On the topic of the Miami jersey situation -- I used to wonder if my bigsoccer username would get in the way of my professional refereeing career. At one point I actually almost deleted this account for that specific reason. In the end, my own abilities ended up being a much more significant barrier to that career anyway But it does beg the question -- what's the statute of limitations on wearing a team's jersey and refereeing their game? I don't think you become a professional soccer referee without being a fan of pro soccer at some point in your life. I find it hard to believe that every professional referee has never in their life donned the jersey of a team in the league they officiate. Or is the expectation that if you've ever been a fan of a team, you'll never ref one of their games?
Even at that, I highly doubt there are 0 PSRA referees who were fans of MLS teams in their area growing up, or into their young adulthoods. Really I don’t think this should be a problem unless they are currently rooting for one team or the other. I get that some fans have religious-lite sentimental connections to their team that are hard to drop at a moment’s notice, but I’m sure those who worked their way slowly up the refereeing ladder have had enough time to do that and, frankly, care a lot more about refereeing than supporting a club.
I fully understand the desire to eliminate all appearances of a conflict of interest, but taking it to this level could cause other problems if these sorts of photos get discovered after the fact in which essentially you are questioning the professionalism of your referees to put all this aside. Though, granted, I'm coming from the point of view where I would prefer having crews of USA and Mexico referees working together to handle any USAvMEX competitive CONCACAF match. I'd trust they could do a better job than anyone else out there.
I would assume that refs wouldn't openly wear MLS kits while being in consideration for MLS games. Even if they aren't a MLS ref yet but feel like they could be within the near future. In this case the ref was wearing a Miami jersey and posting pics of him in it on social media within the last few months. Now, obviously, I'm betting he never expected to do a MLS game, much less one featuring Miami, so he wasn't worried about showing his support when he took the picture. But given the situation there's no way MLS/PRO could have him do a Miami game.
Remember that in many (most?) other domestic competitions, referees can (or must) declare a team allegiance and then they steer clear of that club. And sometimes they even steer clear of matches that could impact that club. We hear most about it in England. But Brych didn't referee Bayern in competitive matches, for example. We don't have that formally in MLS. I think you could see it, where necessary or applicable, if someone truly wanted to declare their allegiance to a team. But I'm unaware of it being an issue anywhere right now. It is worth remember that MLS still is young. If you're in your late 30s or older, you'd had to have really got in on the ground floor to be passionate about a club from your youth and prior to a refereeing career really taking off. So it's that next cohort (probably under 35?) where it is first possible. And in the nascent stages of MLS, where you were relying on local referees to a large extent, it would have just been impossible to police this, anyway. In fact, I'm sure there were state and "regional" national referees in the late 90s who would referee one weekend and be at a game the next--as a fan. It was just a different time and expectations were different in the league. Long way of saying I think that in today's MLS, if you've ever been or expressed yourself as an adult fan of a certain club, you probably want to voluntarily steer clear of that club and we are probably not very far from the day when that will be mandated. Childhood/youth fandom might remain separate, but you never know. Sort of all depends how MLS evolves.
I don’t agree with “first possible.” I’d maybe agree with “first widespread.” I look at it this way: Joe Dickerson and Victor Rivas were about 15 when the Quakes won their second MLS Cups in three years in 2003. There are refs in their cohort (a cohort which has been represented on the FIFA panel for some time now) who would’ve been in their early-to-mid 20s when the Galaxy were winning three titles in four years in the early 2010s. We’re not talking 90s MLS Dark Ages here when the league was essentially unknown. This is post-Beckham era. So there’s been plenty of time for people to be fans of an MLS club and later become MLS referees—I’m not saying any of these people specifically fit that description, but given that we are talking about a group of a few dozen soccer-obsessed people, it’s highly likely that there’s at least a few examples who do. The big change will not be referees were fans of a team several years before making it to MLS themselves [I’m sure those already exist], the big change will be how easy it is for bad actors to dig up old social media posts to make a scandal out of it. Social media existed in 2011, but not in the same way that it does today. And it will only get easier for bad actors to dig up that type of information. That’s where the next generation will struggle. [I often notice this issue when thinking about Gen Z‘ers who have aspirations to run for public office someday: the Information Age is making it increasingly hard to separate oneself from his/her past!]
