Girard's Law of 250

PK’s post this morning was a good one. There are hundreds of thousands of kids that will take to the fields this weekend, in small towns all across America. Many of them will be participating in their first game. Will their experience be a good one? Will they want to come back for more? Will they stick around long enough to get to the top?

Some time ago, I read a book about sales by Joe Girard in which he put forth something called “Girard’s Law of 250.” Girard asked lots of average people to sit down and make a list of all the people they knew and communicated with on a regular basis. The list was to include family, friends, co-workers, even the local grocers or anyone else with whom they were routinely in contact. Then Girard totaled up the number of names on each list.

Girard made an interesting discovery – on average, we each know and regularly talk with about 250 people! And every one of those 250 people know about 250 themselves! His point? Whatever opinion someone has of you will be shared with a lot of others.

Think about the opinions and impressions formed by new referees. One positive (or negative) comment from one knowledgeable person can make all the difference in the world to a young referee, and perhaps 250 of their friends and acquaintances.

Let’s try to keep them all coming back for more. The effects of our interactions with these youngsters go far beyond just one person.

Opening Day in Wrentham

With corruption week over, I am happy to move on to another topic. Today is an exciting day in our small town, fall opening day for the youth teams. It is a time to exercise my "cat herding" skills as assistant coach, but also serves as a great reminder about where the future of the game comes from.

Youth players and youth referees are not that far away from being the finished products we watch at the famous venues around the country, and the world in the big tournaments. Players and referees alike.

If you are out today watching a match, take a second and cheer an opposing player for a well played ball, or thank a youth referee for the job they did regardless of the result. It can make a difference in their career ... a big one. After all, you may be looking at the next US National team player, or FIFA Referee.

Spare the links, just give them the cuffs

So I have to admit that I do like suits and the accouterments that go along with them like braces (suspenders), pocket scarfs, and yes, cuff links. I was off looking for a soccer themed pair and ran across these guys pictured at the left. Really nice, and I may pick a pair up sometime. What I also found was another very interesting story from guardian.co.uk about, *gasp* more corruption where FIFA was involved.

The complete story is entitled, "Fifa investigates claims of Australian World Cup 2022 bid gifts." and goes into some details about the Australian bid committee showering FIFA delegates, and apparently their wives with gifts.

So let's face it, the World Cup is big business and there is a lot of money that changes hands. One figure of note: FIFA reportedly made approximately $3.2 Billion in ad revenue alone in the 2010 World Cup (source). So it is not a surprise that prospective host countries do everything they can to lure the Cup to their home soil. I write this without holding judgement on what actually happened as frankly, I don't know. This could be a simple gesture of good will. Heck, I have received gifts from teams after a match. It is a cultural thing, and should not be seen as anything other than a genuine token of appreciation. In fact in some situations, like in a locker room after a match, a referee shunning a small token of appreciation from a team is very bad form. So for me, no flies on Australia, yet, for offering small tokens of appreciation.

Now, pearl necklaces and handbags for the wives of FIFA officials may indeed breach that "small gift" criteria and may get the folks down under in some hot water. FIFA has launched another one of its famous investigations into the matter. I can't wait to see the letter they send Football Australia.

My laugh out loud moment was when I read the following from the article:

During a rocky period for the English bid last year, it faced criticism for giving the wives of each of the 24 Fifa executive committee members a Mulberry handbag.

The controversial Fifa vice-president Jack Warner returned his, claiming to have been "insulted" by the English bid team.

 Insulted Jack? Okayee ...


Take a few and check these out from guardian.co.uk, it paints part of the picture about just how hard folks work (above and below board) to get the Cup to their shores.


I hope the US delegation is working equally as hard.

Putting the "gold" back in the game?

FIFA may abolish extra time at World Cup

By Brian Homewood

BERNE (Reuters) - FIFA may abolish extra time at the World Cup with drawn knockout matches going straight to penalties, the federation's president Sepp Blatter said Thursday.

