BEN! You're a genius!I say again, Italy has an age-limit for refs. No matter how good you are, you’re finished at 45. And while I think this rule is insanity itself, it creates a fine opportunity for MLS. Throw some money at some 46-year-old Italians! Let them run clinics, ref some games, do some serious assessment work on the current crop of officials.
This needs to happen!
Mr. Beirne...please, please submit this as an idea! MLS reffing needs to improve. Italian refs are some of the best in the world. This idea has zero downside!
MLS head office has ego bigger than Landon Donovan
To get top European refs to mentor MLS refs is admitting that MLS refs suck, and that ruins the image that MLS is trying to produce that MLS is a quality league. Not to mention severe loss of face.
So MLS will continue to clamp down on any mild criticism of refs, and not do much about ref controversies. Latest news out of Blanco/Marrufo incident has me seething
very good article ben.
best line:
The goal isn’t to single anyone out or make a bunch of well-meaning over-matched card wavers look bad. MLS refs can do that all on their own – and do, most weeks.
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if MLS is about image, then the image of MLS taking steps to invest and improve in its refereeing standards looks good in my mind.. Ben's is a great suggestion, as is Roogsy's..
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Roy Keane
Ah ego...always the obstacle to improvement. I suppose MLS would be hesitant to admit that at the very least, they have 2nd rate officials, at worst, the whole league doesn't measure up.
Funny how when you put ego aside, you can usually reach your goals faster.
Read the comments in the KC paper about their coach's fine. He tries to backpeddle afterwards, but his comment is about how they've greatly improved over the years! Just how bad were they before we joined the league if they're much improved now?
side note:
Ben - would you consider naming a son 'Jed I. Knight' just for fun?
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The idea of bringing retired italians has been talked about since the first year we were in the league....Made sense then, makes sense now
I still like the idea of taking refs from other leagues - EPL, SPL, Budesliga, Serie A and La Liga - and bringing them here in their off season, putting one in each crew and having them in a mentorship situation. It keeps them busy and sharp through the summer, especially for developing refs (their developing would be far superior to what we have) and would help out immensely.
FYI, NHL refs have a pretty hefty regime post game. They have to head back to their hotel rooms and go over their calls with a supervisor immediately after every game - all games are watched by the supervisors in a war room in Toronto. Everything is done using laptops. If there are changes in the rules, refs are given video of how something should be called, so that all of them get the same message. There is still some individual discretion but there is generally a greater degree of consistancy amongst officials. Why can't MLS copy a system like that?
I'd take a crew of one legged Italian professionals over the chumps that we have now. Ben makes an excellent point, there isn't enough lower level scoccer being played in North America for the refs to train and practice in, and of the lower level leagues there's too wide of a gap in quality between them and the MLS. Refs need to be better, but the MLS shouldn't be their training ground. They need to learn to offciate high-speed games somewhere else before coming here.
what's Collina doing now? that guy would be a kick ass consultant for MLS. And having him do a game each week or two would be sweet.
Sign a DP Referee!
I'll disagree...the original purpose of this league was to raise the standard of play at the domestic level, to make the national team better - and to a large degree they've suceeded...I'm sure they are trying to do that with the referee standard as well; replacing them with a bunch of 'DP' refs doesn't help anyone get any better.
Although coachgt makes a lot of sense - the only problem with sprinkling refs from a variety of the major leagues - is the incredible inconsistency it would create as a ref standard; a ref in Spain calls the game quite a bit differently than an Englishman.
but if we could attract refs from a particular league, whose style we would like to emulate, - and then sprinkle them in - it could work.
But, the MLS probably pays their refs shit, and probably wouldn't be interested in laying out more cash on something as 'meaningless' as refs.
(And what right thinking Italian is going to want to come to work in Houston or Kansas or Columbus instead of enjoying the summer @ home?)
Yeah, they could show you how to properly take a kickback and not get caught !Italy has an age-limit for refs. No matter how good you are, you’re finished at 45. And while I think this rule is insanity itself, it creates a fine opportunity for MLS. Throw some money at some 46-year-old Italians! Let them run clinics, ref some games, do some serious assessment work on the current crop of officials.
Last edited by TOBOR !; 05-01-2009 at 10:32 AM.
a ha ha heh he hoo.. ha
I've never heard of a sports league where the fans aren't constantly complaining about the refs.
Man I completely agree with you. I don't know what it is, but I haven't seen that the refs are any worse then other leagues. There are always the ones who complain about the refs, and then there are those like Chris Cummins who says it doesn't bother him because those plays sometimes go your way and sometimes they don't. It's just too easy to sit here and complain.
My god, let's go back to the World Cup where the best refs in the world work and see all the crappy games that were decided by refs.
Let's play some footie and let's stop relying on the refs to win us games!
It's true, who hasn't watched a hockey game and thought that the refs sucked. The difference though is that when watching a NHL game you can't honestly point to another league and think that the officiating is better. Of course there are bad calls & missed calls, but at the end of the day a NHL ref is one of the best refs in the world.
That can't be said for the MLS. I can point to 20 leagues with better officiating.
Yes. This is a key distinction if we are to compare MLS to other leagues or sports. I don't think there is any argument that other leagues have invested in the referees and therefore have better and much more consistant officiating.
Mistakes happen; the refs are only human. But the MLS needs to make a concerted effort to invest in the referees in the MLS. If the MLS is not willing to make this investment, the league and the fans can't expect to to see better officiating.
I like the ideas on here that talk to a mentoring program of some sort where experienced/retired refs who have shown to be of high quality in their career are brought in to train the refs in N.A.
I said the exact same thing here last season.
The EPL, Serie A and LeLiga all have mandatory retirement policies for officials…bring them over to work with domestic refs.
Have them work "regionally" doing big games and as fourth officials…the league needs a mentoring program.
Regardless of what you think of them…lots of these guys could still ref… Graham Poll, Jeff Winters, Hugh Dallas and of course Pierluigi Collina.
We need DR's as much as DP's!
“We changed the entire league’s opinion of the viability of soccer in North America. And then we blew it because we chickened out." —Tim Leiweke
I've never seen domestic European hockey games, I have no idea how good the refs are in those leagues. I guess NHL refs are better than AHL refs and OHL refs (though I've seen a bunch of OHL games and sometimes the refs are excellent). But the NHL keeps changing the rules, so it's hard to tell. In the crease, not in the crease, clutch and grab, hooking, not hooking, what are we calling this year? That's what bugs me about the NHL.
If the refs are just consistently of a certain level then we live with it and hope they get better as the whole league gets better. If they are consistently for one team or another, that's a problem.
Cumins is right, it's the same for every team, ignore it and win games. Let it get to you and you'll lose.