicken our beautiful game . . .

    Let me reassure readers that even if decisions appear to be unbalanced, if they are made honestly and in accordance with the Laws of the Game, over the duration of a game, they will achieve the balance demanded by Justice (see the image below).  And remember that Justice is blindfold as she administers the book of laws, which she holds as she suspends the scales. 

   

By the way, all the comments I received, except one, are published just as I received them.  I removed the one, not because I disagreed with the writer, but because “anonymous” chose to deliver a gratuitous insult, which to my mind, served no purpose in the discussion.  Like the character Lafcadio in Andre Gide’s parody (sotie) Les Caves du Vatican, “anonymous” did it because he felt like doing it, no more, no less.  In Gide’s parody, however, the act was real murder, not silly abuse.  No matter, I’m not having it on this site, which for more than two years has been free of acrimony among writer or contributors.

    Back to “balance”.  In addition to what I already knew, I have learned the following:

    • One of our FIFA ARs is teaching (2006) that if an apparent penalty near the edge of the area would increase the lopsidedness of a game, the referee should place the ball outside the area and give a mere free kick.

    • After a game in the now-defunct American Indoor Soccer League in the late nineteen-eighties, Joe Machnik berated the officials for allowing a game to become too lopsided.

    • The trickle-down effect of this heresy has already begun to affect youth play at the state cup level.  (Two contributors.)

    • Some national referees are more concerned about balanced foul-count than about the correct calls.  Their attempts at balance brings about strange “make up” calls.

    • MLS referees respond only to those who give them games or assessments.  (I knew this, but it is nice to read that others have reached the same conclusions.)

    • Perhaps the problem lies beyond Joe Machnik, beyond Esse and Alfred, and in the laps of MLS owners and national officers.

    • USSF officials must decide whether their duty is to the game or to the owners and TV revenue.

    • The problem may be the conflict between what is “fair” and what is “compelling” in the eyes of the league.

    • Assigning may be part of the problem, because of the money being paid by the teams who are in the competition.  Pressure squeezes referees who punish teams and players.

    Next: The heresy of “referee’s influence” and the damage it has done.

Comments

[Scott W.]

"Perhaps the problem lies beyond Joe Machnik, beyond Esse and Alfred, and in the laps of MLS owners and national officers"

One more person to add to the list of people who are not helping the situation - TV commentators. It only takes one "Eric" comment or a slew of other "color" commentators to get the general public confused about what they are watching and what the referee did or did not do regarding play.

In fact, few would disagree that professional soccer is an entertainment business. With a public that in some areas of the country is new to soccer getting their education about the application of the laws from people who have never refereed a game, and thinking that commentator's opinion is fact - well then the public thinks the referee is messing with the "entertainment" of the game. How could the owners NOT want to tinker with referes?

Want to fix the TV problem? How come there is never, NEVER a sports official also providing color commentary on the game? We get ex-players, ex-general managers, ex-coaches, why not an ex official? It can't be because there are not people who picked up a whistle with the wit and charm to be entertaining. Some referees have some of the BEST stories...

Imagine a TV Analyst who had refereed the sport at any level for a couple of years... I have a dream...

[PedroL]

I watch a lot of soccer on TV, and in the pro-leagues in Mexico they have at least two ex-FIFA referees that comment and analyze plays during the broadcast. Its like night and day the difference between here and there.

[Anonymous]

I believe I'm the anonymous Mr. Evans is talking about.

I would like to apologize to Mike for being rude and insulting. I was definitely wrong to do that and hope you accept my apologies. Not to make excuses for myself because I should have known better, but the past few weeks have been extremely stressful and you were the unfortunate person I took my anger out on.

Second, I'd like to apologize to Mr. Evans for degrading his blog with my snide comments. Won't happen again.

From RE: Thanks for this. No harm done.