Blatter said in an interview with FIFA's web site (www.fifa.com) that too many teams had played defensively at the World Cup in South Africa and soccer's governing body would look at ways of encouraging more attacking tactics. ...

See the whole story here, courtesy of Reuters Canada

Corruption week continues

I think MLS Rumors is turning into one of my favorite sites for some local flavor and fun stories. While not corruption per se, it somewhat seemed to fit. I caught this one the other day, how a faction of Seattle fans are upset about officiating in the league and are planning a protest on Thursday to demonstrate their displeasure.

Apparently this group runs a blog called the 12th Minute blog and has done a podcast to talk about how just how bad the officiating is in MLS. I could only get through the first few minutes, but will listen to the whole thing, I promise. Audio can be found on MLS Rumors and on the 12th Minute blog itself.

I have formed an opinion. I leave it to each of you to form your own.

THE quote however came form a comment to the story which stated:

Sounders FC Says:

Posted on September 7, 2010 at 2:58 pm

I love all these people saying something needs to be done. What do you think they can do ?? Do you think there are better quality referees who are sitting at home waiting to get the call or do you think we are going to somehow persuade the better referees from around the world to come and referee in MLS ? Despite all the training in the world there is always going to be an element of mistakes in soccer refereeing – it’s actually part of the charm of the game (although I agree it’s very annoying when it goes against you). There really isn’t much they can do in the short term. You could all help by not yelling obscenities at the 14 year old kid refereeing your childs rec game at the weekend as he/she may grow up to be part of the solution if you don’t put them off

Pure genius, and one who is clearly thinking beyond MLS to understand what it will take to get referees advanced in this country.

Well played Sounders FC, well played!

Taking a breath away from corruption week ...

Some pretty cool stuff going on in NY/NJ today.

FIFA inspection team hit the ground. Some highlights can be found at:

www.gousabid.com and Some nice comments from Studio 90.

It just keeps getting better.

Kicking Back comments:

As many of us are aware, information is power, and selling information can be quite a money maker. While I am fairly certain that this act is from a rogue individual or small group of them, what came out for me was how deep the ties are within FIFA's political community. I suppose this should not surprise me at all at the end of the day, it is big business after all.

To me the most telling part of the article is here:

Match Hospitality, owned in part by a media company run by Philippe Blatter, nephew of the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, won exclusive rights to sell ticket hospitality packages at the 2010 and 2014 tournaments three years ago. The firm was criticised for over-pricing packages for this summer's World Cup, resulting in empty seats at most matches in South Africa.

Fifa in spotlight over passport identity theft claims

• Newspaper claims fans' details were sold on to touts
• Investigation into 'rogue employee' of Match Hospitality

An investigation is under way into allegations that the passport details of thousands of football fans were sold on the black market by an official linked to Fifa.

The Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates the Data Protection Act, confirmed it has launched an inquiry into claims that the details of 35,689 English fans who attended the World Cup in Germany in 2006 may have been sold unlawfully for profit. Preliminary investigations by the authority suggest that the details of 7,200 England fans have been traded illegally. ...

Full article continues here, courtesy of guardian.co.uk.

MLS *REALLY* losing control now!

Kicking Back Comments:
Following is an excellent editorial piece from MLS Rumors as a follow up to their post the other day regarding the Goal Of The Weak Week (GOTW) fixing incident. It's funny too as what I have queued up for today was discussion about a FIFA corruption incident ... in fact there are a pair. One older news, one new.


I guess it is turning into corruption week here at Kicking Back, and happily, none have to do with referees. While sad in a way that there is corruption in THE Game, it makes me slightly happier that it is coming from a source that is not a referee. We get blamed enough for everything else after all =)


As the article indicated, Commissioner Garber is on Extra-Time this Tuesday, and we will see what he has to say, if anything, about the MLS response to the incident.


EDITORIAL: Why Would AT&T Want to Be Associated With Flawed System? MLS Censorship, Secrecy and Soccer in The USA

Stories disappearing, comments removed at will. It seems all in a days work at MLSSoccer. It is indicative of  a league hasn’t learned how to properly deal both “Web 2.0″ and social media and a league which has never learned how to properly deal with bad P.R.

