SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Soccer Refs Threaten to Strike in So Cal

Forget the replay, and limit the scope of the discussion to high school.

I think you are right with regard to the level of experience of high shool football officiating.

Here is a generalization:

Perhaps SC high school football coaches (and players) have more RESPECT for their officials than SC soccer coaches (and players) have for their sport's officials.

I know this is a broad statement and there are certainly exceptions.

Wrong or right? Agree or disagree?

Agree in the broad generalization. Another factor is you seldom see a televised incident of a professional football player having a tirade with/at the official. The televised professional leagues have stiff financial penalties when a coach or player is too critical with officials, and their subjective judgements.

Most soccer games have two or three officials at best..Try and run a football game with three officials and things not get out of hand..I will not speak for coaches but for parents the disrespect for officials starts at a very early age of their player and the U8 player picks up on what mom and dad are doing and they follow suit..It's a learned behavior..Hey!! My team is not winning..It must be the refs fault and how many times have I heard a player walking with their parents to their cars after a loss only to hear all three talking about how the refs sucked..I guess the only good refs are the ones that allow us to win.

I like the saying that when a quality official is in charge of your game, you never even know he's there. Here's to our officials for the 2009 season and may we treat all of you with the respect you deserve.

(South Aiken loves you guys and could use some help against BC and Airport if you don't mind )

Some interesting thoughts.

**I haven't been to a high school basketball game in a while. But my son played a couple of years of AAU a few years ago and parental conduct was way worse in basketball than I've seen it in soccer. Way worse.

**Since there are usually very few people at soccer games...when you get someone really loud and obnoxious, everyone hears....and some join in. Mob mentality. In football...where its pretty common to have a couple of thousand people there, hearing an obnoxious loudmouth is a lot harder. So unless you are sitting right next to one...

I think that's a good point about the size of the crowd affecting perception about the rudeness of the fans toward the officials, and perhaps in a broader sense...

At a college football game, when 60,000 fans boo the officals en masse after what they see as a blown call, it's just seen as part of the game, we say "boy, it looks like the crowd didn't like THAT call," and we move on.

At a soccer match with an attendance of 100, when the half-dozen fans/parents who think they understand the rules yell, "Hey, Ref, you need to learn how to use that whistle" and the individual words are audible on the field, we talk about how rude, inconsiderate, and obnoxious soccer fans are.

I tend to agree with the size of the crowd possibly having an impact, hadn't really thought of that before.

I guess that's why it's okay for the players to do it, because they can hear the statements from the fans and the coaches? Whereas, in a large crowd setting at a football game, this doesn't seem to happen on the field.

Ignorant fans yelling, or coaches yelling never really bothered me too greatly, until it began to affect the attitude and demeanor of the players on the field. In the end, there are 23 or 24 people, very involved with the actual playing of a HS soccer match. The rest are either spectators or tacticians. Everyone needs to understand their role, and stay within the boundaries of that role, and particiapte in a manner that allows the ones involved in the contest, to perform.

We can find all the reasons we want to try to explain reasons, or excuses for the behaviour, but in the end, it perpetuates the behaviour. The more excuses and allowances that are made, the more it develops into a feeling of entitlement. After all, we tend to do that in our society in general. At the end of the day, there is correct and incorrect behaviours both in our society and at a high school soccer match. "I paid my money to get in here, just like everyone else, so I'm entitled to act however I want to."

It's certainly not okay for the players to misbehave just because they can hear what the spectators (and, unfortunately, the coaches) are saying simply because there is no roar of a large crowd to mask the words. It does put a little more responsibility on people to be better examples when they know their words can be picked out of the crowd.

I think it's a little unfair, though, to single out soccer as a sport where the fans and coaches misbehave more, though...the same behavior is present at football, basketball, and even baseball games; it just doesn't attract as much attention as it seems to in soccer. I run the scoreboard for almost all of our high school basketball games, and believe me, what the fans and coaches are yelling at the officials is as harsh if not worse than what I hear at soccer matches. I've seen basketball coaches draw technical fouls a lot more often than I've seen soccer coaches cautioned.

Bear, you're right...unsportsmanlike behavior is not something anyone should feel entitled to, especially when it leads to behavior on the field (or court) that is detrimental to the game; I just think it needs to be addressed as a societal behavior issue and not as a symptom of any particular sport.