In the PSRA interview Dickerson talked about how being on the road all MLS season meant he could never be back home to his family to watch an earthquakes game and I think he said he attended games growing up. You guys will know if he’s worked earthquakes games, but I think that if he has, his comments about being home to see their games would show he probably still has some connection to them. Rivas probably has some too although I believe Dickerson grew up in San Jose (he still actively participates with the San Jose referee association) while Rivas was about 50-60 miles away I think, given which youth club he started refereeing in, but he also still stays in touch with his local club assignors and I think is still a board member with a high school association, I’ve met him in both settings
We're getting far afield of our usual topics and really just speculating or offering opinions, anyway. But in that spirit and in reply to the previous two posts, I would just say or argue that there's a big difference between "occasionally attending local MLS games and cheering for the home team" and "being a committed supporter." And I think that's particularly so for the first 10 years of the league or thereabouts. But even today, as some in the MLS front offices know all too well, it's perfectly possible to be a casual observer/attendee/fan of your local MLS club but actually be a passionate supporter of a European club. Now, where any of that dissects the issues about a referee officiating their local club in MLS and how that will or should evolve is anyone's guess. And it probably won't ever be a problem until it's a problem.
I see The Room references all over now after watching the film, listening to the disaster artist audiobook and watching the disaster artist film in the past few weeks Very suspicious…. Anyway, clown, how’s your sex life?
Not really referee-related at this level of play, but MLS fined Cherundolo $10K for criticising the decision to allow play to continue in the deteriorating weather conditions Saturday evening. Pretty sizable chunk of change for being mean to Ali Curtis and company I guess. MLS Fines Steve Cherundolo for Public Criticismhttps://t.co/428oixM1Sy— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) March 6, 2024
Well, if they're mad at Ali Curtis, that should be a double fine cuz Curtis is in charge of MLS Next PRO. We're probably talking about Nelson Rodriguez here. I'd imagine there were so many factors going into play for this game that Cherundolo has no idea. For some reason, MLS must absolutely hate RSL. They put them for Messi fodder on the opening night against Inter Miami, set them against the Western Conf champs St. Louis in game 2, and then another marquee match on week 2 in the afternoon broadcast time against LAFC that was in MLS Cup last year. They'd already played 2 games on the road while some teams hadn't even played a game yet and this was the home opener for them. So RSL wanted to have some home-field advantage with snow against the SoCal team. Another factor is when will they make up this game. When can you find time in the schedule with the way it's congested now already? This game was Saturday but they announced the USOC schedule format the day before. Nations Cup, Copa America, and Leagues Cup are this year as well. It's just a whole lot going on. I'll note here that this game was in March. So anyone who's hoping for MLS to switch to the Euro calendar just took a few hits as well.
Lots of incentives not to postpone and while it's true that both teams are playing in the same conditions...the factor not discussed much was the wind which caused the initial 2 hour delay. Both teams had significant advantage when attacking left to right on the broadcast (wind at their backs). LAFC has a gripe with having to play through 2-3 inches of snow accumulation during the half with the wind in their favor. Cherundolo sticking up for his players publicly is probably the move for the locker room.
Having sat through the original Snow Clasico, not to mention Snow Clasicos II and III and the Frozen Taps game here in Denver I will say watching that match that by the end it might have been worse snow than anything we've dealt with on the better side of the Rockies. The original Snow Clasico is a game that, honestly, probably should have been called at some point (not that I wanted that at the time sitting in the stands). This looked worse. So I get Cherundolo's complaints. That said, both teams had to play in it, and every team has their own home field advantages. Snow in early season games is Salt Lake's and Colorado's.
But it also endangered BOTH teams. Slick fields and reduced visibility are not safe conditions for a sport involving running and a ball moving 75 mph.
RSLvLAFC: Someone's gonna need to explain how we get from Geiger going "he's giving it to WHO?" to "Alex, it's completely your decision" to "yellow card is the correct final outcome." I'm surprised Geiger wasn't more insistent when Zhelyazkov suggested a simple foul at one point. COLvNSH: That has to be one of the quickest review recommendations I've ever seen. Just 5 seconds between the handball and the instruction to stop the play for the review. Disappointed we didn't get any word on the NEvTOR review that Costa rejected Barkey on. That would've been fun. It doesn't seem like they're posting The Definitive Angle during the lockout, so we'll never get to hear if PRO's Manager of Video Review agrees with PRO's Manager of Video Review. What are the chances we ever get PRO admitting to a wrong outcome in these videos during the lockout?
The only interesting thing on the Hb was why the AR didn’t help live. That call is about as obvious as they get. Perhaps the whole point of including it was to excuse the miss by the R based on his angle?
The answer in my opinion is simple and why that particular part of the audio was left in. They are trying to show that pro management is following ifab protocol and not just reffing the game from the booth. Despite some other questionable moments suggesting otherwise in different games, this is a clear example of what Barkey has always said in his show that the referee always has the final decision. I’m sure they took the opportunity to say those words to ensure that image is being put forth and show they’re not bastardizing the laws of the game
That’s also not really that interesting. An AR well out of his depth being asked to call a handball from the line would make anybody a little tense. I suppose I wouldn’t really expect it from someone in their situation
Hmm. I wouldn’t expect it on a hard call, but from the AR’s angle, that would seem to be as easy as a HB call can get.