yellow cards red cards

[soccer21]

I understand the points everyone is making but there is no light at the end of the tunnel, officiating needs to be looked at from the higher governing bodies of both TSSAA and USSF. It is unfair for a high school team to travel an hour to play someone that the officials call everything for the home team, which happened to my team this Friday, where my players were getting spit upon and cursed at and the officials replied, "it is a man's sports deal with it" or on the case of Keith adding 6 minutes extra time for no reason what so ever. The only thing I know as an official is that I am not supposed to publicly judge my colleagues but it is so difficult...It is getting to the point that I think it will be more fair to let the kids call their own fouls which could be the end of all these bad calls we have to deal with all the time.

 

shs01

[drsoccer]

It all boils down to these facts. The game consists of players, coaches and referees. Great advances have been made3 in the past few decades concerning player technique and tactical understanding. The same can be said for coaching. As a whole the referee side has not advanced as fast. Many are officiating who have never played . There are alot of great officials. We as players and coaches have to get involved and officiate when we are in the offseason or after we retire from playing. But for now we will be disatisfied because we don't get perfect offials. But have we as players played a perfect game or played great with no mistakes all the time? Have we coached a perfect game every time? Even the FIFA officials at the top level make mistakes. The only answer that I can come up with is let's officiate(we usually do that when we play and coach anyway) when we are ready and maybe we can help the game more.

[stevscarb]

There are things that need fixing. There is not enough communication between the refs, the teams and the governing organization in School soccer. There is no soccer committee that I am aware of in TSSAA. I know that there is nothing like that in MSSAA, which is what I am dealing with at present. I help coach a middle school team and have a kid playing high school ball. How do we address some of these very valid problems? We can whine all we want but that leaves us sitting in the same spot unless we take some of that energy and turn it into action. Perhaps some vehicle for action exists now but we have to find it and use it in a constructive manner. Let's have ideas on this and get to work.

 

Steve Scarborough

stevescarb@aol.com

[Illini]

Let try to answer your few biased points that you make.

 

1. Each sport is goverened as a sport. They are individule sports . They are not the same and shouldn't be treated the same. Two unsportsman like penalties and your gone. (2 gaame suspension), two technical fouls your gone ( 2 game suspension, two yellow cards (no suspension). So lets see who is getting treated better. Each of these are the same for each sport.

 

2. This is what is to used by an offcial in tssaa games.(Section 8 art.1 A PLAYER, COACH OR BENCH PERSONNEL SHALL BE CAUTIONED (YELLOW CARD) FOR : ANY INCIDENTAL USE OF VULGAR OR PROFANE LANGUAGE. To me this rule is pretty self explainitory. So don't talk about fifa this is tssaa and the rules should be enforced as written and not used at a persons descretion.

 

3.I agree with you on this point you need to be consistent and accually need to start a game calling it tight if you have to then you can losen it up if they will play for you. Each game is different and a knowledgable official will do this.

 

4. The only way the 2 man system will be banned is if we have about 100 new officials sign up. Right now there is not enough to cover the games we have. We try to use 3 man on every district game but it becoming very hard there is not that many officials. So to solve this problem We need new people. So you naysayers come on and join and help to be the solution instead of gripping about the problem.

 

 

[Edited by Illini on 3-19-03 6:59A]

 

[takedown3]

eastsideimport1. Get that pile of lumber off your shoulder before it crushes you!

[stevscarb]

Illini,

I am not clear on some of your comments but I'll try to add to the discussion best I can.

1. I understand that each sport is different. My problem is with the disciplinary actions that follow from TSSAA rules. A soccer player who curses faces immediate ejection and school disciplinary action because of those rules. A football player who curses won't even be noticed, most likely, and certainly will never have to face suspension for the next game. A player can receive a red card for simply fouling out of a soccer game and bring the weight of TSSAA down on his head. It is not fair to soccer players!

2. I will have to get a copy of the TSSAA soccer rules for this one but going by what you have written I stand by my statement that this is definitely open to discretion! There is no list of words that should not be used. You used the terms "vulgar or profane language" and that is absolutely open to interpretation. There is no point and nothing is gained by punishing a player who uses a word that you personally don't like in a nonthreatening or nonaggresive manner, except to demonstrate misplaced priorities and a lack of judgement. Let me give you an example: Is the word "kill" deserving of action? If a player tells an opponent the he will be killed as soon as he turns his back, I think we would have to agree that action is called for by the ref. If a player says "kill the ball" it is totally benign. WE can go into more graphic examples that would belabor the point but I hope you can see from this that judgement is allowed even in TSSAA rules.

3. Glad we agree, here. Would that more refs understood what a hacking foul is, by the way. This seems to be the dirtiest foul in the game at the moment. It is hard to catch.

4. I can not justify the 2 man system because TSSAA does not have enough refs. The players would rather have a certified ref close to the action making his best effort at calling fouls, than out the emphasis on offsides. Even TSSAA rules allow using club linesmen in a shortage. You want to help solve the ref problem? Get rid of TSSAA rules and use FIFA rules consistantly across the board for playing the game on the field. Let TSSAA do its thing for organization and quit telling us how the game is played. I personally know several USSF refs who will not get TSSAA certification. I looked at the signals I would have to give and said forget it. Anyway, I take enough abuse at club games.

 

Cheers,

Steve Scarborough

[papasmurfdizzle]

I know many quality refs who work for under FIFA rules and run many of your travel tournaments in middle Tennessee. Sadly, these refs refuse to do high school games because THEY recognize the quality of high school refs and do not want to be placed with that stigma of being a 'high school ref'. Thought some people might like to know that.

 

On another note, a ref threw one of my teammates out this year for muttering, "Thats a bunch of bullcrap," after another teammate got his second yellow for a slide tackle. Straight red, no warning or anything. Are these guys just loving their power too much now a days? I believe a ref has done his job when he has done all he could to make no impact on the game itself. Anyone agree with this?

[finhead1212]

I agree totally. The game should not be decided by a call the referee makes or by a key player that is thrown out cause of a little comment. The refs should let the teams play and let them decide the outcome without letting the game get out of hand. There was a newspaper aticle in the tennessean that a referee wrote about him calling a game with the man who founded the metros, his name slipps my mind, but the guy was an idiot and made us tie huntsville 2-2 when there was a goal that should not have been awarded. Me and the goalie went and asked him why the inital foul was called and how he could not see that the kid who sccored the goal pushed down our keeper before he scored and he had no way of explaining himself. What I'm trying to say is that anyone in TN can get a referee liscence. Our refs need to be better trained.

[dback33]

your right. properly trained referees are trained to be no more than a peice of grass that keep things from getting TOO out of hand. I knwo for a fact that referees are taught to make as little impact on a game as possible because i was FIFA certified but decided id be better off asking the parents for money. the point is, YES, i believe referees are abusing their so called "power" they should let soccer be played the way its suppose to be played, PHYSICAL, a lil blood never hurt anybody. lol