Photo by Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
In the aftermath of controversial Gold Cup refereeing decisions, CONCACAF is going to take a closer look at the confederation’s officiating crews.
CONCACAF announced Thursday that acting President Alfredo Hawit will oversee a review of the confederation’s refereeing department. The review, which the confederation states is already underway, includes “a detailed evaluation of refereeing standards throughout the region in addition to an assessment of processes for determining referee assignments for each match”.
Hawit, who took charge of CONCACAF this summer in the aftermath of the FIFA scandal that crippled the organization’s hierarchy, has 24 years of experience in referee administration.
“The foundation of our game is fair play, and we must take the required steps to reinforce the importance of this principle,” Hawit said in a statement. “This review will allow the Confederation to take the next step towards improving refereeing across the region.”
Refereeing controversies were heavily discussed throughout the Gold Cup, with the most prevalent incidents coming in Mexico’s quarterfinal and semifinal matchups.
In El Tri’s quarterfinal clash with Costa Rica, Mexico was controversially awarded a 122nd minute penalty by American assistant referee Eric Boria to claim a 1-0 win. In the ensuing semifinal match against Panama, American Mark Geiger awarded Mexico another late penalty, allowing El Tri to equalize in the 90th minute on a controversial handball call.
What do you think of CONCACAF’s ongoing review? What measures would you like to see taken? How can CONCACAF improve refereeing going forward?
Share your thoughts below.
Haha. I’m sure a review of the Concacaf Ethics standards is right behind refereeing, some time let’s say ohhhh…. Never
The one BIG change that needs to come from this is that referees from certain countries are not allowed to ref matches in which other countries are participants. Namely Mexico & the US. US Refs should never referee a match in which the Mexican National Team plays and a Mexican Ref should never referee a match in which the US National Team plays. That includes Ref, AR, & 4th officials. There is usually too much on the line to have any perception of favoritism or preferential treatment (animosity) to allow these countries to oversee the matches of their biggest rivals.
As for replay….I believe that there are 2 instances where Instant Replay could be installed without impacting the game or causing delays to flow:
1) When a PK is awarded. The game is stopped anyway so take the 1 minute to determine if the PK is deserving. If not deserving issue a Yellow Card to the player for diving.
2) Red Card is issued. Again the game is stopped so use the stoppage to insure that the infringement is warranted. If it was a dive or an Embellishment issue a Yellow Card to the offending player.
I think that these 2 uses of replay could be accommodated into the rules without too much impact to the flow of the game. It would also help to clean up the sport from the acting that goes on in certain countries (El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, etc…) where diving and time wasting is an art form.
Joel Campbell mastered that “art form.”
This is a good start. However they need to be reviewing all the violence in some cases caused by some of the Mexican fans and use that as the basis of limiting the number of tickets they receive for the play in match at the Rose Bowl. But that means less money in CONCACAF’s pockets. Nevermind
Across the board soccer needs a second ref. The field size and speed of the game require it. The fears over inconsistency are baseless. It’s no different than two separate linesmen. Hockey officiating improved significantly with an extra set of eyes.
USSF tried two-man ref system with standard AR’s in US Open Cup games a few years ago. There wasn’t much difference in the outcomes, assessments or opinions about the referees, except, it gave the participants in fairly tame games to state that the two center refs were inconsistent in their fouls.
How long ago was that?
Some time ago the NBA went from two refs in a game to three. And that’s a much smaller area to cover.
And the NHL went from 1 ref to 2.
No complaints from anyone.
Announcement to appease the mob. Same crappy officiating will still continue.
Most of the people on this site through the words gifted and corrupt but have never read the FIFA rules for a hand ball. Torres touched the ball with his arm and that wasn’t the actual problem it was when he lunged towards the ball to obstruct the attacker from advance and his arm separated from his torso. Ricky tack be call but by the rule book he was correct. Vela received a yellow 4 minutes into the game for a small elbow bump (ticky tack call). You have to learn how to read on how stern a ref is going to be not just your aponent. I wouldn’t have called either but I’m not as strict.
