Programming Note

Dear followers of Kicking Back:
Over the next few days I am going to be traveling and relatively "unplugged" (one might say "kicking back" - sorry). During that time I do not have any posts "in the can" ready to go (despite having lots of ideas), and will not be near any place that I will be able to post.

To that end, I leave you all to your wares and what looks like in this part of the US to be a very nice long weekend. I implore you all to get out and play/coach/referee/assess this weekend, as it looks like a beauty.

As always, JAFO and Nigel may jump in and sprinkle their wisdom on the topic du jour, however will be engaged no doubt in their own right. I will enjoy reading any posts should they do so, on my return.

Good weekend to all and thanks for reading.
PK

Byron Moreno Follow Up

Kicking back comments:

There are a couple of recent developments about this matter reported on earlier. 

First, is the fact that (shock) FIFA is not going to investigate the matter. Why you may ask? Ted Howard the Secretary General of CONCACAF, who also serves of the FIFA referee committee states that the referee committee is not an investigative body.

Now lets see, it has been stated that this referee was "ordered" to throw the ITA-KOR match and that corruption at the highest levels is going on, implying that FIFA referees are being corrupted, yet they won't investigate? Let's reflect briefly back to the World Cup this year. How many times was there an incident, and how many times was there an investigation? I would opine each, and every. Investigations at times ended a referees career. FIFA sees no issue investigating there.

Now, to be fair Howard may have meant any outside the field incidents such as this could not be investigated. But that too holds little water as FIFA at least sent a letter to North Korea to "investigate" if the North Korean World Cup team was being treated humanely.

Or it just may go under the adage that you can't find what you don't seek.

See a story here, that details some of these facts, courtesy of Goal.com.

Second, is how Mr. Moreno is doing in prison, and what continues to be a difficult road.

Byron Moreno Denies Trying To Commit Suicide & Receives Prison Counselling Following Drugs Arrest
The former referee Byron Moreno is receiving counselling in prison, but did not attempt suicide.

The former referee from Ecuador, infamous for his World Cup 2002 exploits in the match between South Korea and Italy, was arrested at John F. Kennedy airport, New York, for allegedly being in possession of six kilograms of heroin on September 21. ...

See the full story here, courtesy of Goal.com.

Where is FIFA now?

When Togo Played Bahrain, the Whole Match Was a Fake
Taking the Field as African Nation's Team, Impostors Lose Game but Net Fees

Bahrain's national soccer team needed to prepare for an important game. So it jumped at a chance to invite Togo, a small West African country with a highly regarded soccer team, to play an exhibition match.

At least $60,000 was spent on flights, hotels and other expenses, and in early September, the Bahrain team lined up against 11 players in Togo jerseys. The Togo players weren't as good as the Bahrainians expected, and the Persian Gulf team won 3-0.

In Togo's capital, Lomé, the Togo Football Federation was surprised not so much by the team's poor showing as by the game itself: On Sept. 7 the Togo team wasn't actually in Bahrain—but on a bus returning from an official game in Botswana.

TFF officials say the team in Bahrain was a fake one, which they suspect was organized by someone wishing to pocket some of the money spent on the event. ...

See the full article here, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows?

Credit to John Utter for spotting this one. It seems that Bolivian President President Evo Morales kneed an opposing player in the groin during a weekend soccer match against a team of political rivals after an apparent hard foul by the opponent. Read the story and see the video clip here.

This is an example about how the passions of sport transcend normal confines of behavior. Sports test our mettle and apply pressure that is unequaled in any other venue. We compete on a field against other people, but the true test is really against ourselves every step of the way. Can we handle it when someone takes a run at us? How do we respond when fouled? After we get knocked to the ground, what do we choose to do when we get up?

Soccer is life.

Did you hear that Sound(ers)?

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Congratulations to the 2010 Open Cup Champion Seattle Sounders who repeated as Open Cup champion with a 2-1 victory in front of about 32,000 fans at Qwest Field in Seattle.

Congratulations also for the refereeing team who did quite an excellent job to see this tournament to a fitting conclusion; Michael Kennedy, Tom Supple, Paul Scott, and Ricardo Salazar.

See one account here, courtesy of ESPN.

Liverpool Red Sox??

Liverpool Agrees to Sell Club to Red Sox

Liverpool Football Club said Wednesday it has agreed to sell the club to the owners of the Boston Red Sox, but the deal's fate is uncertain because the soccer team's owners remain opposed.

