One of the topics that I felt that no other referee blog covers in too much depth is that of referee management and assignment. There seems to be many, many ways one can interact with their assignors. Some work via email (simple for the ref, but it must be difficult for the assignors). Then there are those that are not your typical assignors that just call you to see if you can work with them for a certain specific date. I cannot imagine that system working well over a full season. There are those that basically give you a form to fill out at the beginning of the season and then will fill in the matches based on your declared availability. And finally, there are those that use web-based tools like the site TheArbiter.net. They are more or less a web-based form filling system that allows the assignor to work around the pre-entered schedules for each referee.
This all sounds fine and dandy, but I have some problems with the system. It is 2/22 and I get an email from one of the assignors that states he is going to try to start assigning games and such next week for one of the leagues. It is hard to work around so many options and it stinks that I have to 'declare' my availability to one league before another. I have my preferences that of course do not always match the league's need for scheduling. But the league that is asking for availability now is probably the one I would least like to work for as they play the farthest away from home and also pay some of the lowest rates in the area. Still, I would rather ref for them rather than be idle, but you see the dilema.
Anyway, for now, I am going into the system and am going to block out the dates so that I can open it up to them for when I am idle (and can work) but have no one else to turn to. The season has not yet started and it is already interesting.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Lively match
It was a good match between between gray (state champions in the U16 age group) and black (a team from Delaware, I believe). But before I get into that, I arrived and the center I was working with (the one that has little to offer in terms of feedback) had just arrived and was a little more talkative than before, so there was hope.
The match started off with a bang, black kicks off, streaks down the line and gets tripped up in the box, on my side. I probably should have lifted my flag up to indicate a penalty but it was too early and just not that ironclad. If I had been the center, I probably would have called it, but as an AR, I deferred to the center who seemed to be in a better position.
After that, gray dominated play for most of the first half with black managing some counter attacks that kept me going. With 5 minutes left in the half, gray got a couple of quick goals, and the girls in black just did not have enough will to come back from that deficit.
In the second half, black tried and had a chance or two, but gray was very solid in the back. Gray got another halfway through the second half and that is how it ended, 3-0 but it was not that far apart in my book.
Of interest in this match was that I took my yellow and black shirts originally, thinking that they would be the only ones we would use but right before leaving, I threw in the red for good measure, and sure enough we used red (though I do not know why, as it was gray vs. black and goalies were orange and blue).
Also of note, this was the first time I got payment on the field per se, as opposed to getting a check. It was $30 for this one match and it was a lot of running. Again, paid exercise. Gotta love it.
The match started off with a bang, black kicks off, streaks down the line and gets tripped up in the box, on my side. I probably should have lifted my flag up to indicate a penalty but it was too early and just not that ironclad. If I had been the center, I probably would have called it, but as an AR, I deferred to the center who seemed to be in a better position.
After that, gray dominated play for most of the first half with black managing some counter attacks that kept me going. With 5 minutes left in the half, gray got a couple of quick goals, and the girls in black just did not have enough will to come back from that deficit.
In the second half, black tried and had a chance or two, but gray was very solid in the back. Gray got another halfway through the second half and that is how it ended, 3-0 but it was not that far apart in my book.
Of interest in this match was that I took my yellow and black shirts originally, thinking that they would be the only ones we would use but right before leaving, I threw in the red for good measure, and sure enough we used red (though I do not know why, as it was gray vs. black and goalies were orange and blue).
Also of note, this was the first time I got payment on the field per se, as opposed to getting a check. It was $30 for this one match and it was a lot of running. Again, paid exercise. Gotta love it.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Another fun (and cold) weekend coming up
Late yesterday I received an email asking for refs for a friendly for U16 girls matches. I offered myself for one, but may have to do both.
I am an AR for a Grade 7 ref who I respect quite a bit. Very no nonsense and great match manager. My only concern is that he gives absolutely no feedback to you. He is like a slate, but maybe the cold weather tomorrow loosens his tongue. Probably not, but I will let you all know after tomorrow.
