One of the referees who represented Concacaf at WC2002, Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast, is retiring from International refereeing... http://www.soccerway.com/news/index.php?page=details&area=1036442700 He takes some parting shots at Concacaf in regards to their referee development. It sounds to me like he is taking a shot at Concacaf for not developing more Caribbean referees. If the Caribbean countries want to have their country represented on the international stage, why shouldn't it be up to the country to develop them? Why should it be up to the confederation to develop them? Is UEFA responsible for referee development in Lichtenstein or Faroe Islands or the smaller countries in their confederation? What do you guys think?
Kev, what Predenrgrast is alluding to that in CONCACAF the reality is such that MOST of the individual countries really dont have enough money or resources to put together an effective Referee Progam at their own National level. This is an issue that Doctor Codesal brought up at the last couple of National Camps - the fact that while in Europe and most of South America, each country can take care of their own Referee program, that is not the case in our region. As Codesal said, the only countries in CONCACAF that can take care of their own program are Mexico and US. The others depend on the Confederation to help them with their development programs.
Concacaf Referee Development Ok, that makes sense. If each country financially supports the confederation in equal amounts, then I can see the confederation providing proportionally more support for the smaller countries in the area of referee development that they do to the top countries. Would it work to have international referees from these other countries working the professional leagues in the top countries like Mexico & US. Are there any others? What are the pro leagues in Costa Rica, Honduras, et. al. like? It seems that if the confederation is going to provide funds for development of these guys, perhaps they could do it in a manner that provides a higher level of refereeing for the top pro leagues in the federation. That way we get something out of it too. My only question is what does that do to our referees? Do we have so many National level referees working to attain international status that doing this would be harmful to our pool?
Re: Concacaf Referee Development Perhaps it might affect some of the poorer countires, but the USA spends a great deal of money when compared to other countries on referee development. I believe the smaller confederations will suffer based on FIFA's recent media releases on how the selection of officials will be modified for future world cups. FIFA is considering sending crews of officials from one country to work matches instead of the current system of assigning officials from different countries. The concern is that the officials will be more in synch and will be more consistent in their decisions. Also, FIFA is concerned that the quality of the officiating is spotty in these third world countries. Very few of the CONCACAF member countries with the exception of Mexico and the USA have large pools of centers and assistants capable to comply with FIFA's proposed changes for officiating world cup matches.
quote: ------------------------------------------------- "Referees in this region need help and I don't think that CONCACAF has spent enough time and energy to develop their skills," he said. "If this is not done shortly, this confederation, especially countries in the Caribbean, will not be represented in major tournaments for a long time." ------------------------------------------------- There are those -- no doubt Greg Berhalter and Bruce Arena among them -- who believe that Mr. Prendergast himself was a victim of the CONCACAF's failure to develop the skills of referees.
Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development Wouldn't it be possible to get 3-man teams from the same region (CONCACAF) working together in the larger leagues (MLS, MFL, etc.) to develop that "in synch" decision making process? This way more officials from smaller countries can be involved in the WC without the whole "team" necessarily coming from the same country. By the time the next WC rolls around there should be plenty of time to get the teams selected and have them work together during league games and also have them officiate the friendlies in the region.
Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development I doubt you would see it in league games, but certainly there are enough friendlies and tournaments thoughout the Confederation for this idea to be experimented with. Yes, this would be of benefit to those countries that may have only a handful of qualified and experienced referees. The only other problem with this composite crew approach is that they may be ineligible from working later stages if one or more members of the officiating crew are citizens from countries still competing in the world cup.
Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development MLS's financial situation makes it difficult to fly referees from the east coast to do games on the west coast. Flying in referees from other countries (on a consistent basis) is simply out of the question, based purely on economic concerns alone.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development The economics are understandable from the MLS point of view, but if the CONCACAF region REALLY wants to develop referee talent then maybe they could get involved to help with those costs. Probably not for every game of a season, but it would be a good training ground for a weekend or two a month during the season(s) between now and WC2006. It would give the smaller countries a chance to be more involved with the WC after the Regions have already been decided. Finally someone from the soccer powers of Belize, Bermuda and Canada-(just kidding, they have the Women's World Cup) could be a part of the WC.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development This is exactly what I was talking about. The larger countries probably provide a proportionately larger amount of the funding for Concacaf either directly or indirectly. Therefore, if Concacaf wants to spend money on referee development of the smaller countries, it means that the larger countries are, in a large part, funding the development of those referees. Therefore, it would make sense for those larger countries to benefit from that development by being able to make use of those referees being developed. So a part of the funding that Concacaf should provide to develop these referees would be to cover expenses to make it possible for those referees to work in the larger countries on a regular or semi-regular basis. That way it's a win-win situation. The smaller countries get the referee development but the larger countries get the benefit of the services of these presumably good referees.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development What's the incentive for USSF and MLS, though? Why would USSF want to allow FIFA Refs from Carribbean countries to come in and take Division 1 (MLS) assignments away from their own refs? Our top national refs need 1st division experience to make the FIFA Panel. If foreign referees are snatching up the assignments, there will be no games for people like Simmons, Salazar, Marrufo, etc., to get the games they need. USSF would be helping to develop foreign refs while simultaneously hurting their own program. It doesn't make sense. Finances are a reason why the idea isn't practical. But the possibility of hurting our own program, and particularly our own top national referees, is a reason why it isn't a good idea anyway.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Concacaf Referee Development The flipside would be to allow some of our current or potential FIFA refs to officiate Division 1 league matches of the other countries as well -- like a foreign exchange program. I'm sure the details over something like that could be worked out to benefit both sides.
Concacaf Referee Development I agree and that was the other part of my original question about this idea. Of all the guys who are currently doing professional level games (MLS & A-League), how many are working toward attaining their international badges? If there realistically are only a handful who are good enough to be developing for getting an international badge, then it would seem that we'd have room to have a few international foreigners working games here -- particularly in the future when we get to 12, 16 or 20 teams in MLS. However, if there are a couple dozen in that pipeline of American nationals working toward international status, then you're right -- we need those games for our guys.
Re: Concacaf Referee Development Some say that the US Senate is a collection of 100 people, all of whom think they could be President some day. I think a correlation can be drawn to top-level national referees (in any country). Except for a very select few older national referees, I suspect that all national referees have aspirations (realistic or not) of attaining a FIFA badge. (although, with about 20 out of 240 referees getting their FIFA badge, that progression is much more realistic than the Senate-to-President route) My opinion is that you have to give your own referees the chance to attain their goals. Even if MLS eventually goes to 20 teams, I think referee exchanges should remain a rare phenomenon. As has been seen in recent years with the younger nationals moving up the ranks of USL, there is a solid, youthful corps of national referees that are waiting in the wings. As MLS expands, I think the talent of top USSF referees will also expand. That's the best way to develop solid American FIFA Referees for international duty, which is what the main concern of USSF should be. Whether or not Trinidad & Tobago or any other Carribean country is able to send an AR to a World Cup is not the concern of USSF.
MLS is not an experimental league for CONCACAF referees. Let Mexico do it first. It will never happen. US league = US Referees.