Whitecaps FC vs New England Revolution – Empire Field – April 6, 2011
The Dictionary defines a referee as:
referee n 1. (in some sports) an official who watches a game or match closely to enforce the rules and arbitrate on matters arising from the play.
The FIFA rules of football (soccer) state: “Laws of the Game give “full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed” (Law 5)”
No where do I see “influence the outcome of a match”…is it somewhere else in the CONCACAF rule book that this regions football referees need to be so controversial?
Any adjudicated sport or event is open for some controversy due to the fact that it is relying on a matter of opinion. However, it seems like every time a referee steps on the pitch for a North, Central American or Caribbean match there is huge debate over the standard of our referees.
The April 6th match between Whitecaps FC and New England Revolution was no exception. The match saw 8 yellow cards/3 red, in this referee’s 109 match career he’s now handed out 45 red cards, a huge amount for a game that maybe should be one or two yellow’s per match. It was a hard fought battle for 20 minutes as the teams played 10 men (New England) vs 9 men (Whitecaps) with the Whitecaps fighting to hold on to their 1-0 lead only to have it snatched away in added time for a 1-1 final score.
At Empire Field the fervour of the crowd and adrenaline of the game get you going that of course any call against your team is going to be fraught with negativity but after discussing with a friend who watch the telecast I realize it wasn’t all mod mentality going against the ref. He made some valid calls but made many incorrect calls; carding a player for diving when he was tripped, then giving a card to the opposing player when the same player actually took a dive, giving cards for rough plays that were ‘face to elbow’ not ‘elbow to face’.
Should the players have been more aware of who their ref was going to be and been attuned to the fact he was ‘card happy’ or is the ref out of control with power.
Is the level of play in this region so poor that it makes the ref’s need to aggressively control the rules of play?
Or do our ref’s need to continue their education to learn how to control a match without influencing the outcome?
Which ever the case it certainly ruins the run of the match and for the casual spectator it does nothing to make them ‘fans’.
