Neither USYS or U.S. Soccer approved their changes, or were even consulted about them. Insurance companies stay in business by not paying out claims. They have modified laws they are not allowed to modify. As such, unless you can get the insurance company or someone from legal at U.S. Soccer to confirm in writing these games are still sanctioned, I'd avoid them or assume you are accepting all liability.
Peter Kokolski briefly discussed risk and insurance issues, starting at around 5:10 (in the YouTube presentation) on health risks and around 6:25 on "liability," with the discussion ending around 8:35. According to Kokolski: 1. USSF insurance still covers referees, even with these modifications, with one big caveat; 2. That caveat being that no insurance company is offering communicable disease overage, so don't count on any form of coverage for COVID19 (as opposed to coverage concerning game events). My inference from that statement was that referees would probably not be covered if as a result of their referee activities they either come down with COVID19 or transmit COVID19 to someone else. Feel free to listen to that section of Kokolski's presentation and agree or disagree with my attempted summary. Of course, Kokolski is a patent lawyer, not an insurance lawyer, and I suppose it's possible that even though he's the SRA he has not accurately presented the views of the USSF on this issue.
Weather permitting I'll be back on the pitch this weekend. First games in over 6 months. Our state association has been pretty clear that there won't be any rule changes for competitive games, but they haven't really gone into many details about other protocols. I'm really hoping that coaches will be masked, spectators will be well back from the touchline, and that captains stay six feet away from me and each other during the coin toss. Based on state laws I don't think there are too many restrictions, aside from requiring that spectators wear masks and be six feet apart from other households. Hopefully players are having their temperatures checked, but I'm not sure if our state actually requires that teams do that.
New York is allowing high school to begin practicing scholastic soccer beginning September 21 with games starting October 1. Yesterday, my association got an email from our assignor informing us that some schools are opting not to play in the fall. Instead, the local region will allow them to play in the spring so it looks like my scholastic season might last a bit longer this year.
Now that I've done a couple of U9 games, I really appreciate the fact that coaches can pull down their masks to yell instructions across the field. I'm not kidding. These kids don't know what a throw-in is. I needed some help talking to them. And this was only when the action was on the other side of the field, so even if they had decided to hock a loogie, they weren't going to hit anyone. Another practical question: I was told at one point that we were supposed to avoid touching the ball with our hands. So how do you do a drop ball?
I've just about decided I'm not going back this fall. But if I put off the decision a little longer, I won't have to decide.
As of now, I have a regular season game scheduled for November 13. We are usually deep into the playoffs at that time! Last year I had a junior college 4th official at that time and I even though I had my warmups on and was layered, I thought I was going to get hypothermia!
In New York State high school soccer, which plays under NFHS rules, not the IFAB laws, we have been told that for this year only, we will be doing IFK instead of drop balls for scholastic soccer.
I just did my 9th varsity game of the season out of 26 assigned. On top of that I do have a bunch of middle school and JV games. We started scrimmages after Labor Day and just started regular season games on 9/23. We're delayed by about two weeks but boy I am very happy that we have a season. I love doing this, even if we do 3 whistles and all that stupidity here in Pennsylvania.
As I have said before, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning on a clear day then catching the virus from a drop ball. However, I have a match today in a city that has had the largest resurgence of the disease since June. I will be masked up and electronic.
I'm jealous . . . nada going on for me. I had to take up tennis to try to make up for no soccer and not being able to play basketball . . .
I just had two more junior college games canceled that were scheduled for Saturday. The positive out of this is that my son's team has a scrimmage/friendly scheduled for Saturday afternoon, so I'll be able to referee that and break out my pink shirt for the occasion! (In case anyone's wondering, these are not part of any league or tournament. I'm happy to volunteer my services so these kids can play and the coaches don't have to worry about assigning referees and paying for these games. I consider this something of a public service and a chance to have a better spot to watch the game!)
You need to give pickleball a shot as well. I LOVE that game. If you play it right, it really works on your quickness and lateral movement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/sports/soccer/soccer-without-fans-germany-data.html Playing in empty stadiums turns refs from home whistlers into neutrals "Another aspect of home-field advantage that has been exposed in Germany is the impact a crowd can have on a referee. A considerable body of academic research, in fact, has long suggested that “all or part of home advantage” is down to “refereeing decisions being subconsciously in favor of the home team,” Gleave pointed out."
Refs are human, news at 11! It is quite interesting these sorts of studies, I think the sample size is a BIT too small, and the players are also definitely affected by their not being a crowd there. However it's still interesting to study this stuff, I just wouldn't rely on it as PROVEN or anything.
Agree. It's very hard to control other factors to be focused on the actual decision making. But it is hardly shocking that there would be some subtle influences on referees.
Given what we are seeing, I'm very much leaning toward not doing any indoor games this winter even though I'd like to do so. I would imagine the indoor facilities aren't the most well-maintained facilities even before Covid. Obviously, having a number of people in a smaller area of play and indoors instead of outdoors makes airborne transmission more likely. I'd like to do more indoor games, because the quickness of the game helps me as a referee with my decision making. However, that doesn't outweigh safety.
We are mandated to wear masks, and so are using electronic whistles. Is anyone noticing that they are too quick on the whistle with the electronic? Normally when I see a foul, the second or two it takes to bring the whistle to my mouth when I instinctively react is enough to get me to slow down and see where the play goes. With the electronic, I think "foul!" and the instinct is to squeeze. I had a clear advantage the other night that I am still kicking myself over. I might try holding my whistle upside down next time out.
I’d say put it on a keychain/lanyard and let it dangle. Not sure what your setup is or leave it in your pocket but I’ll say I’ve never used an electronic whistle. Nor do I have issues with blowing the whistle too soon.
You know, I worried about that, but I'm actually finding that I avoid sending mixed messages. With a mouth whistle, I sometimes found myself starting to raise the whistle and then putting it back down. That's a bad habit I would've needed to break, but going electronic has broken it for me. I may never go back.
Slightly off topic ... but this reminds me of the one and only game I used the finger grip whistle on. I whistle a foul early on and go to signal and nearly pulled the teeth out of my mouth! Switched back to my usual at half time and beside occasionally switching up the color, haven’t strayed from my tried and true single Fox 40 (no lanyard, no attachments) since. A fellow referee asked if I wanted to use his electronic whistle recently. I respectfully declined. To be honest, I think they sound awful.