Somewhere along the timeline for law-change, linesmen became assistant referees. What were the reasons or justifications for this change? I am looking for historical reference(s), and am posting here for guidance to where is/are some of the definitive places to find this information. Please help. The Ifab website has just a short blurb in the history section about linesmen indicate, not decide when ball is out of play.
I'm not sure if the reasoning was set forth by IFAB, or if it came from others. My understanding is there were 2 primary reasons: It makes a non-gender-specific term for the position And more importantly, it indicates that the powers and responsibilities of the position have evolved, that the person is actually assisting the referee more. Someone else will have to chime in, but did the change in the term come about as part of the Great Rewrite in the 90's (1996?)
That revision was '97. The two reasons you provided pop up in numerous other places, however, the original reference is lacking. This is why I opened a thred in the forum.
Linesmen didn’t traditionally call fouls. Ow they can waggle the flag and call one. He ref, of course, an overule. The. And.change reflected that. ‘92 or 93, I think.
Here is an article from 1996. But it's really more of an opinion piece. https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/the-referee-assistance-the-linesman-dead-71603
They must have been phasing it out at that point. I took my first USSF class in 2000 and the position was called "assistant referees" then.
Short of reading the IFAB minutes from then, I don't think you're going to find anything "official." @Gary V has the right answers, though. It was a combination of those two. Publicly, FIFA/IFAB stressed either the growing duties (or the reality that "linesmen" always had more duties and referees and certain national associations needed to get with the program) more than the gender thing. But given the timing of the 1995 WWC and the increased (but not exclusive) use of female officials there, it was definitely also a component of it. The timing thing is an interesting question. Somewhere between WC90 and 94, FIFA adopted a "Linesman" badge. I believe it was 1993, but could have been 1992. Prior to that, all FIFA officials who qualified as such got a "FIFA Badge" and there was no distinction between the two duties in name (even if, in practice, a select few specialized... that was not common). Anyway, that led to the need for a "Lineswoman" badge in 1995 (see attached). I can't remember if 1996 still had these badges or if "Assistant Referee" badges came then or 1997. My memory on all this stuff is +/- one year, as you can tell.
I agree with MassachusettsRef. I don't think the gender thing was as important as an evolution in the expectations of what the people with the flags would do. I know that particularly in England, linesmen were definitely considered lower class citizens, barely worthy of getting into the game for free. (Note that, historically, there were linesmen before there were referees!) There were definitely referees, Americans and otherwise, who did not want mere linesmen to flag for fouls. That was solely the job of the referee! I'm not sure, but I think it was only a year or two later that FIFA decided that there should be FIFA Referees and FIFA Assistant Referees, and n'er the twain shall cross. I remember doing an adult tournament game with Thomas Bobadilla around this time. He had a FIFA AR badge so when he had the center for the second game, he had to switch to a National Referee badge. It wasn't much later that those with FIFA badges were told that they were not to do AR assignments if they were FIFA Referees, or centers if they were FIFA AR's. About the same time, but, if memory serves, just a little later, 4th officials were given more responsibilities than just holding the spare game balls and waiting for the referee to get hurt. No change in title, though.
As I recall there were actually two separate grades at the time. “Linesman” was grade 10. “Assistant Referee” was grade 12 and was if memory serves primarily for adult matches. I’ll see if I can fine my admin book from back then.
I've attached some excerpts from IFAB 94 minutes (Clarifying gender) IFAB 96 Minutes using both terms. IFAB 96 Agenda showing intention to change. For what it's worth...an interesting read.
Probably the worst situation I ever had to deal with as a 4th official was two pro coaches yelling at each other about how badly behaved one of the players was. Tough day at the office.
Please try and not change thread topic too much. It is already hard reading through discussions. I thank you for this consideration.
I just noticed OSI doesn't have the three-stripe socks with different colors anymore. What's up with that? Whoops. Hijacked the thread. Never mind. Carry on.
As an online soccer officials discussion grows longer, the probability of a mention of socks or sleeve length approaches 1.