WEEKLY WHINE

1 888 DA REF SUX

I saw an amusing article on FIFA's website today by former soccer referee Michel Vautrot, who now reviews officials at matches. In the article, Vautrot described his experiences at a recent match, when someone near him in the stands was trying to tell him that the official had blown a call. As any former referee would, Vautrot tried to stand up for the poor guy on the field, saying that they were too far away to see what really happened. But the heckler had been on his cellular telephone with his son, who reported from home that the replay refuted the call on the field.

In American football, some calls can be changed after the fact with the help of instant replays. No such option exists in other sports. One is reminded of the Brazil-Norway first round match at France 98, when Norway's Tore Andre Flo was pulled down in the area by defender Junior Baiano. The Brazilians were stunned when US referee Esse Baharmast awarded a penalty on the play, which Kjetil Rekdal converted to give Norway the win and put them in the second round.

Outcries arose from around the world - but especially in a certain South American nation - when the replays were shown. The view from several different camera angles was shown, each displaying very little contact between Baiano and Flo. For the next two days Baharmast was skewered in the international media, with most analysts wondering, at the very least, what Baharmast thought he'd seen. Finally, it took the Internet to restore order. Frames captured from one of the various television networks covering the match came from an angle behind and to the right of Flo, where Baiano's hand could indeed be seen pulling on the Norwegian's shirt. The matter was quickly dropped.

Will technology ensure that the correct call is always made? Hopefully not. Another recent article, this one on Soccer 365, featured a chat with Baharmast himself, whom they describe as "probably the only American who acquitted himself well on a field during the 1998 World Cup". He was asked which of the 17 Laws of the Game is the most important. The rulebook of soccer is written up in the form of seventeen Laws, each dealing with a different aspect of the sport from the pitch to spot kicks to offside infractions.

Esse says that the most important Law of the Game is Law 18. Common sense, he calls it - knowing how strictly to apply the first seventeen laws. His point applies to any sport: the purpose of the officials is not to ensure that attackers are never beyond the last defender or that nobody ever takes more than two steps without dribbling. Instead, they make sure that the game is played fairly and enjoyably.

Sometimes the referees' biggest mistakes are those that can't be caught on tape. Sometimes you'll see a match become progressively rougher until the players get into a fight or worse, someone is injured. Sometimes the tension can be eased a bit if the referee has a quick chat with the players who are causing the most trouble. Or sometimes there isn't anything that can be done. But it's probably true that the referee has more influence than most people are willing to admit.

Vautrot pointed out that officials can phone up friends after the match ends to see how they did. Of course, most organizations and professional leagues already have a system in place for evaluating the performances of officials. In the National Football League, for example, the director of officiating evaluates each week's games and has comments ready for the officials to look over in the days before the following week's game. This involves sending videotapes of games across the country on a weekly basis.

Vautrot also remarked that "Players seem to be running out of ideas on how to celebrate scoring a goal". That's not surprising given that they've also exhausted just about every way to score a goal, including committing handball and then denying it.