I am an AR for a Grade 7 ref who I respect quite a bit. Very no nonsense and great match manager. My only concern is that he gives absolutely no feedback to you. He is like a slate, but maybe the cold weather tomorrow loosens his tongue. Probably not, but I will let you all know after tomorrow.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Rant on House Rules
As you know, many leagues have house rules that sometimes interfere with the natual flow of soccer. The one house rule that always seems to generate passionate discussions is the one of no sliding tackles. If you read one of the other (better) blogs that refer to the subject, you will notice that they all, for the most part, make a distinction between a slide and a slide tackle.
This weekend, my son's team played another team in an indoor league where there was a house rule of no slide tackles. The match was at 3-3 when one of the players on my son's team dribbled past the goalie and had a step on the goalie and the defender and he slid to nudge the ball in. The ref called the goal off stating that there were no slide tackles, but in this case, there was no tackle in the slide, nor was anyone affected. He did it again later in the match again, where he waived another goal for the same reason. My son's team lost 4-3 but there was much discussion over the ref's rulings. Since everyone knows that I am a ref too, I get asked, "What would you have called?" and it is hard to defend the ref in cases like this. In both occasions, the player doing the sliding was not slide tackling, but rather sliding to play the ball. It is a hard one to enforce consistantly, because there are no slide tackles but in my book, at least, there can be slides, even when defenders are present and within playing distance (though I might feel inclined to call it if the defender were to flinch). Still, the plays in question here would not have been called for sliding as there was space and direction that favored the attacker.
I rant on this because this is one of my worries, these house rules that make it complicated to be fair sometimes. In the case of my son's team, the ref had direct result in the match, and as a fellow ref, that is something that you do not want to be associated with, the fact that your calls determined the outcome of a match (well they always do, but I think you understand what I mean). Ok, enough for tonight. Enjoy the week ahead.
This weekend, my son's team played another team in an indoor league where there was a house rule of no slide tackles. The match was at 3-3 when one of the players on my son's team dribbled past the goalie and had a step on the goalie and the defender and he slid to nudge the ball in. The ref called the goal off stating that there were no slide tackles, but in this case, there was no tackle in the slide, nor was anyone affected. He did it again later in the match again, where he waived another goal for the same reason. My son's team lost 4-3 but there was much discussion over the ref's rulings. Since everyone knows that I am a ref too, I get asked, "What would you have called?" and it is hard to defend the ref in cases like this. In both occasions, the player doing the sliding was not slide tackling, but rather sliding to play the ball. It is a hard one to enforce consistantly, because there are no slide tackles but in my book, at least, there can be slides, even when defenders are present and within playing distance (though I might feel inclined to call it if the defender were to flinch). Still, the plays in question here would not have been called for sliding as there was space and direction that favored the attacker.
I rant on this because this is one of my worries, these house rules that make it complicated to be fair sometimes. In the case of my son's team, the ref had direct result in the match, and as a fellow ref, that is something that you do not want to be associated with, the fact that your calls determined the outcome of a match (well they always do, but I think you understand what I mean). Ok, enough for tonight. Enjoy the week ahead.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
What a beautiful day - for no soccer
I do not know about you, but in this area, the sun was out, it was in the high 50s or low 60s and just a wonderful day. I arrived at the park where my ladies were to play 30 minutes before kickoff. It was strange because the field was filled with kids playing lacrosse and we came to find out that they were doing their tryouts and were planning to be there for another two hours. Well, that did not bode well as the ladies were also scheduled to play at the same time on the same field.
The lady in charge (soccer-wise) thought that there would be a problem with the time as the league had the permit for a while at the same time (2:30 in the afternoon) for many weeks now but during the week, they told her that the would not have it at that time for this weekend, and then they let her know that they were giving it to her for this week and the next. Evidently someone in the county's office did something wrong because the field had been doublebooked. In all of this, the ladies called the people who had played the previous match for their over-40 league at a different field and were told that the fields at the other field were available, so we all scrambled to that field arriving at 2:55 only to find out that there was another league playing at 3:00 so no match could be played. The ladies gave up at that point in trying to find a field for their match and were hoping to have the match rescheduled.
