After watching this league grow for almost 5-6 years now, I think the MLS has taken great stides to improving its play on the field and creating a enjoyable fan experience. HOWEVER! I for one am sick of the sloppy and extremely low quality of the refereeing in this league. I am sick of watching talented players get ejected from games because the man controling the game can't make the proper call. I am sick of teams losing precious points and seeing other teams gain points for diving or extremly bad calls in the box. I am sick of watching player A get suspended one week, and Player B not the next week for the same call. All I want is a quality set of Referees, dedicated to making this league the best it can be. I want the calls to be consistant and fair, and I truely believe that all fans of this beautiful game feel the same way. I am calling out to all MLS fans who feel the same way. To contact the MLS (according to their website) is by emailing feedback@mlssoccer.com or tweeting @MLS on Twitter. I hope that enough people contact this league that they begin to pay attention to thier fans. I think the goal of quality refereeing is not too far fetched, it should be expected if we want this league to grow. Thanks eveyone for reading to this frustrated fan's post, and I hope you follow my leed and contact the league and the team you support.
I get the sentiment, and obviously the officiating should and could be better. however, the EPL, World Cup, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, etc all have bad officials. Its the nature of things when you have a human being making judgement calls while trying to chase around 22 players and a bench full of people trying to sway him their way. We point a lot of fingers at the refs, but why not at the players just as much if not more? If diving goes away, suddenly the refs job becomes 10 times easier. I want better officials. But I also want more honest players. In fact, I want that more. I'm sick of the gamesmanship bullshit that plagues this sport
The players are making a very rational decision in their behavior that goes like this: Contact (or near contact) is made I can flop/exaggerate it or I can fight through it. If not in the box, the payoff is better to fight through it if I see an opportunity for a quality pass or exploitable defensive situation, otherwise flop and hope for a call. At worse, I'll lose the ball which has low consequence of a goal being scored. At best we get a set piece. If in the box, by all means flop/exaggerate because cards are rarely, if ever, given for flopping and the worst consequence of that is a yellow, which really doesn't mean much. The potential gain is HUGE, because if the foul is called it is an 80+% probability of goal from the PK try. Yes, I know that there is probably only a 10% probability of the flop being called a foul, but that is still an excellent opportunity for a goal (8%) for that trip down the field. So, they make the very rational calculus that a chance for a high probability goal is the thing to go for compared to the low risk of a practically meaningless yellow card. It is a freaking nobrainer for the player. What needs to happen is for referees to both call flopping and dealing out the cards for it at a level that actually starts to impact players because they accumulate game to game and can really run the risk of a red card ejection and to call fouls in the box exactly the same as they are in the field of play (they aren't). If all fouls in the box were called the number of them would eventually drop as defenders had to play less aggressively which would result in more exciting soccer games because more goals would occur in the run of play. As to the missed calls on the two handballs that weren't handballs... <sigh> I think that is further evidence that you need two CRs and they need to converse about such situations. As people note, a single person responsible for calling the play of 22 people (much of which the nastiness happens away from the ball where the official's are looking), means things get missed and mistakenly interpreted all the time.
I don't know that a second ref on the field is the solution we should be looking for. I'm more in favor of the MLS actually being the front runner and implementing instant replay. It wouldn't be hard to add a fifth official somewhere that can look at a few different angles from the TV feed and over rule red cards, PKs, and goals/disallowed goals. It wouldn't impact the game that much to take an extra minute or two in order to be sure a PK is deserved or if a player was diving in the box. Just set some guidelines on what is required (basically require a stoppage of some kind) for a call to be sent to the fifth official. FIFA has discussed implementing instant replay for several years and the MLS would be a good test. Besides, the same argument as to why we have 2 divisions in our league and a playoff system as well would support us going to instant replays. Its what sports fans in the USA are used too.
I agree, and the second ref argument kinda makes me laugh. If referees suck so bad, why would we want more of them out there? If we double the number of idiots with whistles, won't that roughly double our chances of getting jobbed by a call? Imagine you're the boss at a company and you have somebody working for you who does a crappy job. Are you going to hire another guy just like him? Now you're essentially doubling the amount of crappy work being done. I view the 2nd ref argument the same way.
