Backscreen17....USSF officials have insurance coverage of either 1 or 2 million dollars when they are doing a game. As for injuries, I have seen most injuries happen from either a freak thing, or from a good play...actual ACL injuries that I have seen from a poorly officiated game=0. I understand your concern with an official not protecting the players, but you have to take into account the level of play, players, history, etc.... It is interesting that in many posts you are complaining about referees. Maybe you should make yourself very involved with referee development and retention. There are many young referees that I have had the chance to referee with that do only one year of games and never return to the field. Most had played a lot of soccer to that point, and would have been a great asset to the referee community with proper development and mentoring. Unfortunately overzealous parents and coaches that can't look beyond the fact that soccer at its heart is just a game cause a lot of the problems. (and yes, some referees bring it on themselves too) Soccer is not life or death, not the end all be all....it is just a game that people love to play.
