IMHO, the more they automate, the more they alienate. My new kids seem to be less ready to ref, and my returning ones seem to be less familiar with new directives, compared to the old days of dingy classrooms and human interaction.
Maybe the referee uniform companies are the ones telling parents to yell at referees in hopes of getting new referees to fill the shoes of the ones quitting. We should start a resale shop with the uniforms from all of the referees that quit...
The idea that not having to buy 3 or 5 referee uniforms will solve the referee shortage and retention problem or make a dent in it is laughable. Yes. It is kind of ridiculous that we have theoretically have to have 5 different colors when most professional leagues only have 3. Even though Adidas creates 4 different colors every uniform cycle, MLS only chooses to get three for their referees to save on costs... Some MLS referees complain because they are sick of having to wear yellow almost every game. As has been said before, referees young and old are lost and fail to retain due to things like horrific abuse from players and fans, low pay, no support from administrators and assignors, not costs of uniforms. I would venture that is the last reason someone decides not to renew for the next year as a referee. I was an AR on a U14 State Cup boys game this past weekend. The referee was a decent young referee in his late teens to early 20s. We ended up having to throw out three parents during his game. The amount of abuse and toxicity in the match was unbelievable. Parents complaining about and screaming about every decision that doesn't go their teams way. It ended up being like a 5-1 game too. I never saw anything like it. The amount of anger and hostility was beyond belief. Maybe it was always that way, but I have just gotten older and are starting to notice it more. I asked myself during the game, "who would ever want to be a referee after this." My experience during the weekend was so negative and I was so appalled at the behavior of the coaches and parents. For the first time in years, I genuinely considered never refereeing youth soccer again. At least in a men's amateur match you just have to deal with angry players. In youth soccer you have to deal with angry players, angry parents and angry coaches. I never saw anything like it and I have been refereeing youth soccer for over a decade now. That is why referees are lost ever year and not due to uniform costs.
You are exactly right. If we want to retain referees, we need to do our best to eliminate the abuse. My local U19 rec league has had bad problems this year with parents and players alike. The league is now assigning field Marshalls to keep the parents away from the referee. Also, two police officers will be at the end-of-season tournament.
I still think there is some sort of middle ground where three shirts could work. A color near black, like dark gray If we would ever get away from the popular colors like yellow and red, I think we could make things work with three colors. A dark color like black or dark gray (think Bayern Munich's alternate uniform from last season) A lighter color like light blue or lighter gray (think the Adidas light blue referee uniform, Manchester City's uniform, or the current Chicago Fire secondary uniform) A red-based color like the Premier League cranberry, pink, or orange The key is to not use colors like yellow, red, or royal blue that are popular with clubs.
Not that all 5 colors even get used. Reffing indoor the other night (non-sanctioned but we wear USSF-style unis without the badge), dual system. Look at teams' colors, and ask my partner, "How about black?" His eyebrows go up. He pulls out the old pinstripe black, which is what I have as well. I comment I don't even think I've seen a new black uniform. He says, "You mean this?" and pulls out an old "new" striped black. "No, the new new one." "Oh, right...," and he takes out a new style black jersey--still in the plastic bag, never been opened. We wore the old school pinstripes. At least we matched.
I hate the new online revolving door recertifications. Referees inherently “learn” things while out on the job that are blatantly wrong. These habits never get corrected until they try to move up and learn they are woefully unprepared. The yearly recerts were a good way to try to get everyone back on the same page because they couldn’t just go on autopilot to pass like they can with online. Not to mention you often got to meet the other referees in the area, some of which people would never get to interact with because their areas of work don’t overlap,
No matter what colors we are handed, there will be conflicts with team colors. I had a set of matches this past weekend between two clubs across 5 different age groups. Combined they had 6 out of 10 different uniforms across a spectrum of colors. We wore three different colors in the 5 matches.
Agree. I reffed an unsanctioned indoor league over the winter and wore my USSF jerseys without the badge. Over the course of a morning of 10 games I always wore three different colors....sometimes more to avoid putting back on a sweaty jersey from earlier in the day.
I remember back when I started, there was only one jersey: black! Of course, the very next year the fuchsia jersey was introduced for conflicts with teams that had black or dark blue jerseys. Then a couple years later, we got the original thin pinstripes (yellow, red, and black).
I have only yellow and a knock-off green just in case, but I'm refusing to buy black because I'm not wearing that in Southern Illinois when it's 98F, 70% humidity on a turf field. I'm just not, teams have multiple jerseys, they can change. I'd really, REALLY dig a safety orange type of color. I love me some orange, rare teams have orange as a color and it's bright and hard to miss. I vote orange...we get a vote, right?
usually 16 minute halves, depending on age...but it is U-Littles on an indoor court slightly longer and slightly wider than a basketball court, with walls. So not a ton of running.
Orange is pretty popular in my neck of the woods, especially for HS. Most people can just wear their hunting outfits. Think Lambeau field on a cold day in January.
Nope. Lot’s of goal keepers sporting the safety orange these days. Just when you think of a safe color, the uniform gods go out and mass produce.
We've got two H.S. that have orange and black, but their primary is white and their away shirts are black.
Realistically, not matching the GKs really only matters at the highest levels of play (professional and up), and maybe not even then. I know you are supposed to have five different colors on the field, but how often have you honestly changed jerseys because you matched a GK (or more correctly under the Laws, told the GK to change)?
Considering how many times I've seen Premier League referees wear black while a keeper is also wearing black, I don't think it's a big deal anymore. I also subscribe to your thought that keepers should change to not conflict with referees. That's why I think three shirts should be plenty, especially if the shirt colors are not popular colors for teams. In my area, we have teams in dark green, neon/volt, red, royal blue, and navy blue. If our colors were black, light blue, and orange or pink, we would have virtually zero issues with color conflict. I know the days of a single color for referees is long gone. Just don't saddle people with 5 shirt colors. Pick 3, make the keepers change if the referees really want to see five colors on the field, and get on with it.
We get by for HS with only two – black and yellow (new or old, but not old-old). That works because HS home teams are required to wear white, so there's only one other color to conflict with. (Did I see somewhere that HS is reversing that next year so that home will wear its colors and visitors will wear white?)
Yes, that's true. I think another reason for the change is that it makes it much easier for a team to do a special shirt for an occasion (think pink for breast cancer awareness) without having to get special permission from the state. As long as one team has to wear white (which is one of the few NFHS-specific rules that makes sense given the conflicting opinions on what constitutes a "light" colored jersey), high school referees should be able to get away with just two shirt colors.