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Really? Can you read? What I stated was the fact that in ALL sports that have officials make judgment calls...baseball, football, soccer, hockey, basketball, etc. What is a foul to one group officials on Monday night may not be a foul to another group of officials on Friday night. What YOU may think is a push or a charge may not be a push or a charge.

I have done games were sophisticated teams know that when a player puts their hands on the back of another player and jump up for the ball is NOT a foul, and I have done games were teams thought that was a foul and I have done games were teams thought that it should be a card.

The problem in south carolina compared to the five other states I officiate in is that there is no mercy rule. You put in a mercy rule, and most of the garbage in blow out games goes away. If I have a 15-0 game and a player sticks her hand out slightly and touches the ball with her hand you better believe I will NOT call it to make it 16-0. However, if its 15-0 and a player endangers someone by making a reckless challenge, you better believe I will call it and card it. Lets have some common sense here, as you said these are not adults or professional athletes. Yes all players must be protected, but when you run up a score to 15-0 with 20 minutes left, the other team is going to get frustrated and angry, its a natural reaction.

This is what ruins the beautiful game. American, and more specifically high school teams that have no concept and no clue of what is going on. I can tell immediately teams that have players who play in strong club programs, weak club programs and those that don't. It is the only sport were the referee is supposed to have an effect on the play, that is why there is such a thing as advantage and trifiling, it is the way the sport has been played around the world for more than 150 years. Are we supposed to suddenly stop and change it for little 8th grader Suzie Q from Dumpwater South Carolina because her coach who is also the math teacher and only does this for a couple of extra bucks is mad that not everything in the book is called?

8th graders should not be on the field with high school seniors. If your worried that your 100lb. baby girl is going to get hurt because someone makes a LEGAL charge on her then don't play. Don't punish the 180lb. girl who makes a legal play on the ball and knocks down the other girl.

A foul is NOT always a foul. If you think it is, you need to find another sport like basketball that is slow and boring and punishes people for just looking at their opponent funny.



Yes, I can read and I can write for that matter. Discussions about the correct spelling of the word "where" aside (you brought it up), your post only makes you look more like the inept person I thought you were to begin with.

In a perfect world you, as the referee, would attempt to call things to the letter of the laws of the game. Now, I understand that some of them can't see everything. He**, some can't even move from point A to point B without putting their heart at risk for failure, but that isn't an excuse for no-calls OR (more importantly) incorrect calls. In a perfect world, you would be a bi-partisan entity that calls the game according to the rules regardless of the score or situation. All of those scenarios I mentioned in my previous post were things I witnessed in the LAST GAME I was at. They're not isolated incidents or things I made up at the top of my head like your Suzie Q reference.

"I have done games were sophisticated teams know that when a player puts their hands on the back of another player and jump up for the ball is NOT a foul"

^^^^ I can't really decipher what you're trying to say here, but, according to the sentence I'm reading, you think that putting your hands on a player's back to impede them from having a chance at a 50-50 ball is not a foul? I hope I'm wrong.

On to your mercy rule diatribe. I agree with you. Because of the disparity between the have's and the have-nots in soccer in SC, we should have a mercy rule.

However, that is not for you the referee to interpret or decide. Again, you're getting paid to do a job. You want to know why we don't have a mercy rule? Money. You willing to give back half your referee pay when we call a game at half at 7-0? I doubt it. That's what teams would expect. Cost of transportation factors in here too. Why would a team travel 1.5 sometimes 2 hours to play a region game and leave after 40 minutes because they're winning or losing by a certain margin? Most soccer programs lose money every game in the first place. There's a mercy rule in baseball and softball because there is an indeterminate amount of time to their sport and games could go on for hours, days theoretically. Again, your job, that you get paid for, is to enforce the rules. You don't make them. If you're not doing it correctly the people who pay you, the schools you are refereeing at, have the right to let you know about it and let those in charge of you know about it. Whether that is good or bad for the game in SC because the small number officials will simply choose not to officiate games in their off time anymore is debatable. What is not debatable is what we expect from them when they are paid like they are. Until there is a mercy rule in place, I would argue again that score, dominance, gender, size, skilled club players vs not so-skilled club players (not sure why you even made that point but whatever), etc in theory should not matter in a game for you the official. You should try to stay out of the macro game and focus on the micro game. Let the ridicule fly at the coaches that run up the score on teams deliberately. That isn't for you to decide. Not to mention that goals against averages sometimes factor in to playoff seeding and region standings. If it's 20-0 at the end of the game and all 20 goals were legitimate pk's because Suzie Q (your reference) just couldn't help herself with that hand of hers then that's what the laws of the game state...actually, I'd find it odd that she wouldn't be carded out of the match, but you get the point.

I coach and am a Social Studies teacher. What's your point? I don't know the game? That would be an interesting debate. Most of us don't do it for the couple extra bucks let me assure you. We get paid pennies on the hour for our time (assuming you literally are not just a waste but even then, it's not over the top) and to us, our time and players are valuable. Hour to hour pay, the officials are paid way more than we are.

Furthermore, 8th graders aren't on the field with high school seniors according to the laws of the high school game because it's a contact sport...but 9th graders are and they are 14 or 15 years old. Sometimes they are very, very good 9th graders who win matches at the varsity level. If it is a legal but bone-crunching play...cool that is fine. If it is a bomb truck clumsy 18 yr old illegally plowing through some 14 or 15 yr old in the box and the younger players team is winning and you choose to swallow your whistle because you don't want to see that score go from 10-0 to 11-0 in the first half, you, the official, are at fault and you can expect an earful from the sidelines. I wouldn't be arguing it if I haven't seen it happen repeatedly over the years by the same officials.

Last edited by shut^&play; 03/29/12 01:43 PM.