We saw it for the very plainly last week when Columbus Crew fans upset with comments from MLSSoccer.com writer Simon Borg last week commented on the power rankings he posted and had their Facebook comments removed. Matchfit USA ran a good story on that incident but in a nutshell: ...

Full editorial continues here, courtesy of MLS Rumors.

MLS losing control?

If you are asking about their web site, the answer to some is a resounding YES!

Kudos to MLS Rumors who broke this story about how the MLS Goal Of The Week (GOTW) has been tampered with by some (very) knowledgeable fans, and assisted by a seemingly very poor quality web site from MLS.

Also, if you read the comments posted, this apparently is not new to most avid MLS'ers. Go figure. One particularly humerous comment stated:

wait. are you telling me that something about the wonderful league website mlssoccer.com is screwed up, amateurish, or down right stupid? i am shocked. shocked i say. and in other news: water is wet, the sun is very hot and the sky is up.

Ouch.

Now I am not going to go all grassy knoll, but it is worth asking the question if MLS has known about this ... or is participating condoning the acts? Just a question, and not a statement or accusation. (MLS legal please take note.)

For now apparently the page for this weeks GOTW is down and MLS may be rethinking its technology choices to avoid such obvious tampering in the future.

I highly recommend reading the full article here, courtesy of MLS Rumors.

Sad to see him go ...

Photo courtesy sporting-heroes.net

Brian McBride (background) has set his retirement at the end of the 2010 season.

I personally have had a number of interactions with Mr. McBride and they have always been tremendous. He is a first class person, who is also exceptionally talented.

While there is not enough ink in my proverbial pen to write about his accomplishments, a very nice synopsis can be found here, on the Chicago Fire web site.

He is in my opinion one of the modern greats. More professional athletes should comport themselves the way Mr. McBride has done throughout his career.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Technical Report ... Meh ...

Judge for yourself.

KB's opinion ... for all the "issues" with referees, there was no significant mention of the referees, their "issues", or proposed solutions.

The complete report is here (.pdf), courtesy of FIFA.

Once More unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More

Brilliant prose from one who recognizes where we are in our development as officials, and a stark reminder where we still need to go ...

See the article and video of the brutal event here, courtesy of For the Integrity of Soccer.

"I had a poor view of that particular incident." - Howard Webb

I should have shown Nigel de Jong a red card, says Howard Webb

Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA

When Howard Webb took the field for the World Cup final at Soccer City last month, he was cheered by the sight of a small banner amid all the orange and red, the flags and the vuvuzelas, a message of support from home, no less. "It must have been English," he recalled. "It simply said: Can't play, can ref."

That statement was to be tested in Johannesburg in a way that nobody could ever have imagined, with Webb issuing 14 yellow cards. "On the day of the final we had several briefings from Fifa technical and psychological staff, and I don't think anyone foresaw the game being the physical encounter it turned out to be. We talked about the emotion, the styles of play, but no one said anything about it being so physical. ...

Masterful article continues here, courtesy of guardian.co.uk.

US Soccer + Glenn Beck == ??

So as I have said before, I am a bit of a political junkie. To prove this I was cruising the information superhighway the other day and ran across this story about the Glenn Beck rally on Saturday the 28th.

I found the above picture from the article interesting. Look close at the logo on the T-Shirt.

Yep ... its the US Soccer logo.

Please note this is not an invitation for a political debate of any type and I'm not espousing some conspirator theory that US Soccer is funding Glenn Beck or anything of the sort.

I just saw the logo and took note. After all, sometimes a T-shirt, is just a T-shirt.

Four More Years For Bob??

Check out Grant Wahl's thoughts here on the topic, FIFA's here, and US Soccer's spin here.

Lets see what happens next ... I don't think we're quite done yet.

We're not going to take it ... (Sung to Twisted Sister)

First of all, go here to listen to the song if you are so inclined.

