For the Integrity of Soccer

Basic training & education: An example of need

    I have advocated an overhaul of our training program to make sure that step-by-step, we build into our training all the techniques referees need, to deal with all the methods players use to subvert the laws of the game.  The game in Dallas exemplified the need:  A referee was assigned to a match he was not capable of refereeing, he had never been taught basic techniques of control and management, and no assessors and instructors had helped him rise to the level required before he took the match.

    That referee was near the top of the training-pyramid; what of someone near the bottom?  Read on and weep...

A fair question: What would I have done in Dallas?

    Very soon after I used the example of a rather sad event in Dallas to highlight a deficiency in the education of an inexperienced referee being given his first crack at a pro game, I received several requests for an explanation.  They deserve answers, and so here they are. 

Offside subtleties... by Ed Bellion

    Incidents in two recent games have highlighted the difficult question for referees and their assistants of correctly judging "interfering with play" or "interfering with an opponent" or "gains an advantage" in cases where a player is in an offside position, but does not get the ball himself.  In one case the decision was correctly reached, in the other case perhaps not....