http://www.local6.com/news/14338152/detail.html I was linked to this article from CNN. This referee made a decision based in part on Law 4 and Law 5, and while technically within his rights as the referee, he may have just drawn all the wrong sorts of attention to himself. It would seem to me that if we're going to be prohibiting religious garb then we ought to be able to reasonably say that it is unsafe. Otherwise you unjustly keep a kid off the field AND you just might appear in national headlines for your decision, as this guy has.
Re: Careful when ruling players may not participate. This issue was addressed about 10 years ago because of a player that needed to wear a religious head covering (in this case, a yamaka). US Soccer stated at that time that the referee may disallow the player only if the "equipment" imposed a danger to the player or others. This ruling opened the way for the Full-90 style head gear, too. Would the referee in question disallow those because they are "not part of the uniform"?
Re: Careful when ruling players may not participate. Man, that's a tough one. It opens up a huge can of worms. What if your next game is a group of nuns dressed in habits? I'm not a Muslim so I can't say what the requirements are of their religion. If anyone can speak with some authority, I would like to hear what your thoughts are on this subject. On the other hand, it's a kid. I let her play. However, there needs to be further clarification of this and it needs to be sent independently, much like the injury memo. I can see the floodgates opening for other religions who wish to wear some type of symbol of their faith. ETA: I forgot about the yamaka issue as nsa pointed out. My response was written prior to his being posted. I still think this really needs to be nailed down in a more concrete fashion. Too many interpretations lead to this type of problem.
Just a little news I thought I'd share from the front page of CNN.com. Feel free to discuss. http://www.local6.com/news/14338152/detail.html
Re: Girl wearing head scarf banned from game Mods could you please link this with the other thread on this topic?
Re: Girl wearing head scarf banned from game I want to know how they got ahold of the referee's name. Let her play.
http://images.ussoccer.com/Documents/cms/ussf/Player_Dress.pdf This is from 2002. This type of incident has happened before.
It is of course with great interest that we hear what lead this particular referee to not allow the player from playing wearing the headdress. I doubt that we will hear from him though and I smell a big lawsuit.
Quote from Memo: "Since the referee may not know all the various religious rules, players must request the variance well enough ahead of game time by notifying the league. The league will notify the state association, which will pass the information on to the state referee committee. The state referee committee will make sure that the referees working that league's matches are informed." Did the Player, Parent, Coach or league Representative do ANYTHING proactive to take responsibility for being allowed to deviate from the "uniform" norm? It does not appear so. Why does the referee's action become a national news item when the people truly responsible are given a complete pass?
From the above referenced material: Since the referee may not know all the various religious rules, players must request the variance well enough ahead of game time by notifying the league. The league will notify the state association, which will pass the information on to the state referee committee. The state referee committee will make sure that the referees working that league's matches are informed. A little preventative planning (like having a copy of the above memorandum) by the coach would have prevented the referee from being blindsided by this. On the other hand, a little education by referee associations would have helped too. Hopefully, this will get enough publicity that it doesn't happen again. As far as getting the referee's name, I can't imagine a good reporter not being able to find out who referees any particular game.
Because many in the media are generally irresponsible and choose to present things in black and white and with the aim of creating sensationalism and division. Think about it, the girl is a Muslim and is wearing a traditional headdress. If she practices her faith and observes traditional dress she would wear the headdress at all the times.
The sad thing is this referee was probably doing what he thought was the right thing to do. Perhaps he saw a safety issue in her playing with a loose scarf, wrapped around her neck. He's going to get roasted for this when he may have been merely doing his best to enforce the laws of the game.
Seeing that this happened in MY county, here's the local news broadcast of the event: http://www.abcactionnews.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=4657@wfts.dayport.com&navCatId=3 Also, we've already gotten the email from the SRA/SYRA about this issue.
After watching the video, I have one thing to say: Would it have killed the reporter to do a little more homework and not call the governing body "United Soccer Association"?
Oops. Sorry about that. It was confusing since USSF licenses referees, but I didn't know that was a FL based group. I stand corrected.