As all this is happening, I start emailing my referee coordinator to make sure that he is aware of what is going on, since I do not normally have these types of situation. He called me back about an hour after I got home and he said not to worry, that permits are not the the referee's problem and that I would get paid regardless (but it does suck for the ladies that they did not get to play their match). Regardless, it was interesting to see the dynamics of mass decision making in action. The women decided that they were going to try and get the match going at the other park rather than wait out the lacrosse people and if that did not fly, cancel outright. An interesting afternoon, for sure.
The lady in charge (soccer-wise) thought that there would be a problem with the time as the league had the permit for a while at the same time (2:30 in the afternoon) for many weeks now but during the week, they told her that the would not have it at that time for this weekend, and then they let her know that they were giving it to her for this week and the next. Evidently someone in the county's office did something wrong because the field had been doublebooked. In all of this, the ladies called the people who had played the previous match for their over-40 league at a different field and were told that the fields at the other field were available, so we all scrambled to that field arriving at 2:55 only to find out that there was another league playing at 3:00 so no match could be played. The ladies gave up at that point in trying to find a field for their match and were hoping to have the match rescheduled.
As all this is happening, I start emailing my referee coordinator to make sure that he is aware of what is going on, since I do not normally have these types of situation. He called me back about an hour after I got home and he said not to worry, that permits are not the the referee's problem and that I would get paid regardless (but it does suck for the ladies that they did not get to play their match). Regardless, it was interesting to see the dynamics of mass decision making in action. The women decided that they were going to try and get the match going at the other park rather than wait out the lacrosse people and if that did not fly, cancel outright. An interesting afternoon, for sure.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
More on that seminar
Getting back to the seminar that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the important points that were mentioned were the following...
1. Get the rulebook from the FIFA site instead of the USSoccer site because the USSoccer site has only the first part of the FIFA book, the other part included in the FIFA book contains examples and more references helping you with the gray areas.
The FIFA link to the LOTG is here: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/81/42/36/lotg_en.pdf
The US version is here: http://images.ussoccer.com/Documents/cms/ussf/07_law_of-the-game.pdf
2. No chewing gum while reffing (FIFA disapproves)
3. A regular foul becomes misconduct when considering the follow: point of contact, direction of contact, time and severity, intent and result. If some or many of these are leaning towards reckless, then the yellow card needs to be shown.
Finally, there was a site mentioned that was going to be up and running soon that was going to have clips, etc. but I just went to it and it is not working now. I am putting it out anyway on the hopes that it will be working soon. http://www.thereflink.com/USSOCCER/index.html (updated on 3/11/09).
The presentations were good but really geared towards those with grade 7 or better it seemed. I will attend next year however, as there were other tidbits that I found useful.
1. Get the rulebook from the FIFA site instead of the USSoccer site because the USSoccer site has only the first part of the FIFA book, the other part included in the FIFA book contains examples and more references helping you with the gray areas.
The FIFA link to the LOTG is here: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/federation/81/42/36/lotg_en.pdf
The US version is here: http://images.ussoccer.com/Documents/cms/ussf/07_law_of-the-game.pdf
2. No chewing gum while reffing (FIFA disapproves)
3. A regular foul becomes misconduct when considering the follow: point of contact, direction of contact, time and severity, intent and result. If some or many of these are leaning towards reckless, then the yellow card needs to be shown.
Finally, there was a site mentioned that was going to be up and running soon that was going to have clips, etc. but I just went to it and it is not working now. I am putting it out anyway on the hopes that it will be working soon. http://www.thereflink.com/USSOCCER/index.html (updated on 3/11/09).
The presentations were good but really geared towards those with grade 7 or better it seemed. I will attend next year however, as there were other tidbits that I found useful.
Quick note
Just a quick note today that I was assigned another match this weekend for the ladies. I am very happy that this is the case as it keeps me going, earns some money and also let's me try out the knee brace. Will update more after this weekend.
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