It will stop only if we stop it !

I am accused occasionally of being hard on referees, and as often complimented for being so.  But I don't think it is unreasonable to expect someone who is paid to do an enjoyable weekend job to put some effort into it.  As a player I suffered under the boot of incompetence, and now as an observer of referees, I judge that little has changed.  Most referees do the minimum required to get games, and few and far between are the ones who treat the task as a profession.

My last post referred to amateur games in Sacramento, and then not a day later I came across the challenge that Wayne Rooney made on Aliiev in the world cup qualifier against Ukraine:

Apparently, Rooney did touch the ball before he clattered his opponent, but that is not the point.  Let's make things clear.  The laws make no distinction about timing when one player kicks another.  They do say that any time a player makes contact with an opponent before he plays the ball is a foul.  Well, duh!  Whether carelessly, recklessly or unconsciously, making contact with the opponent before making contact with the ball is always a foul.

The fact that that is the only instance mentioned as illegal in the laws does not mean that all the others are legal.  Kicking an opponent at the same time as you play the ball is also a foul.  Kicking an opponent after you have played the ball is also a foul.  Whether the referee calls the foul is a matter for the level of the game and the atmosphere of the particular game.  But make no mistake, it is a foul.

So, to my critics, I say this: Yes, I am hard on referees, at the amateur level and, in this instance, at the world level, for this referee gave a free kick, but no caution, and no sending off.  Until he and all the rest of us punish players appropriately for this kind of foul, we will never preserve the legs of the players and the legacy of our beautiful game.

Comments

[Glenn Sogge]

With the new version of the Laws, all the "red herrings" of "I got all ball", "I got the ball first", etc., have been removed. By making "Tackles an opponent" (and removing the timing qualifications) one of the careless, reckless, or with excessive force fouls, it is clear that FIFA/IFAB want us to call the fouls as we instructors have been taught to instruct. That is, consider the whole play and not be suckered into the faulty logic excuses that we have been hearing for years. Of course, I anticipate it will be awhile before the players and coaches actually get the memo -- let alone read it.

[Steve Horton]

And sometimes they get it right. See Baldomero Toledo send-off of Jaime Moreno in the DCU-Houston game Saturday.

[Gary Voshol]

I was glad to see tackles put into the careless/reckless/excessive section of Law 12. No more "contacts the ball before the player" - which of course never said that after I get the ball I am free to do anything to my opponent!

When IFAB changed the options the winner of the coin toss had, I still had many captains asking for the kickoff. That stopped maybe about 5 or 7 years after the Law changed. So perhaps sometime around 2015 or so, we might stop hearing, "But I got the ball first!" There's always hope.

[Ted]

Spot On! I refereed a high school match last Friday (April 10). In that match a defender came along side an attacker, went in for a tackle, came across the attacker, taking the attackers legs, and then cleared the ball. I whistled for the foul and gave a caution. All I heard from the defender was, "I got the ball." I said, "After going through the player." No arguement from the defender's coach. And I even received a thank you from the attacking team's captain. Sometimes I get them right.