https://www.mlssoccer.com/mls-is-ba...referral&utm_content=news&utm_campaign=unpaid Overall, expected news for a lot of people, but there are some details accompanying the official announcement, which is nice.
Very much looking forward to this. It sounds like they are going to great lengths policy wise to minimize the possibility of an outbreak at the site, which I assume would bring the whole thing to a screeching halt. Hopefully the weather cooperates, Florida summers can be brutal.
"Unprecedented access to players and coaches". I'm a SKC fan, so it will be interesting to hear what Vermes is saying when it looks like the veins on his temples look like they are about ready to explode.
Firstly, what a terrible name. Secondly, I pray they don't add artificial crowd noise cause it sounds terrible on the sports I've seen it used on so far. Finally, I wonder how all the officials feel about being away from their families for a month as I presume they won't be allowed to come and go.
This has been and is continuing to be negotiated. It’s a particularly tough issue for ARs who have other jobs. Nothing is settled yet insofar which officials will be attending (and how they will be compensated). But yes, whoever goes will be there for the duration or until they are released unless something unexpected changes that policy.
Hmm...might we see Rs as AR for that reason? (Probably not, but theses seem like the kind of times when anything is possible.)
This whole tournament strikes me as a really, really bad idea, plus we have to update the database schema to accommodate the knockout stage.
Curious - is it a bad idea because it won't generate sufficient tv audience to be worthwhile or because of the risk to everyone's health from the pandemic? Or something else?
I do wonder if we will see some new faces for this tournament due to others availability/willingness to be away.
https://equalizersoccer.com/2020/06/15/nwsl-challenge-cup-referees-interviews-utah-logistics/ Anyone have an account to get the full article?
I don't think you'll see anyone new outside the bargaining unit unless you have information that I don't. You will see a reduced pool of officials, though. Some big name referees have opted not to go on top of those who already failed to pass fitness prior to start of the season. And then a lot of ARs simply couldn't make the commitment. I think you're going to be around 75% participation for referees and around 60% for ARs.
What about referees who passed fitness after the season started but before the suspension? Are they excluded?
I don't think so and wouldn't see why they would be. But I think there might be one referee who falls into that category that is choosing not to attend for personal reasons. Don't want to get ahead of myself with names because everything is just getting confirmed. But I think there will be a couple big surprise absences that are truly all down to personal choice and nothing more. Then again, there might be a couple surprises that do relate to fitness.
Not asking this to be difficult or snarky, but why would PRO and MLS not want to use this as a chance to give some new officials a chance and to reduce the chance of overwork for its full time crew? While I know it’s not perfect, I don’t think MLS officiating is as poor as many fans think it is. The area where I do think fans have a point is depth. After the top few officials and ARs, there is a decent-sized drop off. MLS isn’t the only country like this (honestly, England is a prime example of this as well). This might be a way to see which younger referees could step in to bolster the ranks.
That’s just not how it works. Your regular employees have been sitting at home all season. There's a union. There's a collective bargaining agreement (and a special agreement for this). There are lost wages. I don't even know how else to address this. It's not a local tournament where you give younger referees a shot. It's the top professional division with professional referees. New officials come in on very specific terms based on the CBA. Also, there'd be no way to monitor new officials' fitness. Going back to the post above that started this discussion, maybe there's a new AR for the 2020 season who was already slated for some trial games or something like that. If you see a new name (which I have no knowledge of), then that's the only way it would happen. To my knowledge, all the officials (I think it's in the high 40s insofar as count) are bargaining unit members and officials you have already seen on the field.
Anyone know what the situation is like in Italy and Spain where they are pretty much having games every day? Are they bringing in "new" officials for some of these games?
I only mentioned it with regards to too many officials declining to come from the AR side. With the refs being employees I'm guessing they have less says in the matter.
Have they announced who's working this tournament yet? I just went to PRO's site, and there are no announcements as to who's working yet, and the first games are Wednesday.
Internally, assignments have been made through at least the 12th of July. However, PRO isn't going to make anything public until probably the day before at the earliest, perhaps the morning of for the late games. Basically, if they announce assignments ahead of time and then they change, it's a big red flag that someone tested positive, and they will want to avoid that for privacy reasons. I'm sure there are PR reasons, too, but privacy is the driving factor here.
FC Dallas will not be participating in the tournament due to positive CoVid-19 tests. Likely will affect groups and matchups, which of course affects assignments. https://theathletic.com/1912949/202...-is-back-tournament-after-covid-19-positives/
This is probably another reason as to why they are probably waiting until the ball is kicked to publish assignments. No one has any idea if the tournament will be even completed. Hopefully, PSRA negotiated this tournament well in terms of pay as essentially three matches just eliminated due to FC Dallas' with-drawl from the tournament. That's roughly 12 game checks the referees lose.
Here's what I'm expecting to see over the next day or two: Toronto and Colorado openers postponed due to late arrival in Orlando Nashville withdrawn Bunch of schedule changes to turn it into 6 groups of 4, pissing everyone off even more. Oh and it's supposed to start WEDNESDAY? lol