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This question was posed on a soccer message board recently, with the author wanting to know why soccer referees are so "protected" from criticism by players, coaches and spectators. He gave as an example that no other sports official seems to have the authority to make a fan leave simply because he disagrees with a call.
Here is one explanation:
Most sports have a long list of Rules. NCAA football, for example, has a book with over 175 pages which go into excruciating detail on what a foul is and what actions the officials must take. Officials in most other sports are similarly subject to well-defined rules and actions. Their "judgments" are few - ball or strike, catch or drop, fair or foul, in or out, etc. There is no "appeal" of these judgment calls, but a team MAY appeal any other application of the rules.
Soccer is unique in that it has 17 Laws which are covered in about 35 pages… including white space and pictures. Of those 17, only 2 (Laws 11 and 12) present the real "in play" shape or format of the game; the other Laws are mechanics and "set plays."
This Law structure is a large part of the simplicity of the Game, and the international enjoyment of the game. You take a rectangular field, longer than it is wide, a ball, 22 players, and a referee, and you play.
How do you play? This is mostly undefined EXCEPT that there are some actions that are against the SPIRIT of the Game - which is meant to be a competition between two teams of "gentlemanly" behavior. Nowhere in the Laws does it tell anyone how to play the game. There are numerous mentions of things not to do, but those mentions are (purposely) sketchy. For instance, a player may not trip or attempt to trip an opponent; but there is no definition of what is and is not tripping anywhere in the Laws. This definition is left to the referee.
The referee is given sole discretion to determine how the spirit of the game will be applied to a particular match. Almost the entirety of the performance of his/her job is a matter of "judgment" or "discretion." The referee even has the discretion to allow play to continue despite a team's violation of the spirit of the laws. Of the Big Five team sports, only hockey has a similar allowance with the delayed penalty. In football, the play continues, but at its conclusion the team that was fouled makes the decision of calling the penalty or not.
And just as with the "judgment" portion of the officiating of other sports, there is no appeal of the referee's exercise of his "judgment" or "discretion." There are too many judgments in the course of play to stop and permit an appeal or some "higher authority's" post-game review of one or more calls.
A soccer referee, then, is called on to use his/her judgment far more often than any other sports official. Any over-questioning of that judgment brings the referee's authority into question and seriously hampers the referee's ability to control the match.
It may be okay to argue with a baseball umpire. S/he has a very thick, very detailed rulebook to back up the call. The soccer referee has only his/her position as the final arbiter.
So, the one word answer to the question is "discretion" or, as the Laws put it, "If, in the opinion of the referee..."
(If you wish to comment on this article, send a message to basra@basra-refs.org.)
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