http://www.soccernet.com/global/news/2002/1028/20021028fifareferees.html The article addresses a number of points. First, FIFA will approve a policy whereby a refereeing team comes from the same country for WC Finals matches, just as they do in qualifying. The article implies that that means 3 officials have to come from any one country if the country is sending any officials at all. Although I think that, overall, that is a good idea, there are a few problems. Won't they really need 4 officials (how else do you rotate in 4th officials)? And, what does this mean for world-class referees (like Hamer in Luxembourg) who come from countries without truly world-class assistants? Will FIFA send him to the WC with subpar assistants, or will they ignore his abilities because of the lack of viable assistants? One good point, for US officials, is that this should guarantee 2 American ARs at the 2006 WC for the first time ever. The article also touches on the 5-man (actually 6-man) system which would employ 2 additional goal line ARs. Experiments seem to be set for the Confed Cup or a youth FIFA tournament. Finally, the article says that the Referee Committee approved the list of 2003 FIFA Referees. Which, of course, means that the USSF Referee's Committee has already submitted the names for FIFA CRs and ARs. So, the question becomes, for USSF refs, who has been added to the list (particularly, any new CRs?) and who has retired/been removed from the list?
Re: Officials from same country. A sore spot with me is that referee teams rarely stick together. I'd like to see a group of 3-5 officials stay together throughout their careers, moving up through the ranks and doing assignments as a team. I know this happens more at the higher levels but it would be worthwhile to start at an earlier level. If there was more focus on refereeing teams instead of individual referees you wouldn't have problems like having only one WC quality ref from a country.
Re: Officials from the same Country I understand what statesman is getting at with the 3-5 refs sticking together. However, it would work only as long as the team advanced together. Also how many do you want on a team? If you have a four man team, then what do you do if one has a work conflict, injury, or illness? How and when do you decide who will do centers and ARs? For our high school games we are divided up into crews of about 8 officials with various abilities. For the season, we work mostly within our crews (though other crews are used to fill openings as we get reschedules and cancellations). We usually get a Varsity and JV game with each assignments, and we usually discuss calls and techniques before each game, at halftime, and postgame. Re the original issue, for the World Cup, FIFA should nominate the best officials from all countries. For large countries, Brasil, USA, France, etc., they could have a team of 3 or 4. For smaller countries, they could combine refs with similar language skills. All teams of 4 should be announced before the start, and given at least two friendlies (one for each CR), whereby they can become familiar with each other.
There will be no additions to the list of centers for 2003. John Wilson has retired (voluntarily) from the list of ARs.
Re: Re: Article regarding changes to refereeing by FIFA Ok. Though you didn't explicity say it, should I assume that you're implying there are no additions to the AR list, as well?
CONCACAF protests 'worst refereeing decision of all time' CONCACAF has launched an immediate and vehement protest against today's decision by the FIFA Referees' Committee that "the best referees and assistants, working as trios from the same countries, should be in charge of the next FIFA World Cup". Calling this "the worst refereering decision of all time," CONCACAF President Jack Warner said: "It is almost impossible to understand the sheer self-interest and thoughtlessness of those who made this decision. "This effectively means an almost impenetrable road-block for referees and assistants from CONCACAF, from Asia, from Africa, from Oceania http://www.concacaf.com/news/article.page/1043
What Warner means is that this is a roadblock for referees from Trinidad & Tobago and some other island nations. If anything, without saying whether I agree or disagree with the policy as a whole, one has to see this as a boon for American, Mexican, and possibly even Canadian officials.
I think it says more about those in charge of CONCACAF than it does about FIFA. Why are they so sure their referees won't get picked? Could it be that they just aren't qualified enough for the job? If they were really interested in what's best for the game they wouldn't be complaining about this change but instead start looking into ways to make their ref crews the best in the world. If a whole country can't even produce 3 high-quality referees they have no business being involved with the World Cup in the first place!
Warner's argument is self-serving as he knows good and well that Trinidad doesnt even have an AR worth sending, but has always been able to push one of his referees into the mix, but three? Not gonna happen. Some of the other smaller countries have gotten smart. Bermuda, for example, used to have 1 CR and 2 ARs on their list. realizing that they could never get WC appointments (you need a 4 man crew). They developed another referee so that they now have 1 full crew that can be selected for games. Other small countries have been making sure that they have at minimum 4 quality officials. Except Trinidad which never had to bother with improving their officials because they were always nominated for tournaments and games on Warner's word. Sometimes before the official had even a minimum of international experience. MassRef uses Luxemborg as a good example of a small country having a good referee. My question is what is to stop Luxemborg from developing good ARs also? Teams of referees from one country are already used in most international club competitions and all WC preliminaries use teams. So is this so new? If anything this could help improve the ranks of officials from smaller countries as they are forced to train all their officials instead of a chosen few. A valid point is that the officials from smaller countries will still arrive at top level competitions with little "big game" experience, not because FIFA has discriminated against them, but because their own domestic leagues/football isn't on a par with the more developed (soccerwize) countries. Warner's statement that this was "the worst referee decision of all time" reminds me of the disgruntled U-9 parent who says to the referee after the game that this "was the worst refereed game he has ever seen". Of course, he says that after almost every game because he really doesnt know what he is talking about.
