Official Action

Yesterday evening I played in a semifinal of the playoffs for my university's intramural soccer league. My team was comprised of a mix of athletes and soccer players, all loosely associated by common acquaintances. We played a side that, quite honestly, had excellent chemistry and passing for a casual league, and we later discovered that their group was all fourth years who had played together since they got to the university. More power to them.

As you can imagine my side, 'Dream Team FC', got a right drubbing, not abetted by an early head injury to our keeper forcing us to play a man down with a sub in goal for roughly a quarter of the game. Nonetheless, I was enjoying myself being out there, though it's never fun to be in that situation. I imagine its reminiscent of being struck by a very nice car. Those hospital bills will be astronomical, but isn't it pretty?

One of my teammates who happens to be my former roommate picked up a yellow early in the game for a minor tackle. I thought little of it at the time, until early in the second half, now 3-0 down, another tackle and yet another yellow card for the same player. This, by rule, results in an ejection by way of a red card, and for most referees, an ominous face and pointing gesture toward the parking lot.

This was completely unfathomable to me.

In my 19 years of life, I have reffed over 125 soccer games in various capacities and age groups. My girlfriend was quick and right to remind me that this gives me the disposition that my judgment will almost always be better. I'd like to think myself better than that, but in a match officiated by two fellow JMU students, I can't offer her much opposition. Say what you will of my disposition towards my school's student body.


Several of the people I have interacted with in my soccer experience have asked me if becoming a ref has made me more sympathetic to them while playing. My answer has always been quite to the contrary of any notion of empathy. The more immersed I have become in officiating, the more universally aware (I feel) I am when watching soccer of any kind. This has led me to hold referees to a higher scrutiny in all games I have interacted with. Games I play in, which offer enhanced interaction with the referee, are certainly no exception.

 So I certainly let the refs hear it last night.

In both of the tackles in which my teammate was penalized for, he had eyes for nothing but the ball. He readily apologized to the opposing team, and was also, to be fair, clearly not a soccer player so much as an athlete. This was a semi final match of an intramural league, the lowest level of organized soccer the university offers. Players will be working hard, but by virtue of the organization, they may not be the best or have the best technique.

Bearing these details in mind, how is there any justification for a referee to go so far as to force a player to stop playing and his team, already losing by an increasing margin, from fielding a replacement, despite having a substitute available.

On a cold November night, two players were forced to watch their team get demolished by a overmanned, and to be fair, more skilled side. I'm not necessarily suggesting the result would have changed much if we had kept an even number of players, but it certainly would have been more fun for my team. I'd like to believe that the other team would also enjoy playing an appropriately equipped adversary more as well.

The point of such a league is let students interact with each other through a chosen sport in a safe manner. My teammate never jeopardized or intended to jeopardize anyone's safety, and his exclusion is nonsensical and contrary to the very reason we all brought ourselves to that cold field.

Immediately I had little taste for the game. I'd rather play in a pick up game where anyone can be included as long as the group deems their attitude sufficient, rather than an institution that supposedly caters to the less practiced, but enforces exclusion in the face of it. Regardless of whether that ref believed specific rules are broken, there are societal and personal factors to consider in the context of game altering decisions like that.

The situation led me to think about the role of referees with the question of racism in soccer. Currently, UEFA, which is the European governing body of soccer, has a three step policy for referees to react to racism which has been outlined, announced, but not yet invoked. The three steps are first stopping the game to make an announcement over the PA system to request cessation, the second is suspending the game for a given amount of time, and the final step is to abandon the game altogether.

Consequently, FIFA actually released updated rules on racism and discrimination on May 31, 2013, that outline the implementation of a Anti-Discrimination officer, that takes the onus of racial problems off of the referee, while overseeing the players and crowd and assisting in the collection of evidence. It's a good idea that FIFA is recognizing the power of officiating to address this issue, and hopefully it proves fruitful.

Considering all of these factors on top of my experience last night, I am now even more steadfast in my answer to that same question regarding officiating empathy. The other members of any sporting occasion offer different perspectives, literally and figuratively. The input that any of these perspectives can have on the game can be positive, uplifting, or extremely detrimental. I have had instances as a ref where the reactions of those around me have affirmed or dissented with my decision and I have learned from it. The referee last night absolutely deserved to hear the opinions of the players whose experience was impacted by his decisions.

In the same manner, referees everywhere need to listen to the thoughts of those involved in better identify racial discrimination. Just as in every other sphere of the world, it will take a collective effort to eradicate prejudicial attitudes.







Side Note:
Is it too much of a reach to include that my red carded teammate was also the only non-white player on the field, is half-Jamaican and wears very thick dreads? I would be appalled to discover it is nothing more than a coincidence, but it is one that has a relevance to this blog.