Emerging from the crowded business of the National Referee training camp recently there came a fascinating—not to mention surprising—snippet of information we probably wouldn’t have heard about, were it not for the presence of a distinguished visitor from FIFA. Upon hearing that snippet, some of the referees at the gathering inevitably asked a few questions, though not publicly, of course. Public questioning or criticism of the Powerful Pentad is not permitted, as we all know . . .
The distinguished visitor was Mr. Lisle Austin of Barbados. He is a Vice-President of FIFA, Vice-President of CONCACAF and member of its referee committee, and came to give our referees his views on “Professionalism”, a standard topic at referee meetings, although of dubious educational value. Referees benefit more from lessons on technique and application than from theory.
Mr. Austin let slip that in their attempt to promote improvement of all aspects of the game, FIFA and CONCACAF have made grants for “referee development” to various countries around the globe. Would you believe $250,000 to the United States Soccer Federation? Isn’t that great? (But just in case you missed the irony, that little fact was delivered to a large audience, each one of whom had paid his or her own way to benefit from this year’s national referee development program.) The money from FIFA/CONCACAF must have been used for things more important than that, but we can only speculate, because no announcement on how the money was used or is being used will come from secretive Chicago.
Since a cold wind has been blowing across Davis, California these last few days—a real wind, not a figurative one—I haven’t ridden my bike in the morning. That gave me more than an hour each day in the warmth of my office to write down what I could do for referee development with $250K. Here’s my partial list.
For 25K we could get an interactive educational CD into the hands of one thousand referees (and thereby thousands more) on various subjects of importance, for example: the art of simulation (diving) and how to interpret it; critical fouls and how to get the right angle to see them on various parts of the field; while acting as AR, when to change your direction of looking to get the maximum wide angle. There’s 75K. We have the know-how and the technology, but Chicago won’t use it, nor seek the advice of those who can.
For 25K we can produce thousands of copies of a handbook of what each referee should master at each level of the game: early youth; competitive youth; adult soccer; semi-professional and professional soccer. Chicago hasn’t even drawn up such a list.
For another 25K, we could take selections from the video examples of fouls, non-fouls, dives, etc. that Chicago has sent out to illustrate problems in professional soccer, and produce an interactive CD to show how important the angle at which you look at the incidents is in making the right decision. (By the way, NISOA, a step or two ahead of the federation, has agreed to produce something similar for college soccer. It will be available for the summer clinic season.)
Well, you get the picture, and I’ve spent only 125K. The US is a huge country and we have to be able to reach more than 140,000 officials. We can do it electronically and in a sophisticated way, not merely with the occasional (essentially non-technical) newsletter. We can even test individual referees via the internet by sending out individually-tailored problems. Pretty soon, you will be getting most of your daily news via internet journalism, and yet here we are, still sending out clumsy videotapes for purchase as educational material in the 21st century.
Perhaps more important is the realization that we have in our organization experts in various skills: programming, computer systems analysts and professors, animators, writers, all of whom could contribute, if they were allowed. That, of course, is the problem. Chicago doesn’t like giving up control, as though they are too insecure to recognize others’ expertise. They prefer to play things close to the vest.
So what did they do, or what are they planning to do with the 250K. Anyone know?
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