While I agree with most of what you're saying except the part about not enough compensation. At least for the European referees in the top leagues. It depends on who you ask and where you look, but the top referees in Spain, England and Italy make somewhere between $125,000-200,000 a year on their domestic games alone. The guys who work internationally like Rizzoli and Clattenburg, plus the tournament bonuses of going to the World Cup/Euros, they can pull in well over $200,000. That's not small money. That is putting you in the top 1%/2% of all people in your country. I do agree with you about what PRO is asking. What they ask of the 4th officials and part time referees is ridiculous for the time they have to commit.
Martin Atkinson did 46 matches last year. That's less than 5,000 a week at your top numbers. I understand 200,000 is a big number to many but when players are on 200,000 per WEEK, it truly isn't.
That's a weird way of looking at it. Would you say corporate VPs making $800k annually don't take home big salaries because their CEO makes $20M? If Atkinson could be a player instead of a referee, your point would be well taken. But he can't be. The comparison to make is what Atkinson's day job might be if he wasn't a referee. I suspect for many or most referees who make the decision to pursue elite refereeing, they are making more than they otherwise could.
Actually, I worked in an environment with those salaries. And we were underpaid I think officials in all professional sports are way underpaid.
Not only that but the prospects of a life-long career that requires many years of education and pays quite well also would be a significant factor in making such a decision. There have been quite a few people who reached the elite level in soccer refereeing several years ago who would not have given up their career and security to be a full-time referee. I expect that this would mean that the sport would lose many potential top-class referees. PH
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vlu1c Penalty whistled on the AEL Limassol - Austria Vien match (UEL).
Sure, until they age out...then what? Sure, a few may get ref management jobs, but the majority end up 45 years old and having to jump back into a career that they're now a decade behind in.
What careers did they give up? Does anyone know how the full-time refs earned a living before PRO, (other than Geiger who was a school teacher)? PH
Hoffenheim - Liverpool: KUIPERS (NED) Qarabag - Kobenhavn: TAGLIAVENTO (ITA) Sporting - Steaua: BRYCH (GER) Apoel - Slavia Praha: MATEU LAHOZ (ESP) Young Boys - CSKA Moscow: FERNANDEZ BORBALAN (ESP) Napoli - Nice: MARCINIAK (POL) Istanbul Basaksehir - Sevilla: TURPIN (FRA) Hapoel Beer Sheva - Maribor: ERIKSSON (SWE) Celtic - Astana: HATEGAN (ROU) Olympiakos - Rijeka: ZWAYER (GER) Kuipers and Marciniak with the marquee matches. Good to see Tagliavento back.
You can look most of them up. Here's a start: Salazar- insurance agent Toledo- baker Marrufo- product specialist Gantar- director of strategy and improvement Petrescu- Taxi diver here. No idea what in Romania Stott- teacher Stoica- ? Kelly and Chapman appear to only have been refs.
Surprised that Borbalan has this match. I don't really rate him as an Elite official. Important observers for Mateu, Zwayer, Turpin and Hategan.
UCL Tuesday Playoffs Leg 2 Astana : Celtic - KRALOVEC (CZE) Nice : Napoli - SKOMINA (SVN) Sevilla : Istanbul Basaksehir - COLLUM (SCO) Maribor : Hapoel Beer-Sheva - ROCCHI (ITA) Rijeka : Olympiacos - MAKKELIE (NED) UCL Wednesday Playoffs Leg 2 Kobenhavn : Qarabag - UNDIANO MALLENCO (ESP) Steaua Bucharest : Sporting Lisbon - CAKIR (TUR) Liverpool : 1899 Hoffenheim - ORSATO (ITA) Slavia Prague : APOEL - MAZIC (SRB) CSKA Moscow : Young Boys - SIDIROPOULOS (GRE)
UEFA Zone Matchday 7 Group A BUL-SWE: Tagliavento (ITA) Group B HUN-LVA: Aranovskyy (UKR) POR-FRO: Jovanovic (SRB) Group C NOR-AZE: Stefanski (POL) SMR-NIR: Jorgji (ALB) Group D WAL-AUT: Hategan (ROU) Group E DEN-POL: Mazic (SRB) Group F SVK-SVN: Mateu Lahoz (ESP) LTU-SCO: Del Cerro Grande (ESP) Group G ESP-ITA: Kuipers (NED) Group H BEL-GIB: Doyle (IRL) Group I UKR-TUR: Borbalan (ESP)
Matchday 1 Group A Benfica - CSKA Moscow: UNDIANO MALLENCO (ESP) Man United - Basel: BUQUET (FRA) Group B Bayern Munich - Anderlecht: TAGLIAVENTO (ITA) Celtic - PSG: ORSATO (ITA) Group C Chelsea - Qarabag: SIDIROPOULOS (GRE) Roma - Atletico Madrid: MAZIC (SRB) Group D Barcelona - Juventus: SKOMINA (SVN) Olympiakos - Sporting Lisbon: KASSAI (HUN) Nice start for Skomina - he must be the favorite for the Final this year. Mazic also with a good appointment.
Group E Maribor - Spartak Moscow: AYTEKIN (GER) Liverpool - Sevilla: MAKKELIE (NED) Group F Feyenoord - Man City: MARCINIAK (POL) Shaktar Donetsk - Napoli: ZWAYER (GER) Group G RB Leipzig - Monaco: OLIVER (ENG) Porto - Besiktar: TAYLOR (ENG) Group H Real Madrid - APOEL: BASTIEN (FRA) Tottenham - Dortmund: ROCCHI (ITA) Nice early matches for Makkelie and Oliver.
Agreed. Taylor and Oliver have very good matches. Rochi also has a good match with Tottenham v. Dortmund.
I can't understand why Chelsea - Qarabaq needs an Elite referee. Big names for Group D matches. Good matches for both English referees. Oliver has Uilenberg as observer.
It doesn't but someone has to do it. There is only two "big" matches this round and they went to Rocchi and Skomina.
A really poor offside decision takes a goal away from Dortmund. Would have been a great one for VAR since the center could have delayed the extra second.
What happened at the end of the first half? Saw a tweet about Pulisic scoring, but the ref whistled for half-time just before. I didn't see it..wondering if you did.
Yeah. That was an interesting one. It was offside just before halftime. Hopefully someone can find the video. The offside Dortmund player went to strike the loose ball but stopped at the last second and Pulisic (onside) finished it. I honestly have no idea if it should be interfering with an opponent. I'd argue it probably distracted Hugo Lloris.