PRO Roster

Kadlecik has also retired, to take a staff or consultant position with PRO.

Saghafi's upgrade effectively happened last year, but the website has finally caught up to speed.

Also, as I noted in the other thread, there were several failures and some no-takes on the fitness test in preseason. I believe seven referees and two fourth officials are not clear to work on the field. So for the first several weeks there is going to be a logjam at VAR and you're going to see a lot of referees pull repeat duty at the CR/FO positions until at least 3/24.

Oh, and as usual a bang-up job from the IT or media department at PRO. They can't even get pictures of their VARs, instead using the PRO logo as their headshots, and they spell Toledo's first name wrong. It all screams "professional."

 

Wasn't Mendez also FO last year or do I have that wrong? He's listed as a VAR now.

I also thought Guido Gonzales Jr. would move to the FO role, rather than just VAR. That's another one to keep an eye on.

 

An interesting distinction here is whether "fourth official" is now--in the context of the race to become a referee--superior, inferior or equal to "VAR?"

On the one hand, VARs don't have to pass fitness and it seems pretty clear that certain veteran referees are going to move to VAR as they retire from on-field duties. Moreover, it's also clear that certain younger officials who hadn't seen the field in awhile (Terry Jr. and Gamble) have shifted over.

But on the other hand, several of the listed VARs have a much higher chance of seeing an MLS field than some of the FOs--it just might take awhile. So maybe there is no hierarchy? And maybe the FOs are just not trained to be VARs (though, I think Jallow is)?

I suppose it's also possible that, over time, "Fourth Official" will be a status that PRO phases out and that all new hires have to work through the VAR system first.

Mendez and Gonzales Jr. will be two people to keep an eye on. Their inclusion as VARs, instead of FOs, surprises me. I wonder if we will see them between the benches at all this year.

 

Well, yes. But VAR duty is going to be just as frequent as FO duty. Officials on both lists are going to be doing USL whistles, still. It's just a question of which status with PRO is a quicker path to MLS whistles. I figured FO still is, but I guess the answer isn't clear.

 

Other than contractual or CBA issues, I don't think it will affect too much. A few older referees who hoped to stay around will retire. A few of the younger referees who weren't going to make MLS and put their eggs in this basket will retire. And a couple female referees will leave MLS duty unless they pass the male fitness test. Then you'll be left with a dozen or so officials who will be right back to where they started: doing FOs in MLS and/or USL whistles, waiting for their chance to be elevated.

That was a long way of saying I don't think there are too many younger referees committing themselves to a full-time VAR role permanently. There are a couple, but most who are dedicating themselves to it now see it as a vehicle to on-field MLS duty.

No, and I think that's a good thing. I'm particularly happy about the UEFA decision. But we're going to need to see an absolute catastrophe in Russia for FIFA and the IFAB to even admit serious reforms are needed, nevermind a full scrapping. I think that, even in a worst-case scenario for the VAR system, leagues like MLS will want to be one of the guinea pigs used to tweak and improve the system. So if the experiment gets expanded, nothing will change here from a personnel perspective.

 

Kadlecik is the most hands on assignor I've had. He's always pushing his refs to strive for improvement and sending out video clips pointing out examples of the good and not so good things a referee did in a match. I guess he will be filling his time with other things during the spring and summer.

 

Given MassRefs post above, I'm guessing he's fallen into this group.