Re: Re: Re: Article regarding changes to refereeing by FIFA No - I dont want to imply that. I really dont know about the ARs. If you recall, last year I went with Gansner and either Davidson or Taylor. I got Gansner correct, but was taken by surprise with Strickland (as I think everyone was!). I have no info regarding ARs, other than the fact that Wilson has quit. My guess would be that the same two - Davidson and Taylor - would be favorite, with Davidson getting the edge IMHO.
I think that's a little unfair. There are a number of countries who produce good refs, but dont have the numbers to make up a whole crew. MassachussettsRef has certainly identified one with Hamer of Luxembourg, and there are some excellent ARs in countries that dont have FIFA centers. This week alone two of the Champions League games have ARs (from Finland and Hungary) who have to be "adopted" by crews from other countries because they dont have centers from their own to work with. It would be a great pity - and a mistake in my mind - if you limit yourself to only countries that can provide a whole crew. The WC final referee in both 98 and 94 came from countries (Morocco and Hungary) that could not possibly have provided an entire crew, so those two highly-deserving referees would never have made it to the tournament far less worked the center on the final if this proposed restriction applied. So, I think that although it may be a worthwhile goal to aspire to, I think it's just not practical to enforce at a "country" level. Now, possibly the solution is to get each confederation to work to assemble crews that could go together - that might work. For instance, if you take CONCACAF as an example, maybe you have Kevin Stott, a Mexican center a top AR from Costa Rica and one from Canada and have them do a bunch of internationals together - possibly including Euro2004 qualifiers and WC qualifiers in other confederations, with the intent of grooming them to go to the next WC as a group. Perhaps at the confederation level, it could work.
I think this pretty much sums up my feelings on the issue. Someone like Hamer could be grouped with Bre (France) and two French ARs. Similarly, the ARs in question (Hungary and Finland) can be grouped with referees like Michel (SVK) and Ivanov (RUS). That way, UEFA would be able to send their best UCL crews to the WC--as crews The only point I disagree with deep-throat on is mixing a crew of 4 nationalities in CONCACAF. With the rules in place of referees not being able to referee their own nation or teams that their country are grouped with, when could a 4-nation crew ever even be assigned to a match in CONCACAF? It's highly unlikely. Instead, maybe something (and I'm using 06 as an example), where Stott and Lowry (USA) are paired with Faria and Vergara (CAN) throughout qualifying. Similarly, two Mexicans could be paired with two El Salvadorans, and maybe two Costa Ricans with two Hondurans, etc., etc. I think by doing that, you could establish 3-5 solid crews in CONCACAF that could perform extremely well at the WC level.
MassachussetsRef, I agree that the difficulty of using a group of four different nationalities in WC qualifying is finding a game for them to participate in where none of their countries was involved. My suggestion was that in the case of CONCACAF they should go outside the confederation to get that experience as a group. For their own Confederation qualifying, they could work with their own national group. In other words, if you had a crew of 4 US officials led by Kevin Stott, they could do games in CONCACAF qualifying (in non-US groups). Additionally, on other dates, Stott would team up with officials from other CONCACAF countries to do qualifying games in other confederations. That way, you kill two birds with one stone - you are grooming a mixed group for potential WC Finals assignment by giving them games outside their area, while still giving a group from an individual country with enough qualified officials the chance to do so inside their own confederation.
Well I didn't mean to say the country itself has no business in the World Cup, but it doesn't speak highly of their referee program if only one is able to learn enough to be a World Cup candidate. However, I do believe so long as there is no language barrier and the referees are from the same general geographic region, in the case of small countries they could pair up with other "single" refs. The main issue is just making sure they have enough experience together as a team.
In a perfect world pairing referees from different countries might work. But intra-regional rivalries, jealousy, nationalism would be a stark reality check. i.e. will a Mexican AR be willing to work with a US CR? a Jamaican under a Trinidadian? or vice versa. Finding a group of three that are willing to work with and for each other would take time. Not to mention time to eliminate those who fail in their performances. Where would this multi-national crew work games together to gain experience? A couple of games at an international tournament, then off to the WC? This would make them a team? In the US (pick any country with a national league) an AR will work with the same referee between 5-6 times a year by the luck of the draw. If an effort was made to make a "team" this could easily go to 12-15 games a year or more. In smaller countries (geographical size) this is easily achieved. Maybe the way to go isn't with a team from the same country. I don't know. But a "team" from different countries still holds the potential for all the political "favoritism" that got unqualified officials appointed to the WC in the first place. Except now it would be a team with one qualified official and two "appointees". UEFA already ranks its referees, can't FIFA? As an aside, are any of the other Confederations bellyachin' like Warner? I haven't seen anything. You would suppose from Warner's strong comments that Ocenia, Asia and Africa would also be up in arms. or maybe he is just blowing smoke.