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An assistant referee at the opening of NY Red Bulls Stadium

It’s funny. Most kids (and us adults, too) dream about playing in a major professional sporting event. For soccer players in the New York area, playing at the opening of the NY Red Bulls Stadium in Harrison, NJ would have been a dream come true. It was a beautiful stadium on a perfect day and all the stars had shown up: Olympic athletes, race car drivers, former soccer stars, and plain old celebrities. But referees think differently. If you look closely in the foreground of the above picture, you’ll see an Assistant Referee walking pensively down the touch line. His flag is already unfurled, indicating that he is ready to officiate while the opening ceremony was still going on, and I’m sure he was. Most referees in the U.S. would dream of being that A.R.–or even better, the central referee. As one seasoned referee told me, “it’s the best seat in the house.”

I just started refereeing, so I’ve got a long way to go. I saw that game from the stands.

When kids bite

I refereed two youth games this past weekend in the sweltering heat, an under 8 game and an under 9 game. The last time that I refereed kids that age I had a delightful time. I was surprised by their skills and awareness on the field. They all seemed very polite and the parents were well mannered. Well, that changed on Saturday. The kids continued to show remarkable skill, but they also had a more sinister side. There was a lot of jersey pulling, late tackles, and name calling.  At one point I saw a player scrunch up his face and kick another kid who was just standing there.

To card or not to card

In my referee training course, I had learned that referees rarely issue yellow cards to young children. But I had never seen such behavior on the field, and I issued a number of stern verbal warnings (in addition to waiting for some of them to tie their shoes.) I can say that none of the players repeated the fouls, but their teammates did. Now, you don’t have to verbally warn every player before issuing a card. Under Law 12, you can issue a caution (yellow card) for “persistent infringement of the game.” I could have given any one of the other kids a yellow card for continuing to kick and prod and generally play dirty. Even making exception for the clumsier players–who would simply kick out when the ball came within ten feet of them and accidentally kick another player–I was shocked at the violence in the game. I should have issued several cards that game and I didn’t.

During the second game, a very talented and aggressive player who was probably all of four feet tall committed a foul by tripping his opponent. He then made a rude gesture towards me when I blew the whistle and, again, I was so shocked that an eight-year-old would know a gesture like that that I didn’t issue a card. Luckily for me, he made the same gesture a moment later and I cautioned him under Law 12 for “dissent by word or action.”

Lessons learned

During referee training school, I was taught not to think of the players as kids but as “soccer players.” The instructor made an exception for games that had less than 11 players and kids that were under ten years old. My games fell into the latter category. I will continue to make exceptions for children, but kids are smart. They can be managed with persuasive verbal warnings but sometimes a yellow card or a red card speaks a lot louder. In the same way that I’ve been too lenient with the adult games that I’ve refereed, it may be necessary to pull out the wallet, issue a yellow, and get on with the game. Then I’ll be managing the player while promoting the safety and flow of the game.

Here’s one for you. What do you do if, after the game is over, a little tyke trots over to you and tells you that the goalie “called him the F-word” and pinched him?

–Deji Olukotun

Filed under: Uncategorized on June 7th, 2010 | No Comments »

I just published a review on ESPN Soccernet, the biggest soccer website in the World. The review is about American goalkeeper Brad Friedel’s fascinating autobiography. I’m really pleased to work with ESPN and I’d be even more psyched if you joined me by leaving a comment on the page.

Check out the review here.

–Deji Olukotun

Filed under: Uncategorized on June 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »

We usually think of referees as being those people in striped shirts in the middle of the field who blow whistles. Even I think of them this way — but it is far from the real picture. Soccer referees don’t wear striped shirts and they blow their whistles as rarely as possible,  only enough to facilitate the playing of the game in a safe, fair, and fun manner.

But what do they do off the field? What happens before they get to the game? A lot. Soccer referees are required to memorize the rules and keep themselves updated on the latest developments in the game whenever possible. They also have to keep track of things.

Last night I attended my first meeting of the Eastern New York Soccer Referee Association. The crowd was extremely diverse, with everyone from septuagenarian Germans to referees of Caribbean, Latino, and African descent. The meeting mostly consisted of attending to the administrative duties of refereeing. We participated in a clinic in which we pretended to write up a referee Game Report based on a simulated game. It underscored the need to really learn the rules and pay attention to details. Game Reports help the league keep track of ornery players, statistics, and protect both players and the referees in the event of injury or some serious foul play. Anyway, it sounds boring but these reports now constitute an important part of the modern game. I figure it’s best to accept it and learn it as well as possible. The reports also highlight the extent to which refereeing is really a generous profession — everything is done to facilitate the playing of the game, even off the field.