Wouldn't it be easier at this point to say, RED CARD/PENALTY kick offenses must be reviewed? It takes two seconds and can give a ref a perfect view. I don't fault the refs really. If you think about how much space they have to cover, how many bodies are moving around, and how little they really see, it is amazing a correct call is ever made. Technology has progressed to the point where it is so much more blatantly obvious to all of us when a call is missed, that to not give that technological advantage to the refs is ludicris.
I've always felt the game would be better off if they had instant replay in certain situations. Any red, pk and all goals. There is plenty of time during the goal celebration or the rush at the ref for someone up in the booth to see 15-20 seconds of replay and see if the correct call was made. I put all goals up there as well since there are plenty of times a goal stood or was taken away due to a missed offsides or a foul. Instant replay in any of those situations wouldn't impact the flow of the game at all.
goals, red cards, and penalties - video replay MLS could/should be the frontrunner on this. Instead having the 4th official simply babysit, have him get a camera that only he can look at in front of him. Would make things incredibly easier and make the 4th official actually earn his money (my opinion)
You can't be serious with that analogy, IBIK. You're seriously trying to say that, if you're a boss at a company, and an employee is doing a crappy job because he is overwhelmed, having way more work than one person can accomplish, that it would be a bad idea to give him help? Really? You don't double the likelihood of a criminal getting away with murder by adding more witnesses to the act, anymore than you double the likelihood of a diver getting away with a flop by adding another set of eyes on the charade. I think there ought to be a second ref as well as a replay ref.
For replay to be useful for goal/no goal decisions there would have to be a fixed camera at each goalline, two would be better. That would be workable and would probably cost less than any other goalline technology. For misconduct and PKs watching 15-20 seconds would be slightly better than useless. You need many angles and super slow motion. It would certainly lengthen the break in play.
Kreis has been an advocate of this for at least a couple of years now. I'm not sure why there hasn't been any legitimate discussion about this in the league.
No, no, a thousand times no. The 4O earns his pay during times where the bench/coaches need to be calmed/restrained. Your proposal ties him to a monitor during the exactly when he should be patrolling the touchline and interacting with upset coaches and players.
It's not the league's decision to make. It's Sepp's, and he is against any technology. He will "consider" it when there is an outcry, but he just waits out the outcry and lets it die.
I have never understood the reluctance to accept and integrate technology into the flow of the game. The fourth official could be in charge of all replay decisions. He watches the re-play, radios the center, end of argument. I really think that it is going to take a serious organized effort on the part of the teams and/or the fans for their to be any real discussion. The problem I have with that is that the league isn't in charge of the refs directly, it's all through USSF. So any action taken against the league really isn't affecting the organization in charge of the problem. MLS could put pressure on them but to what end? It's all so frustrating. Seeing a team that has so much potential, not able to reach that potential both from stupid decisions (kyle) and shitty reffing (Nat's reds, Divies, among others). The second the Ref can really impact a game, that is where you have a problem. You minimize that by making a 100% call, and taking the time to do it IN GAME CHANGING SITUATIONS.
Yep, unless they decide to wink at it. In the end it is the IFAB who will decide. The problem is that FIFA has 4 of the 8 seats and a 75% majority is required to pass anything.
so we would have to bribe the corrupt officials to make the game better? god, what has this sport come to. SLJake - I agree with your sentiment about not accepting technology. It makes no sense. It's like the people who are against a playoff system in CFB. Someone is going to lose money - and that someone happens to be in the best position to make the call on the change
You are assuming they are doing a crappy job because they inherently suck. It is possible they do a crappy job because they have too much to do, or are too far away from the action to make an accurate call, or too much likelihood of being shielded fully or partially. Two officials on the field should cut the average distance they are from incidents substantially (though not in half, because there are places the officials just can't stand with play underway) and multiple angles of view removes much of the shielding issues. There doesn't have to be two CRs, the two added goalline officials would make a world of difference and tend to cut the average distance incidents are from officials by a good bit.
Not entirely true, but agree that its probably so from a practical standpoint. Either the federation (us soccer) or the league (mls) could choose to depart from the Fifa sanctioned laws and procedures. They've done so in the past, but I think the league would be reluctant to do so now. However, I think that FIFA will never make such changes on its own. If video replay is to come, it's not gonna be Sepp waking up one day and saying "let's do video replay". Instead it's going to come from league's around the world having serious discussion about this topic, and putting pressure on FIFA to make suh changes. It's that "outcry" that we are waiting for. It's occured to some degree in the past (Henry/Ireland), but it hasn't been strong enough to get Sepp's full attention.