Does anyone remember the name Jim Leyland? Well he is the manager that showed the grace to publicly forgive Jim Joyce for the call he blew back in June taking a perfect game away from Galarraga. See here for a recap.

Well, Jim's "pissed" (his words), and I honestly don't blame him. He was accused of spitting on an umpire, what sound like what actually happened, was some sunflower seeds accidental shot out of his mouth when he was arguing a call at second base. Gross, but innocent in nature.

While he was ejected from the game, and Leyland himself is fine with that, to be accused of spitting on an umpire is serious stuff, and he is not going to stand for it.

As he stated to the Detroit Free Press:

"I'm tired of protecting umpires. I'm tired of not being able to say anything. I'm defending myself. If you want to kick me out, that's fine. I don't care about that because it sprayed on his shirt, but when you start to accuse somebody of doing something you better be careful."

... and he's right. As referees we not only have to report the correct misconduct - but have to get the underlying misconduct correct. Men of good conscious can disagree if it was or was not a handball or yellow card (for example), but to accuse someone of doing something serious, you must be sure. A referee loses all credibility and integrity instantly otherwise.

Full story here, courtesy of USA Today.

Developemnt Night at the Revolution - Total Success!

The MSRC hit the ball out of the park on the 28th at the Development Night at the Revolution!

In a tremendously creative approach, the SDI (Nigel Bright - a contributor here on Kicking Back) designed a recertification program to include not only observing and reporting on video clips, as is very often done, but extended this to the same on an actual professional match.

Classroom work was very well done with interactive portions along with the video clips. Also there was a surprise visit from the match officials who were gracious enough to take questions and hung around for about 15 minutes. The venue was tremendous. It was a first class event in a private section of the Fidelity Clubhouse at Gillette with a packed house of more than 200 people in attendance.

From there each referee had the assignment to observe the match, and report back via an online form, the incidents they observed and why they believe the referee took that action. These results will be gathered and compared to the comments of the assessors in attendance and published to that community to see how similar the observations were.

While unfortunately not a great night for the Revolution, it was for the 200+ referees in attendance.

I have been sworn to secrecy regarding my observations about the match, but it suffices to say I respectfully disagree with Mr. Nicol's opinion about the referee performance as he alluded to in the article today from Frank Dell'Apa.

90 Foot Launch

Kicking Back Comments:

This is an interesting incident from the perspective that we have to remember as referees that players have relationships too. Very often we are asked to step in when that relationship is not going so well, but there is one there none the less. Over time it is important to form relationships with these players too. For those who see teams on a regular basis (in town leagues for example) there is nothing wrong with taking to understand the dynamics of the relationships between players, coaches, administrators, other referees, et al. These relationships are what will make or break you the further you go.

Early in my career I was instructed to call people "sir" or "ma'am" (except Barbara Boxer, who I would call "Senator"), and this seemed to work for a while for no other reason that it was polite. As I progressed and saw teams more and more regularly I found it more helpful to use a persons name in a respectful way (e.g. Mr. Bright, Ms. Murphy) as it started to form a connection between us. Later still, I took the time to know these folks and could strike up a conversation whenever we saw each other. I recall seeing Steve Nichol so frequently as manager of the local "A League" team that he would comment on my haircut when he did not like it. It was truly comical. But more importantly he felt comfortable to let me know when something was at issue. From there I would filter the comment and ask "what is he getting at?" It was usually something pretty vital to the match at hand.

It is critical for a referee to be aware of what is going on and the interactions between people to get the full picture. I recognize this umpire was a "vacation substitute" and may not have that time to be able to understand the dynamic. In which case, he should have just let it go.

I'm not advocating being willfully blind to an issue, what I am saying is take the time to understand it, and then, and only then, take the appropriate action.

Beltre taken by surprise
He says umpire was way off base

Adrian Beltre was called out on strikes in the second inning last night on a pitch he thought was low. He told umpire Dan Bellino his opinion and returned to the dugout.

