You're right. I was going to clarify myself, but you beat me to it. Yellow is perfectly defensible on the field considering the angles and difficulty of seeing the point of contact, but once he sees studs that high on the leg with the ball a mile away, yellow was no longer an option. Obviously, consistency is still a huuuuuge issue as you described.
If PRO pursued a policy of recruiting international officials to move to the US or Canada so that they can be hired directly by PRO, I'd be right there with you screaming about the unfairness (and the harm it would do on referee development in the country). But that's not what this is. At all. This is a guy who moved to America who happens to also referee. PRO didn't recruit an Albanian AR to move here.[/QUOTE] So question to your answer. his first match in the us system is as a grade 7 is a PDL closed gate and his 2nd is Open cup. I would like someone to explain to me how long it took you to get these assignments. And to your statement that PRO is not getting these people to come over. I disagree. they have figured out how to circumvent thew system. And to be invited to generation adidas VAR system training, that does not happen to the guys that just registered.
This question is pointless. I was a 14-year old when I started with USSF, having worked some intra-city coed U8 rec games prior to registering. He had already worked the U17 UEFA Championships prior to moving here and registering. You want to compare an entry-level teenager to a professional-level AR experienced enough to work a UEFA tournament? That's asinine. It's hard to figure out what you're saying here, given the grammar and punctuation. But if you're saying that people are being recruited to do Generation Adidas VAR and then settling in the US, I'd ask you to prove it (because I'm pretty sure that's not happening and it would likely violate immigration laws). If you're instead saying that people who move here from other country's with high-level referee experience are being invited to Generation Adidas quickly, my response is "so what? why shouldn't they?" Referee development and staffing the MLS shouldn't be about coddling the perennial Grade 6 who lives near a USL team and gets 4-5 AR assignments a year, but never moves up because he isn't good enough. It should be about identifying the best talent and training it to be as best as possible. If a moderate-to-high level referee moves to the United States on their own accord, they should be pushed quickly to be assigned at the level in the US that meshes best with their talents. It sounds like you want them to start on U8 matches instead. Again, if PRO is or tries to make a habit of recruiting people like Alan Kelly to come over here, that's different because it's deliberately attempting to undermine referee development as a system in our country. But that's not happening right now unless someone can show otherwise.
I am not comparing entry level. I am speaking about our grade 6 and 5. I am speaking of the same people that have been working DA Playoffs and Finals as well as Youth Nationals and Amateur finals. The likes of Jonathan Bilinski, Matthew Osterhouse, Joshua Mills, Walter Heatherly, Eduardo Jeff. Jeremy Weed, Jeremy Harmes You might want to go take a look at his matches on GO. And then tell me he has not had to go through the process as the others like him have.
@oldmanreferee Hit the nail on the head and the point I'm making is that these guys are skipping to the head of the line due to experience in lower division leagues from countries that have leagues that are no better or worse than MLS. Because you did some lower division games in Sweden or did some lines in Albania does not mean you should be in MLS within a year. Now if you have experience from one of bigger countries in Europe such as Spain or Italy than that changes things.
Then you need to be clearer in your writing because that isn't what you wrote. You literally asked how long it took me to get those assignments. You didn't say anything about grade. Again, you didn't say this. But now that you have, the answer to the question really is that you, me and everyone else has no idea of what's fair. Some of these guys you mention are very young. Do their performances at things like DA Playoffs and Youth Nationals merit consideration for MLS? It's probably a case-by-case basis, right? Some of those names are probably good enough to make MLS one day, while others probably aren't. And ultimately it has a lot more to do with how they perform in USL and at Generation Adidas and in international friendlies (that seems to be one of the final big tests for aspiring MLS ARs). Because if simply showing up at every youth tournament step is good enough for progression up the ladder, we truly have a broken system and haven't evolved from where we were when the league started--and I don't think any of us believe that is true. You can't just list a bunch of names and declare it's unfair that an AR who refereed in his country's first division and at UEFA-level competition skipped ahead of them in line. Maybe it's unfair to some. Then again, on the merits it most certainly isn't unfair to some. But again, why should he? Or, at the very least, how can you be certain that he should need to do so? When a referee comes to the US with a professional background and decent international experience, why do they need to go to DA Playoffs? Or youth nationals? That seems crazy. Sure, there are some countries where first division experience would mean very little. There are others where it should mean someone is put straight into MLS (I still can't believe that Derek Rose lived in the US for over a year and didn't get used in MLS, but that's a different subject and from a different era). It has to be a case-by-case basis. If a referee from Albania moves to the US with UEFA-level experience, it doesn't seem odd to me that he'd be tested pretty immediately in the early stages of the USOC (where we have young Grade 6s and up-and-coming Grade 7s working all the time on the lines/4ths) and at the USL level (again, where local Grade 6s and 7s with little hopes of MLS regularly work). I don't know why that's so objectionable. What is the first match you want a guy like that to work when he moves here? A local U15 DA game? The real question should be whether his performances in USL and USOC merit a trial run in MLS. If Bori has been that much better than the 5-10 ARs who are probably being looked at as the next crop of MLS ARs, then that's fair. If he hasn't been and still got pushed, then you and everyone else who shares your opinion has a point.