But the most enjoyable part about the event was the camaraderie. Some of the referees have decades of experience and it was a joy to hear their anecdotes. This is especially interesting to me given that referees in the U.S. generally didn’t have Assistant Referees (linesmen) until recently. For a long time, being a referee meant being the only official on the field. What kind of people are attracted to such a job? Are they all loners? Or do they just enjoy the game of soccer?  Having different generations represented at the meeting definitely made for a great mix of personalities and some stimulating conversation.

The one mistake is that I assumed that it would be a boisterous crowd. The meeting was held at a German biergarten, so I helped myself to a pint of heffe weizen. For a while, I was the only one sipping alcohol in a crowd of about fifty grown men — until another referee looked at my glass and one upped me with a full liter of Hoffbrahaus. Diversity indeed.

–Deji Olukotun

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 21st, 2010 | No Comments »

I just finished my second weekend of professional refereeing, with four games split between Saturday and Sunday. It was fantastic. On Saturday, I coached some tiny but surprisingly skillful under-10 kids. It was wonderful: a beautiful day, agreeable parents, and a fairly exciting end-to-end game, which is saying quite a bit given the size of their legs. The kids had already learned some advanced tactics and kept up a lively banter of soccer infused language in Spanish and English. The future of soccer in the U.S. seems, to me at least, very bright. The one strange part for me was that my Fox 40 whistle — highly recommended to me by a senior referee — didn’t work as I would have liked. You really have to blow on the thing. So I have since switched back to my old black pea whistle.

The Big Kids

Sunday saw me refereeing some U-19 boys in a friendly match after one team showed up over an hour late and they were disqualified from playing for points. The other referees took off and I volunteered to stay behind to give the kids a chance to play. It was fascinating. The ball moved quickly and without linesmen it was a real challenge to monitor both the offside trap and fouls. Players at that age are both quick and powerful but there were big differences in skill level. A few would easily make Division I college squads, based on their poise on the ball. Others had a long way to develop. Authority makes quite a difference. One team shouted insolently at their coach — and each other — while the others never said a word. Coaching a group of kids at that age is a difficult job. Refereeing wasn’t so bad, actually. I had been advised not to issue cards for a friendly, but if it had been a real match I would likely have given 3-4 yellow cards and possibly 1 red card for a violent, studs-up tackle by an aggressive player that fortunately missed its mark.

Controversy unites

The night ended when I refereed two games for The World Soccer Project. Refereeing for the project has been a lot of fun so far, not least because the organizers Greg and Santos are genuinely nice guys. I also benefit from the wisdom of A—, an experienced referee who has given me a lot of practical advice and support. The first game was between two rivals. It showed just how big a difference a field can make. While the ball stayed mostly in play during the U-19 boys game, making for a lively game, the ball on a small field gets kicked out so much that it’s difficult for the teams to find a nice rhythm unless both squads have a very high level of control.

I also made my first controversial decision, namely awarding a penalty in the final minutes of the game. I blew the whistle for a clear foul without thinking. I then saw that it had occurred within the top corner of the penalty area. The defender had checked the attacking player, sending him to the ground. The teams seemed to think it was a direct kick outside the box, but it was a penalty under the laws of the game, so I granted it, and the kicking team converted to win the game. I was then subjected to a fascinating hail of abuse by players who I have seen act quite graciously when they are winning. However, they turned completely unsportsmanlike afterward. You see, they were used to winning. The goalie was so upset that he actually physically destroyed the goal, dismantling the cross bar and tearing away the net. It’s amazing how I — as the authority figure — suddenly became the target for unrestrained abuse that you would never think of giving towards a friend, colleague, or even a stranger.

My reply to that is:  if you didn’t want a penalty, you shouldn’t have fouled him. Enough said.

–Deji Olukotun

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 17th, 2010 | No Comments »

Some time ago, I decided to write a series of stories about a referee. I have written several of them, but I have decided to wait to place them online for a few reasons. I wanted to learn more about being a referee and I realized that I didn’t know as much as I’d like to about soccer history and tactics.

Anyway, this led in a roundabout way to my taking a U.S. Soccer Federation referee course. The course was a lot of fun and harder than I thought (not least because it was a two hour drive to the course.) But the good news is that I qualified! I have already refereed a few games and I will be refereeing just about every weekend this summer.

I’m not going to start blogging about refereeing, but I hope to keep writing about it. I hope you’ll read some of my posts or stories in the coming months.

–Deji Olukotun

Filed under: Uncategorized on May 14th, 2010 | No Comments »