Quote:
Originally Posted by eg-italy
Actually, high level soccer has four officials: a referee, two linesmen and a third assistant who stands at the center of a side line, at least in Europe. I don't know what NCAA soccer does.
The two linesmen are in charge of the offside rule and may call the referee's attention to rough play. Of course, being along the side line (only half of the field), they cannot help very much in this respect.
There has been a test with two referees on the field, but it was wrong from the beginning: each one essentially covered half of the field. Useless. One of the objections was that two referees can't have the same way of judging the plays, go figure. 
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NCAA uses four as well.
I have a question for you, eg-italy: UEFA is using two additional referees to watch the penalty areas in Europa League* matches, to watch for the ball crossing the goal line and fouls in the penalty area. Have those extra referees made any close calls yet? What do fans watching think of this experiment so far?
*Explanatory note for the confused: The Europa League is to the NIT what the Champions League is to the big dance.