Clearly you’ve never read the laws or ATR either.
From Law 12: The foul is for “Handles the ball deliberately”.
The ATR from Law 12:
Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with his hand or arm. The referee must take the following into
consideration:
•the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
•the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
•the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an
infringement
•touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shinguard, etc.)
counts as an infringement
•hitting the ball with a thrown object (boot, shinguard, etc.) counts as an
infringement”
Again, he fell over backwards (cause he was probably fouled…) and reflexively stuck his arm out to break his fall. There’s nothing deliberate about it. You see the third bullet? It says that your wrong about that “arm being separated from the torso” nonsense. In USSF (which doesn’t apply here but is drawn from higher authority) the guidelines talk about arms being in natural vs unnatural positions. His arm was in an entirely natural position for falling over.
And Vela should have been off at 4′. That was a windup with the sharp point of the elbow. Weapon. VC (ball was dead). Red Card. Adios. It’s a particularly egregious in light of the 27′ red which was openhanded, tool, not a strike, not EF, and not SFP.
Torres threw himself at the ball he didn’t fall on it so there was a deliberate intension to obstruct the offensive player without movement plus the ball made contact with his arm and those two combine make a penalty. Key word ” intention”
In live action, I was sure it was a handball, deliberate and definitely touching, I was saying to myself, how stupid. The replay clearly showed he was falling and his turning toward the ball was no more than a reflex action to turn and break his fall. The linesmans view was the view I saw in live action, I think the Geiger was more central and should have seen what the replay showed. The replay also showed what seemed to be an easy way out, that the Panama player was pushed so free kick to Panama.
But the referees did not have the replay and I can certainly see how the called what they did.
The CostaRica match was IMHO much worse, the game should have ended before the phantom foul and the player suffering that non-foul should have been ejected 10 minutes earlier. I thought there was no excuse for tha PK call.
Full of crap! You’re the kind of lawyers who defended OJ Jimpson and let murders walk free!
“Probably fouled.” There’s no such thing as “probably fouled” in reffing. It’s a call or it’s not a call. Period.
Should you ever post anything that is in the slightest against Mexico, that will be a truly historic occasion.
If he ever speaks coherently and quits butchering the English language we should throw a parade.
He did not “throw himself at the ball”; what he did was clearly unintentional and unrelated to any attempt to play the ball or intentionally gain a defensive advantage from the positioning of his arms. Concacaf has already called this an incorrect call. Mark Geiger himself has admitted that the call was erroneous. I know you would like to believe that the point is debatable and that somehow Mexico wasn’t bailed out by bad calls two games in a row, but there is really no way around it. Pretending that we are a bunch of ignorant noobs who have not read the laws of the game is certainly not going to make a convincing argument.
What do you think of CONCACAF’s ongoing review?
I think they are making the right decision.
What measures would you like to see taken?
The measurement of fair play and justice.
How can CONCACAF improve refereeing going forward?
By assigning 1 referee to look at replays when necessary during the game. It shouldn’t take longer than 1 minute to overturn a bad call.
Define “Bad Call”
The handball against Panama against Mexico in the 88th minute? It is still being reviewed. Daily by bloggers arguing.
I am not opposed to video replay that MLS seems headed for, but I am against much of what could result from it.
Bad call wasn’t the best choice of words, sorry about that.
What i mean is – reviewing questionable game changing decision calls, such as in the Costa Rica and Panama game.
Geiger knows exactly what he saw and to him that was a handball inside the box. Will those in the review booth think differently? Who knows. The only thing we do know is that half the fans will be happy and the other half will be pissed. That’s just how football works.
Save yourself some time I can tell you that the CONCACAF officiating is :
A) terrible
B) corrupt
C) biased towards Mexico
Corrupt Americans helping out the Mexicans….
Corrupt capitalists doing what they do best.
Yeah, too bad we are not corruption free like Mexico.