You're at least hitting the nail on the head insofar as what the question should be--I just think you're jumping to a conclusion. If these guys are skipping to the head of the line, you guys have a point. But if they're being thrown into USOC and USL matches and performing better than people who have been doing them for 2-3 years, is it truly unfair that they end up at the front of the line when August rolls around? How do you know that? I mean, I of course agree in principle that it shouldn't be automatic. But if Bori performs better than the top few guys who were being looked at for an AR spot and Karlsson performs better than the top guys waiting for a VAR or 4th spot, how long should they wait and how many officials who perform worse than them should enter the league first? I don't think you can have a steadfast rule. It's unlikely, though possible, that a referee from one of the absolute top leagues would move here while active (without being recruited, of course). If that happened, yes, they'd probably go straight into MLS or have one or two trial games in USL to get acquainted first. At the other end, there would be many federations from around the world where FIFA referees moving here should get a Grade 6 badge and do top amateur matches at most, with no need for them to be considered for professional duty. Then there's a big chunk of federations that fall in the middle and should be done on a case-by-case basis--I mean, look at Alan Kelly after all. Whatever you want to say about how he came here, he seems to be working out. Would all referees from the Irish first division work out in MLS? Of course not--most probably wouldn't, in fact. But if another referee moved here from Ireland with a FIFA badge, I'd say it would make sense to give them a couple USL games and see how they do. Same would go for a wide-range of UEFA countries, several Central and South American countries, a few African and Asian federations, and probably New Zealand. Long way of reiterating the point that an Albanian AR spending a year in USL and then getting a trial game in MLS--if his performances merit it--seems sensible and not inherently unfair to USSF and CSA ARs looking to move to MLS.
@MassachusettsRef There is no way to know for sure, but I think they are skipping to the head of the line. You can probably see the assessments and know for sure. Again, I don't know what their scores are like but I just have a hard time believing that their performances are way better than the guys that have been vying for those trialist spots. Maybe, it's a coincidence but I just have a hard time that Karlsson and Bori both come here and within a year are on an MLS game. One guy being way better than our domestic pool? Okay. But two within a year? From Albania and Sweden? Especially in Bori's case. It's really hard to evaluate ARs on the lower division games unless you're in the stadium. Most assessors don't know or care to evaluate ARs properly. Also, a lot of the USL games are assessed on video so it's almost impossible to evaluate ARs with those two camera games. If you see the assessments and their scores are so much better, then fair play to them and I'm wrong.
Look, this very well might be a case of where there's smoke, there's fire. I have no way of truly knowing. I'm choosing, this year, to give the benefit of the doubt to PRO (particularly because a lot of other CRs are in a similar boat with Karlsson so it's not like he's the only one moving there; Bori might be a little different in regards to the AR pool). I can understand why others would choose to be skeptical. For me, if this becomes a pattern, I'll be right there with you. And if it ever leads to formal recruitment, I'd be willing to lead the charge.
Maybe I'm missing something, but if they're not getting the assignments based purely on merit, what does PRO have to gain by giving the assignment to them? I love a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but what are you actually accusing PRO of doing? Is there money involved? Are they friends? Are they just sticking it to the USSF?
Again, let me preface my post by saying that if these guys are coming here and are performing on the USL, NASL games way better than our domestic pool then fair play to them. They, then, deserve a shot at MLS ahead of our domestic pool. I don't believe they are and Bori's blunder backs me up, in my opinion. My entire assumption is that they are performing at the level our domestic referees are performing or just slightly better They are not head and shoulders above the guys trying to get into MLS. If they are, then they should be on the games. What I'm accusing PRO of is that they are hurting referee development in this country by fast tracking guys with professional experience in Europe over the local domestic pool. PRO and MLS seem to believe that if you just watched a game in a stadium in Europe then you are automatically head and shoulders above "soccerball" referees in the United States. It's pure arrogance. I've always maintained that the top referees in Europe, the guys doing the CL matches and games in England, Spain, Italy, etc, are better than everyone else in the world. Due to the level of soccer there, how much longer their referee programs have been professional make them better. I've never had the belief that the guys who do games in Albania or lower level Sweden are. Putting guys who did games in Albania over our domestic pool is frankly an insult to the US national team and MLS. Another point that I'm making is that I wouldn't have a problem with them putting European referees on games if they were from the top European leagues. If it was referees from Spain, Italy, England who made it to the second division or 1st division of those countries, then, yeah, their experience alone warrants them cutting to the head of the line. The process of getting to even the second division in a country like Spain or Italy is very competitive and much more strenuous then here. Here, to do a USL match as an AR or even middle, you need to basically be a state referee and live within a 200 miles of that stadium. The reason this is so potentially bad for US Soccer is that the more foreign guys PRO keeps giving games, the less opportunities US referees will get and thus, potentially, less FIFA level referees we will have. It's just not fair as well. The current US MLS referee pool is pretty old and there will be retirements next season or next couple of seasons. Stott, Toledo, Grajeda, Chapman, Gonzalez, and Salazar are not going to be around forever. I've also heard rumors that Geiger might retire after the World Cup in Russia. If you replace those referees with foreign referees, then who does US Soccer pick to be on the FIFA panel? Are we going to end up like Canada where you essentially have to give a FIFA badge to someone who only does USL and NASL matches? It's a doomsday scenario and a long way away, but if MLS keeps growing and these foreign referees work out, then MLS might even push for active recruitment. They might ask MLS to go and recruit foreign referees.