Ref Shortage

[Mbilica]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Right or wrong, we are not in a country that cares about soccer on some large scale. Most of the soccer officials I know, either played the game or are from another country or speak other languages. So soccer is their sport they play. This is not football or basketball where the country is obsessed over those sports already and you are asking for officials to work a sport they might not understand on some level or even like. To me this is the problem for sports like soccer, volleyball or even lacrosse. Even football in my area is becoming a problem, but that is because schools decided to play on Friday when they used to play many games on Saturday. But the attitudes of parents and coaches are certainly not helping. I am not sure if I did not know what I know now that I would want to do this either. I have been around for over 20 years and doing youth sports is not what I want to be associated with anymore either.

Peace

That is a regional opinion, not a national one. Soccer is huge in the Northeast. More kids play soccer than play baseball. Nearly all of the hundreds of referees in my part of the state are born here to parents who were born here as well. I am rare among them, because I haven't been playing since I was a little kid. I will grant you that soccer is not that popular in some parts of the country, but nationally, it is growing rapidly. I will be at the Region 1 Championships in Virginia in a couple of weeks. Last year when I was there, I met hundreds of other referees, aged between 16 and 35, who were all experts on the game, not working a sport they don't really understand.

Personally, I think the referee abuse and assault problem in soccer is a complicated one. I don't think soccer, as a youth sport, is any better or worse than another youth sport. If I had to rank them, I think I see more abuse in High School basketball than in any soccer games. Upper level youth and Amateur/pro adult soccer is actually better, in my opinion than the same level baseball games. Youth football is notorious and is the only for which I have seen officials requiring a police escort to safely get to their cars. So, I think society, as a whole needs to get on top of the problem of referee abuse and assault, and we shouldn't focus on one sport over another.

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