``Because many in the media are generally irresponsible and choose to present things in black and white and with the aim of creating sensationalism and division.'' Ok, with a broad, unfair comment like that I officially declare we can no longer criticize Eric Wynalda for his comments. It's absurd and ill-informed just like many comments from our favorite TV analyst. I actually have an interesting perspective here. I cover the White House for a major newspaper and I've been a Grade 7 for 15 years. Yes, reporters make mistakes just like refs and coaches and everybody else. The ref in this case made a mistake; his better judgment abandoned him. Will he make the same decision again? Probably not. Will the girl be allowed to play in her scarf? Yes. Will 99.9 percent of the public forget about this in two days. Yes. The bottomline is this: the mistake was recognized. It will be corrected and life goes on.
OK, I'll bite. Why is this a mistake? Perhaps, in his opinion, the scarf was dangerous to the player wearing it. It is his decision, after all.
I beg to disagree, my comment was not ill-informed. I've had many dealings with the press over the years and take exception, particularly to the way television reports the news. They take comments out of context. They want sound bites and polarizing comments, because it increases ratings. Granted viewers are equally to blame since they eat this sensationalism crap up, but reporters could do a much better job of presenting things in a more balanced and responsible light. Not everyone reports as if they were writing for the NY Times or the WSJ. Television news in particular is no longer unaccountable to the networks. News divisions up until the 1980's or 1990's were independent of making profits. That is no longer the case. Look at how most news divisions fall under the enterainment division of most networks. That said, I just took a look at the video link posted by Lisa and note, that there is an issue with the headdress given it's color and the fact that there exists a strong possibility of it being grabbed, mistaken for the jersey. Clearly, I understand the relevance of it being worn based on religion and custom, but this is not so black and white in my eyes for the referee from the safety perspective. If there was someway for it to be more form fitting, I would not have any reservations. I also have a question since I do not have speakers on my office computer, why does the mother dress in western clothing, but not her daughter. If you notice in the video she is also wearing leggings or leotards to cover the exposed portions of her legs. Did the mother respond?
I'm sure he/she believed it dangerous. There is no other rational reason for not allowing her to play. I just have trouble with the logic. We let people play with casts, with metal knee braces with eye glasses, yarmulkes, ``head protection devices'' and god forbid, captain's armbands. You could make a case that each of those is dangerous in some way (how is an arm band differnt than a Live Strong braclet?). The ref was put in a tough position, no doubt about that and I'm not questioning his/her intelligence or integrity. It's a judgment call. I'm simply saying I would have decided differently.
For what it's worth, I don't see them as dangerous either. I'd certainly allow it. I think it's interesting how everyone involved is focusing on the religious aspect, rather than the referee (presumably) looking out for the safety of the player.
Surely, this wasn't the first game of the youth season. If the young lady had played in the headdress previously, surely it would have come to the league's attention; either through her coach or a previous referee. I know we've all had discussions with players along the lines of "Yes, you may have been allowed to wear it in past games, but I wasn't there for them, and this is my game", but the local league and assignors should have been aware of this situation and prevented it from becoming an issue before the game.
I don't know how any of us can judge the actions of anyone involved in this particular situation without having been an actual part of it. We don't know what specifically went down here, who was notified of what or anything else. All this is speculation. Unfortunately for this referee, he will be judged by the general public since his name has been prominently placed in this report. What we can and should do is learn from this incident. Certainly the folks in the state where this occured are going to hear a lot about the USSF policy on these items. I would hope that all state associations would heed this as a sign that perhaps additional communication/education on this topic is needed. I for one pray that I'm never caught in the situation where I believe I'm doing something in the best interests of child safety only to be vilified and branded a bigot. I'll admit, I really wonder who it was that brought the media into this in the first place.
I agree that the player should have been allowed to play, & I also hope that the sanctioning body for the match considers this a lesson learned for the ref & moves on. The only concern I would have as CR for that game is the possibility of injury to Iman, & I would ask her if it's cool to tuck the tail of the headdress into her jersey. As far as mom sporting Western dress, there's a lot of children who are more observant of religion than their parents. Such a situation is not unusual at all, & it's not a factor here. Be well, Sandcrab