As IFAB makes more and more efforts to specifically delineate certain things, and in doing so creates gaps, we more and more hear SOTG. But doesn't that suggest swinging back to LOTG that are concept based? Right now we seem to have didactic details but they don't mean what they say. The Laws have always had things that don't quite mean what they say, but it seems the specificity efforts have made that worse, not better. (E.g., handling, DBs, players coming onto pitch.) Sigh.
Yes, makes one long for those simpler days of yore, when the law book was about 35 pages. Then we learned all the nuances via experience, and communication with our fellow referees and governing bodies. I think I remember such "advice to referees" actually being codified somewhere....
I seem to remember one of the justifications for the second great rewrite was so that the Laws of the Game would be shorter. We all see how that went!
Seems that IFAB put too much effort into making sure their words are translatable to other languages without ambiguity, but that seems to muddle things up. I think they would be better served making it 100% readable (with proper grammar and less bullet points) in English and then have a team of professional translators handle it from there.
You mean how we weren’t supposed to be allowing goals when a ball hit an attackers arm under any circumstances even before it was formally entered as law. Gotta love futuro for saying game changing things but then not communicating to anyone but an elite class of referees.
On calling trivial law violations. This past weekend I had a tournament where I centered multiple U11 games where the goalkeeper held the ball for more than 6 seconds. Usually between 7 and 10. One instance of 14! A total of 4 violations spread between 4 games I centered. At what point do you start to call these violations? I didn't find it egregious as all infractions occured well past blowouts (one team up 4-0+) or near the beginning ... but should I have?
The point of the law is to prevent goal keepers from wasting time holding onto the ball. If it isn’t a time wasting tactic then unless it is particularly egregious, don’t worry about it.
At that age, I count six seconds in my head. Then tell the keeper "Let's go." I then keep the hand down by my side and count with the fingers, a little more slowly than actual seconds. Usually by 2 or 3 the keeper distributes the ball. I have never gotten to the sixth second.
If you never call 6 seconds in any game at any level, you're probably doing it right. After 5 or 6 seconds, "let's go keep," is all it takes to keep the game running, which is the point. (Another random historical aside and opinion piece: the laws used to have both a reasonable time requirement and a (largely ignored) four step limit. The step limit was pretty stupid to accomplish much. But for reasons known only to IFAB, rather than just relying on the reasonable time, they felt compelled to stick in the number 6--a number now totally disregarded, which is not too surprising, since what they always wanted was reasonable time. The Laws would be better if they dropped the seconds, went back to just reasonable time, and put into the guidance that reasonable time should generally not be more than 6-10 seconds. But they have other things to nit pick and make more complicated, and everyone knows that 6 seconds doesn't mean 6 seconds.)
And there was one year where NFHS rules had both six seconds and four steps! The goalkeeper had six seconds to take four steps and release the ball. It was hard to count two things at the same time!
[QUOTE="socal lurker, post: 38315035, member: 149586"(Another random historical aside and opinion piece: the laws used to have both a reasonable time requirement and a (largely ignored) four step limit.)[/QUOTE] And we smartasses at Duke would count "5, 6, 7, 8!" when the opposing keeper took more than four.
I got to practice the "ball hits the referee" law a good bit this weekend. State parks and rec tournament and I had all U8 and U10 games. In eight games, I must have gotten hit eight times and successfully avoided the ball five more. I'm apparently not as nimble as I used to be.
One other note on keepers releasing the ball from hands into play... The defense can't challenge the keeper for the ball, or prevent it's release. I usually don't start counting to 6 until there aren't defenders around the keeper preventing the release. That normally gives them another couple of seconds.
Sorry if this has been brought up before...why are the physical law books for 2019-2020 still not available? They used to give us them at recert...I know they are bigger and more expensive to produce now with the interpretations etc. right in there but I would gladly buy one to put in my bag...yes I have the app and whatnot but I like the physical copy too...
Unless you're a state referee/regional referee, you're not getting a physical copy of the LOTG from US Soccer. US Soccer is trying to save money on printing. They have bigger budgetary problems.
I just spent $30 for a background check, and $55 to recertify. It would be nice if they gave me an option to pay them $9 to send me a book.
a quick google search reveals USSF has No budgetary issues. Late filers, indeed, but lot’s of money invested and in reserve. What they more than likely have is a structural issue.