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1. Player safety is paramount. Therefore coaches should not be coaching, period during a match. You should have prepared your team before the match, there was a time when coaches could not coach during a match. If a coach disagrees with a referee's decision and makes it known to everyone in the world, guess what he is now endangering player's safety. Think about it.



I'm thinking about it...and I'm not sure I follow your point here. I agree that a coach openly disagreeing with the way the match is being called does introduce a whole new level of frustration and can undermine the sense of authority that holds players in check. I'm not sure, though, what that has to do with not coaching, period, during a match. Are you saying that a coach reading the situation on the field, seeing problems, and making adjustments is a danger to player safety and somehow undermines the officials? Are you assuming that any coaching input is going to be critical of or counter to the input of the officials? Not sure where you're coming from with this particular point. Please, also, bear in mind that the game at the youth, club, and high school levels is meant to be DEVELOPMENTAL. Sure, at the professional and college levels, the coach and players should, as Sun Tsu put it, know their enemies and themselves prior to the match. A coach would have studied the opponents' style, would have spent hours watching game film, would have a very good idea of exactly how the game would play out and yes, should have prepared the team prior to the match. In youth and high school sports this is not always the case, the information is not always available until the match is in progress, and adjustments need to be made on the field before 40-45 minutes have passed. Add that to the fact that in developmental levels of soccer, many players are still learning the game, and they are in situations that cannot be replicated in practice. A reasonable amount of coaching--not "joysticking"--is necessary in some situations...I've lost count of the number of times I've sent a player to the line to have her say, "Coach, I'll do my best, but you have to talk to me and tell me if I'm doing ok." Maybe you're trying to say that the officials should be the ONLY voice of authority on the pitch--in which case I would say that you can learn to share authority with each other without undermining each other. The coach can definitely have an effect on the way the players respond to the officials--and done right, it can be a very positive one.

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2. While consistency is crucial I disagree with the 10-0 game with 30 minutes left. That is where a mercy rule needs to put in place, that is where frustration sets in. Referees need to actually be tighter in that situation. Good referees will instruct their assistants before a match to take a "temperature" of the game. If as the center official I see my AR clutching on to his shorts, I know he wants me to tighten up the calls. The game at the higher levels are never called consistently there is always adjustments going on with the referees. Go on youtube, there should be clips of conversations the referees have during matches, and you can hear the AR tell the center to tighten it up, etc.



True. Adjustments do sometimes need to be made based on what is happening on the field, but hopefully, if #1 has been followed, they will be MINOR adjustments, not major changes in what is acceptable and what is not. If reasonable shoulder-to-shoulder jockeying for the ball is ok in the beginning of the match, then the slightest touch shouldn't be a foul in the second half if committed by the winning team. If a tackle in the box is a PK in the first half, then the same type of tackle in the box shouldn't be a look-the-other-way in the second half just because the team committing the foul is down a few goals already. Some of the worst disasters I have seen have happened when an official has gone from anything-goes early in the game to everything's-a-whistle late in the match. That's the kind of consistency I'm talking about. If you establish what is safe, acceptable play early in the game, then your adjustments will be reasonable and understandable to the players as the game progresses.

I'm not even going to say "You shouldn't have to get coaching from your AR during the match--you should have prepared yourself before the game," because yes, sometimes the people on the field DO need some input based on what is happening around them. Thanks for making that point.

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3. If you have been officiating for 25 years, have done Division I college matches (the second best level in this country) semi-pro, pro matches, international friendlies, and have assessed and instructed others than you have been doing it right, and the only real criticism you take is from your assistants. Only a handful of coaches can come up to that level. I'm sorry but Murray the 65 year old gym coach who was forced to be the JV Girls soccer coach has nothing to offer me about how to officiate a match. Just like I would have nothing to offer my fellow football, baseball or basketball officials. I don't tell my doctor how to perform surgery or my lawyer the law, etc. YOu don't survive past 5 years as an official if you have been doing it wrong.



We've seen officials at the World Cup (Yes, that's the big one) whose behavior has been so inexplicable that they have been removed from play at that level...yet somehow they reached that point. By your logic, the must have been "doing it right"--yet someone at the highest levels disagreed. I'm sorry, but time spent and levels achieved are no guarantee of excellence...there are gems and there are duds at every level of competition, and even the best are not beyond reproach--and knowing the are not beyond reproach is part of what makes them the best.

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4. Again it depends on the level. When you officiate games where the coaches salary and livelihood depends on some calls you make or don't make, you stepped up to an entirely new level. But for High School coaches forget that the game is an extension of the classroom, and I'm sorry I would not want to be in some of the classrooms these coaches teach in.




And that's the difference...tough as it may be sometimes, most of us value our classrooms, whether they are inside a building or out on the grass. I like to think sometimes at the youth levels of soccer, maybe sometimes we are playing for something even a little more important than one coach's job or salary.

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