“I didn’t curse or anything,’’ Beltre said. “I said I thought it was low. He said it was a good pitch and I walked away.’’

Once the inning was over, Beltre trotted out to third base and playfully boasted to Seattle pitcher Felix Hernandez that he would get him the next time. ...

Full article here courtesy of the Boston Globe.

Ready ... Steady ...

An old axiom often cited is that "Piss Poor Preparation Produces Piss Poor Performance". So in my preparing for the development night at the Revolution, (to avoid poor performance) following is a general template about how I would prepare for matches.

Please note, do what works for you. Some people would do more, some people would do less, and get the same result. Take this with a grain of salt and make it your own. Your mileage may vary.

Now the focus on this particular discussion is at the professional level, but many of the general points apply in local matches as well. Keep in mind too that some of these resources will not be available for the matches you are doing. Again, make this form work for you.

I generally begin by taking a self inventory and making sure that I am prepared for the match. I would wind down my training for the week and make sure to get some rest around match day minus 3. Lots of fluids, lots of rest. I would push this back if I had to travel to the match as travel itself can be tiring.

Have you made contact with your team? Have a ride? Need a ride? Local hotel? Flying in? Where are the teams staying?

I generally would look at the history of each team separately. Simple things like win/loss any roster changes of late, general news about the team, place in the standings, etc.. All to get a general idea what is going on and if there is anything at issue that this particular match turns on. An example would be playoff implications, a new (and famous) player joining the team, etc..

From there I generally look into the injuries on the team. Who is hurt, how they got hurt, and their status. A player nursing an injury can be a difficult management situation and to know this up front will help.

Still looking at the individual teams, I would then look at statistics. Some referees that I know don't like to do this as there is a concern that it taints the opinion. I respectfully disagree, but also am careful to not let the bias creep in. For example, lets take the Revolution (stats here). What is this page telling me?

• Schilawski and Perovic are the goal scorers and Dube is right there in assists. These are players that might be marked hard and should be protected.
• Niouky stands out as committing the most fouls, yet does not produce (no goals, 1 assists, and a handful of fouls suffered).
• Cautions ... Niouky tops the list.
• Send offs ... there were 3 ... and Niouky has one. (Ed note ... he is a midfielder too, not a pure defender).

So from this I am starting to paint a picture of who may be at issue, and what is at stake in the match. Who are the coaches? Trainers? Know their names? Are they a problem? How would you deal with it even before stepping into the field?

From there I move on to the opposing team, and take great note of who is playing where and what the venue is.

How big is the field? Altitude? Local traditions? (Have you ever heard the cannons fire in Raymond James stadium in Florida after a goal? - Scared the crap out of me the first time ... and every time after that). Weather? Field Surface!! (I got bit by that one in NY once ... cost me $100 for a new pair of Copa's 3 hours before the match) By the way, traveling teams expect a "better" that fair shake.

Same approach for the opposing team. General to the specific.

Now, I move to head to head. Have these teams played before? What was the result? Were there problems in the match? Is payback coming?

I may actually try to get my hands on the match if possible and review it once to get a flavor. Also I would check the Week In Review for that week and see what happened.

How about calling that referee? Why not!

I believe there are two main points to consider when doing such research:

1. Get all the information you can about the teams themselves, head to head, and the venue. Synthesize the match from this. Who are the goal scorers, bullies, what's at stake?
2. Don't be a slave to the information! You are just looking at a two dimensional picture. Adapt the knowledge to the reality of the match, which is played in 4 dimensions.

With all this info, and thinking about how to apply it, you will be ready for many things that get thrown at you, and can say you are well prepared for a match ... assuming the knowledge of the game and fitness pieces are there too, as without those pieces peril awaits at that level.

More Upgrade Kudos

Here is another pair of referees that that performed exceptionally and have received upgrades for their efforts.
I want to take just a second a recognize these individuals that have distinguished themselves in this regard.

Keep it up guys!

James Moriarty & Frank Bagnardi