Question Number: 17008

Other 10/1/2007

RE: International Adult

Franco of Bloomington, USA asks...

While watching the women's world cup I have noticed the close scrutiny by the announcers/expert soccer panel about the officiating. If it doesn't stink they try and stir it up and make you think it stinks.

It seems the in thing to do is to criticize every call or every time a USA player goes down as a suspect no call. Every foul is watched in slow motion and from different angles to come up with evidence that the call was bad. Then once that is determined the talk gets a flavor of its USA against the world and we always have to beat 14 players on the field. A bad call is always intentional and then comes a conspiracy theory.

If any of you have watched the games do you feel the officiating is that bad and if so do you think its bad across the board or just the USA?

I personally hate this attitude and it seems in this country we have become suspicious of everything and everyone and we always expect the worse rather than good. Here are my thoughts and I would like to hear yours and how it trickles down to the youth game.

1. We judge soccer officiating through the eyes of basketball and football. In that we expect instant replay and reversal of calls once we have analysed it in 5 different angles and in 3 different speeds. We expect the monitor/technology to carry more authority than the refs on the field.

2. We expect the worse from our officials in every sport and feel that bad calls are on purpose and the ref has dark motives.

3. We feel like the away team in all sports never gets good calls and the refs are home people that just can't wait to give you a homer. So since these girls are playing across the big pond and most refs are foreign relative to us and that don't happen to like us, therefore they officiate against us rather than officiate the game.

The media feeds off of controversy. I think this attitude is carried into youth sports. In some of my past duties I saw first hand how people of one town have this attitude that other towns are out to get them and they bring in their refs to ensure they get the shaft. I worked hard trying to say refs are doing there best and they have to make the call, they can't vote on it. They can only call what their brain tells them they saw.

I hate this attitude of crying and whining and never finding blame when you look in the mirror. I don't think the refs have changed the outcome in the World Cup. Sure there have been bad calls but I like to believe they are not on purpose and the ref did not have slow motion vision at his or her disposal. Sometimes life is not fair and bad things happen so that is a lesson taught by sports as well. One of the beauties of soccer is the absence of instant replays, coaching challenges of calls, official review of play, long stoppages by refs, and etc. Sure there are bad calls but build a bridge and get over it. Mostly bad calls are just bad calls and like Sigmund Freud said sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Franco

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Franco the main problem is American television commentators seem to be paid by the number of words they use not the correctness of those words. Please don't try writing to ESPN or ABC sports about their commentators because they seem to have their minds made up and will not answer, at least they didn't answer me as MrRef@asktheref.com.

80% of new referees in this country quit after the first year because they are unable to accept the abuse heaped upon them by spectators and coaches. Those people learn their words of abuse from television commentators who relate basketball, baseball, gridiron football and soccer broadcasts in America. There was a rare moment of clarity in the USA Norway match, the HD feed failed for a period of three minutes and the American commentators were lost. ESPN chose another English commentator and fed his voice with the fill in picture. He obviously understood The Game and his comments reflected the positive side of both teams. Had he have been the match commentator I heard the whole match I would have written my praise of his expertise.

Dellacamera and Foudy have nice jobs, nice voices but that's about it. I don't care about what a coaches choice regarding who plays and why they think should play just happen to be, I just want to watch the match. Comments by substitutes after a previous match or what a referee's decisions were in a previous match or what happened after a previous match against this same opponent, 8 years ago, have no bearing on the play in the current match. The producers and directors seem to think American viewers are interested in the "bad" side of everything. I'm not and it appears you aren't either .

I'll turn it off when they get to me. MLS broadcasts, even in HD on ESPN and HD Net, waste my time and try my patience for the same reasons.

Regards,

Answer provided by Referee Michelle Maloney

Franco, just remember that those who know the least know it loudest - witness the commentary in the WWC you referenced. And in all fairness, when players are the commentators they are talking about things they as players remember or were interested in regarding happenings on the field. There is almost never a referee in the announcers booth because to comment on another professional's work would be problematic, yes? It would be nice though, if there was someone with a bit more real knowledge to explain the nuances and dispel some of the myths and veils of mystery. Sigh.