Why was linesman changed to assistant referee?

Discussion in 'Referee' started by vinDeezul, Jan 23, 2020.

  1. SA14mars

    SA14mars Member+

    Jan 3, 2005
    Dallas
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fuchsia from pre-2004 is preferred.
     
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  2. fairplayforlife

    fairplayforlife Member+

    Mar 23, 2011
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It’s always PA. Always.
     
  3. allan_park

    allan_park Member

    May 15, 2000
    I think we went around this loop a number of years ago.

    The change of name was driven purely in recognition of the expanded duties of the Linesman, now Assistant Referee.

    A straight lift from the Minutes of the AGM of IFAB in Rio de Janeiro in March 1996:

    upload_2022-5-9_13-50-3.png
     
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  4. ilyazhito

    ilyazhito Member

    Manchester United
    Spain
    Feb 9, 2021
    That makes sense. As I have been reading up on both soccer and (ice) hockey officiating, I have noticed how similar the two sports are to officiate: both have differentiated classes of officials with differing duties: ARs in soccer and linesmen in hockey call offside, the center referee and the hockey referee(s) call fouls/penalties. In both, linesmen and assistant referees have specific jurisdiction over substitutions (the only penalties linesmen may assess are when a team is playing with too many players on the ice). Both require a high level of fitness and concentration to perform effectively. Granted, there are major differences in danger level (getting hit with a puck is more dangerous than being hit.with a soccer ball), officials' duties (soccer assistant referees call fouls that happen outside the view of the referee; hockey linesmen only call too many men and report major penalties to.the referee, who assesses them), and rules specific to each sport (in soccer, offside is tied to the second to last defender and has several exceptions, but in hockey, offside is tied to a player's location relative to the puck (in one's offensive.zone ahead of the puck while the puck is possessed by the player's own team) and can only.be negated by the offending team's players who are offside retreating behind the puck before it enters the offensive zone), but it is striking how much officiating both sports is similar. Apparently both hockey and soccer linesmen started out in a similar role (their only.job was to.make.boundary calls and offside decisions), but as soccer linesmen evolved beyond their role to also call fouls, the linesman designation became obsolete in soccer, since they functionally evolved into secondary referees. Such a transformation has not happened in hockey, probably as a combination to the ice surface being smaller than a soccer field and hockey adding the 2nd referee to the crew in 1998-99 at the NHL level to combat excessively.physical.play.
     
  5. Kit

    Kit Member+

    Aug 30, 1999
    Herkimer, NY, USA
    Club:
    Everton FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ARs do not technically call fouls or offside. The ARs indicate that they have seen a foul or an offside, but the CR is the one that "calls" the foul.
     
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