Additional Assistant Referees, the sequel (from Ed)

    Regular readers of these pages will recall that I wrote an article in October of last year about the concept and use of the Additional Assistant Referees in the UEFA Champions and the Europa Leagues. At the time I pointed out several problems with using these officials who were stationed on the goal line to the left side of the goal from the attackers’ viewpoint.  Has UEFA now solved those problems?

    One of the difficulties was that the center referees tended to run up and down the middle of the pitch, and even drifted over to the right side, near to the ARs. Often they would be looking and turned to the left and as a result the ARs were completely out of their vision behind their backs.  The other issue was that this more central positioning was clearly getting in the way of the players and taking up space that the players need. 

    It was clear that many referees were feeling uncomfortable with this positioning, which was different from their normal running patterns in their domestic leagues.  Although we believe that there is really no need for the AAR, (if the referee is allowed and encouraged to take deeper positions in both set plays and dynamic play), it would still be better if the referee kept to his original diagonal patrol and occasionally came close to the AAR.

    Now this season, I am again watching the early rounds of the Champions’ League and find that UEFA must have recognized the problems with the CRs running pattern, and in order to allow the referee to resume his normal left side diagonal system, have now moved the AAR to the right of the goal!  Yes, on the same side as the AR.  This now makes matters worse. At a corner kick or close free kick, the AR and the AAR are essentially looking at the same thing, and the left side of the goal is not covered… again.

    A better procedure, if UEFA wants to persist with AARs, would be to keep them on the left side, and still allow the referee to run a left diagonal. This would result in having the one person on the goal line to the left of the goal at close free kicks and corner kicks, and also there in the event of a very fast counterattack. The AR would be covering the offside line at the free kicks and counterattacks and also be on the line on the right side of the goal for the corner kicks. Sometimes the CR and the extra official would be close together on the left side, but this is far preferable to having the AAR stand directly in front of the AR at corner kicks as is now the case.

    As far as we know, there has been no explicit definition of the role of the AAR, presumably because the function of the extra officials is still evolving.  Obviously he can make goal-line decisions, but what about calling notorious incidents like the Thierry Henry handball of a couple of seasons ago?  And what about the calling of a penalty-kick?  (See the comment by Chuck Stuart.)

    Next: The referee program's recent good reminder, the paper "I got the ball".  What it says, and what it leaves out.  Which is most important?

    And then:  A personal history of retaken penalty-kicks and kicks from the penalty-mark, leading to 28 in one game, to the development of the 35-yard shootout, and to one NASL match abandoned.

Comments

[chuck stuart]

Just out of curiosity, what actually is the role of the AAR on the endline? To be honest, with all the CL matches I've watched, I can't say that I've ever seen one make a call. Are they there just for goal line decisions? Do they have the same authority as the linesmen with respect to flagging fouls? Do they even have a flag or only a microphone/headset?

[Leigh W. Davis]

Why is this so hard? It seems everyone except UEFA thinks the AARs stay on the goal line on the referee's diagonal, the referee runs the usual diagonal, and the ARs do their usual gig. I know UEFA's got some smart guys, but really. The flaws of the first version and now the second version are painfully obvious to anyone who's refereed even moderately competitive soccer or thought about it much at all.

The only possible justification that comes to mind is that this is being done as part of the political process to get it implemented.

LWD

[Ed Bellion]

Responses from Ed:
There is a document (available here:
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/01/09/72/32/additionalassistanrefs-backgroundpaper%5fe.pdf)that concerns duties and functions for the AARs but it is quite general and not very useful IMO. For signaling they have a device in their hands, presumably a beeper-type to contact the referee with. But they are certainly not being used as well as they could be. It seems that they are not well liked by most people in the game, and seem to be a pet project of one or two powerful people in UEFA.