Is this really the best that we can do?

A short time ago, someone sent me an opinion-piece published in October of 1998, and while I have been traveling here and there these past few weeks, I have been mulling it over.  Written by Robert Wagman and called MLS must improve officiating, the article was on the website SoccerTimes.  What can it tell us today?

The gist of the article dealt with what Wagman saw as major problems: consistency from game-to-game, referee-to-referee, and from one part of the match to another, particularly in identifying red-card offences; the calling of offside; and the matter of “diving” to draw a free kick.  Understand that the writer is not a referee-baiter, but an observer concerned with the development of MLS and the professional game in this country, as am I.

At the end of the article he quoted a senior official in the United States Soccer Federation, as interviewed by Soccer America: “..refereeing must be a priority. . . referees have never received the attention or the support that developing players have in the U.S., and that’s where we have to improve.”

The reason I have been mulling over the article is simply its age—it is now eight years old.  I thought it might be useful to look at where we are now.  In other words:  In those eight years, how have we improved things?  Here are the improvements; bite them, bullet-by-bullet:

    •  Every World Cup since 1982 has seen an American official as a referee in the finals.  This year we had only ancillary officials, one made famous by participating in Graham Poll’s embarrassing yellow-card display.

    •  The present system of development of national and international officials has produced few, if any, competitive top-class referees.  Brian Hall was educated and trained via the NASL and the early national referee training sessions, the idea for which originated with Bob Sumpter.

    •  This season in MLS one of our FIFA referees failed his assessment in three games, possibly four.  He was rewarded with top games.

    •  Another of our FIFA referees was given time off MLS during this season, for screwing up.  This was a surprise, given that he has been protected for several years by his friendship with Joe Machnik, and given the fact that observers say he has received regular “help” with written tests.

    •  The final of the Open Cup this year was marred by the award of a goal that was not legal.  An AR and the FIFA referee in the middle simply failed to notice that the goalkeeper had moved out, leaving only one defender nearer the goal-line than an opponent when the ball was played to him.  It was an amateur decision in a professional match.

    •  To solve some of these problems, one retired FIFA referee has been recalled to national testing and MLS, even though his career was punctuated regularly by his inability to pass fitness tests.  Described by the soccer writer for the L.A. Times as a “portly gentleman”, this referee once moved even Julie Ilacqua to declare when he failed another: “Oh, no _____!  Not again..”  And can we soon expect to see some “fast-track” ex-players in MLS as referees?  Trained by whom?

    •  In the playoffs in MLS this year, referees have shown an inability—not for the first time—to recognize clear denial of goal-scoring opportunity, have lost control (Houston/Chivas), have not penalized blatant elbowing, have failed to see—again, not for the first time—serious incidents, and on and on…  The word is that as a reward for their performance, one or two of them will make the international panel next year.

    •  Last year, and this, we have been unable to fill the panel of international referees, despite having a professional league for ten years, and a director of development of national and international referees for about eight.

The bottom line: Eight years after the SoccerTimes article, the same old faults and weaknesses of refereeing in MLS persist.  Our training and development program at the top level simply does not work, and ought to be improved, with new ideas, new instructors, new technology.  The program needs help.  To do otherwise is to invite more of these same failures week after week, season after season.

Oh, one more thing!  Who was the author of that 1998 statement I quoted to start this article with?  It was the Director of Officials responsible for national and international referee development at that time.  He and his partner in ineffectiveness, the National Director of Referee Instruction, have been in office for all the years since.

Draw your own conclusions . . . .