Whenever I recall the reading of advice from the recent article in Soccer America, for whom incidentally I used to write in the seventies, when Clay Berling was the editor of the magazine he founded in 1971, I still get a little steamed, like my daughters' dogs:
It is incomprehensible to me that someone could referee for more than thirty years, through more than 8000 indoor and outdoor games, and still not absorb a principal tenet of officiating. How did he miss that refereeing is based upon enforcing a set of rules which are the same for all participants? How did he come to believe that he could make up his own laws?
No matter, I have written to Soccer America suggesting they correct the egregious error, and I promised you I would explain how you can deal with a flag that you don't need or want. The technique is still sound, even in these days of radio communication among the three or four or six or however-many officials (when is the increase going to end?)
Attacker who played the ball chases after it and continues dribbling as his team-mate stops. Player with the ball rounds the goalkeeper and scores into the empty net. Referee turns to return to midfield; assistant referee stands on the touchline. Defenders rush to the referee shouting about the flag.
They all scream, "What about the f*****g flag? It was offside! Didn't you see the f*****g thing?"
The way-cool referee then says: "No, no, no, fellers! He wasn't calling offside. He was flagging for a foul by a defender." Nobody can argue with that, can they?
A collective "Oh?" resounds across the pitch as the referee continues his run up field for the kick-off.
Discussion ends, and order is restored without corrupting the game. The legitimate goal stands.
And the moral of the story is this: The all-seeing Great Referee In The Sky allows an official to tell a lie during play if it is necessary for peace and order on the field.
Real good way out of sorting it out.
The referee better go over it in the pre-game on "over ruling the AR " and " keeping the game going".
Sometimes an inexperience AR could be stubborn with his "assistance" and forgetting his role of "providing information" to the referee.
Nice job.
Posted by: john Matthew | February 04, 2012 at 11:42 AM