SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer High School Officiating - Is It Getting Worse?

I could be mistaken, but striking an opponent by definition includes with the ball. It must be intentional, and it doesn't matter if it's propeled by hand or foot, or in play or out of play, the restart and referee action may change with in and out of play though. For a referee to call that, he must have determined intent. That, however is a lot to expect of a referee, and I don't know that I've ever seen the call, nor the situation to warrant the call.

Question:
Are "handballs" ("handling the ball") a thing of the past?
I've see what appears to be a trend this year that refs are just not calling it any more.
I understand avoiding calling it in the box, but I’ve seen some real obvious ones elsewhere, right in front of the refs, and not get called.
Opinions?

I heard a referee say in the pregame huddle with the captains/coaches "I'm not calling handballs unless the player catches the ball".

Dead serious. I bet Roger Hazel has something to do with this. I can see him telling the referees to speed up the play a bit by allowing bad throw-ins and being liberal with handballs. I can see the merit of this in some soccer-less parts of the state which is his real concern. I say this because the more whistle that comes the more likely the crowd, players, and coaches are to get irritated. This can potentially lead to some unfortunate incidents which have, unfortunately, marred the sport (in the SCHSL's eyes) for quite some time.

Roger Hazel!!!!!!

Just out of curiosity, are bad throw ins being called at all this year??

Officials just don't call bad throw-ins anymore. They have helicopter throws, one-handed throws, etc. It's awful.

Handballs? Unless we're talking about when a player taunts another player/official/croud, no they're not being called.

Unfortunately, most officials refuse to protect the Keepers by calling infringement....the call almost always goes to the offensive player.

I saw a 2nd round 4A game this week where the home team played 79 minutes with 10 players on the field. The keeper and an offensive player collided while both were going for the ball in the box. Neither was able to contact the ball, but the ref gave the keeper a "straight red" and awarded a penalty kick. The ball should have simply been allowed to roll out of bounds and followed with a goal kick. (Even if you cut the official some lack for giving the benefit to the offense, there was nothing "malicious" at all on the play and it should have been without any flag)...Of course this is the same ref that reversed his linesman's call on out of bounds ball that the linesman clearly had the best look at.

...just to add, some of the best officiated games I've seen this year have been officiated by the 2 man teams. When you get 3 guys who haven't worked together as a team and the "attitude" ends up in the middle, there couldn't be worst possible outcome.

RE protecting the keeper....

I realize my opinion is biased, but tonight there was an incident where I thought my keeper was fouled- pushed in the back while trying to play a high ball, pushed enough that she had to take a couple of steps to recover her balance. After the shove the ball bounced a time or two and then found its way into the goal. After I complained (probably a little louder than I should have) the center ref walked over and calmly told me that it wasn't his call to make. "The AR has to call that. I have to wait for him to raise his flag."(Actual quote) I asked why he had to wait on the AR to call a foul if he saw it too. He then said that my "goalie missed the ball before she was fouled and the ball would have gone in anyway so the foul didn't matter."(Paraphrase of what was said)

HUH? Totally putting aside for a moment my argument that she missed the ball because she was fouled, his argument was that the foul before a goal didn't matter because the ball would have gone in anyway. I have to remember that one.

Sorry guys, another youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyFoH2XNI04

It had no affect on the outcome, but could have.
In OT, the keeper was told he touched the ball and a corner kick occured because of it.