Officiating other sports

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ref2coach

One thing to be aware of, being in adequate physical condition to referee basketball will not be adequate to referee the same level of soccer.

And that's more a function of stoopidly trying to play a game on a very large surface with basically one on-field official making all important decisions. That's why soccer is one of the most poorly-officiated sports in the world imo, and also is why it is particularly prone to match-fixing.

T'aint really nuthin' to brag about iow. You can't replace proper field coverage with fitness if it doesn't matter how fit the official is if it's impossible for that official to get into position to see certain things anyway. It's analogous to trying to officiate all NBA basketball games with one official.

And imo there isn't anything dumber than getting rid of an official for international games because of an arbitrary age limit even though that official has now become experienced and battle-hardened.

Note that I'm not knocking soccer; I'm knocking the people that won't let soccer evolve. The major sports here--beisbol, football, basketball and hockey-- have all added to the size of their officiating crews over the years while trying to evolve with the game. Think of going back to do an NFL game with only 3 or 4 officials...shudder.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

T'aint really nuthin' to brag about iow. You can't replace proper field coverage with fitness if it doesn't matter how fit the official is if it's impossible for that official to get into position to see certain things anyway. It's analogous to trying to officiate all NBA basketball games with one official.

I hear HS basketball officials all the time say things like "those old NCAA officials, they should pack it in -- they couldn't even work 2-man if they wanted to" -- well, who cares? Someone very smart decided that it's more important to have 3 officials with experienced eyes on the court than it is to have three gazelles running up and down. And the handful of times each season someone gets injured and they *do* work two shows that those guys can get by that way, in a pinch.

I've had this conversation with British friends who don't understand why I'm not willing to criticize the center referees in soccer and my response is always "if they think one guy on a field that big can be expected to have distance and angle on every crucial call, they're nuts -- soccer teams and fans get what they deserve."