John Henry, a U.S. hedge-fund manager who owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team, has reached a tentative agreement to purchase Liverpool, the once-dominant British soccer team that has fallen on hard times. ...

See the whole article here, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

Karma is a funny thing

Kicking Back comments:
I don't think we are going to see De Jong (of World Cup - Karate Kid fame) again anytime soon, certainly not on the Netherlands national side as he was summarily dropped today for a tackle that broke an opponents leg in 2 places.

I would opine that we are not going to see the referee for a while either as De Jong made the bone splitting tackle without even a caution.

Read the whole gruesome account here, courtesy of Yahoo sports.

FIFA Strikes Again

FIFA suspends Nigeria over government interference

FIFA suspended the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) yesterday because of government interference in the federation’s work.

The FIFA Emergency Committee listed several cases of government interference as justification for its decision to suspend the federation. ...

See the story here, courtesy of playthegame.org.

Upgrade Kudos - With a Twist

Many folks do not recognize the complexity of the "machine" behind the modern game. While I will not opine about the complex inner workings of the player side of FIFA, its national associations (e.g. US Soccer), State and local associations, I want to shed some light on the refereeing side a bit.

Ubiquitous to our lexicon is the term "referee". We are very familiar with who they are and generally their role inside the soccer field. Beyond that, there are a host of other actors that include referee administrators, referee assessors, referee mentors, and yes, referee instructors. It is this last group I will expand briefly on here.

Similar to referees within US Soccer, instructors too carry a grade such as instructor, state instructor, and national instructor. There are more, but you take my point I'm sure. Also similar, are requirements for grade retention, and upgrade such as classes given, and training received.

Many of these folks are active, or inactive former referees and have experience, sometimes a tremendous amount, with the game. Even with that experience, there is a fairly ridged training regime that goes into being an instructor, even to do so at a local level, for new referees. To upgrade to a state instructor takes hours of practical, and course work to learn how to shape the minds of referees at higher and higher levels. This requires not only a thorough understanding of the game, but also empathy for the plight of such a referee, combined with a healthy does of detailing "Law 18".

Recently there are two individuals I would like to recognize for their dedicated service to the instructor core (also noting their involvement as referees, assessors, and mentors), and congratulate them on their recent accomplishments.

Please join me in congratulating Peter Johnson and Peter Robinson for their recent advance to State Instructor. I continue to look forward to their work in turning out the quality referees of the future, and working with each of them along the way.

"The usefulness of uselessness"

I am a reader of Nature Magazine. It is really a fascinating magazine that deals with a whole bunch of heady topics that I like to distract myself with.

The other day I was flipping through the August 25th issue, and noticed an article named, "Quantum mechanics: The usefulness of uselessness", authored by Andreas Winter. An abstract of the article is here:

"A game for three or more players called 'guess your neighbour's input' reveals common ground between classical and quantum physics — at the expense of more exotic, super-quantum, theories of nature." (See Nature 466, 1053-1054 (26 August 2010) | doi:10.1038/4661053a; Published online 25 August 2010)

In pursing the article I ran across the following picture to illustrate what is going on in this super-quantum context, mouth agape. Now, I have used sport analogies often to describe a litany of things. This is the first time I have seen it to describe such a relatively complex topic.

Yet another example of what I am coming to call the "JAFO Paradox": Soccer is life.

With permission from Nature Magazine

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Kicking Back Comments:
There are times after I have had to send off a player when I have the very conscious thought of, "... what were they thinking ... ." Well the following article gets into the head of Ben Olsen a little, and to his credit, in his comments show he accepts personal responsibility for some of his past transgressions that led to some of his send offs.

While I note that these "mea culpas" do not include the present incident, and I don't entirely buy the "newness" he claims, it to me is of little consequence as he clearly knows when he has gone off the reservation. His comments are illustrative.

The former tenacious midfielder continued: "I have done things in this league that I have deserved red cards. I have raised my hand and said, 'Yup, I know what a red card is, I know what a suspension is, and I should've gotten one.' I am being fined for comments I made [to the officials] after I was thrown out, and I absolutely deserve that fine for my reaction. I've got to watch my mouth. I'm new to this."

A good quick read here, courtesy of the Washington Post.

Outgoing WPS Commissioner, In Her Own Words

Excellent interview here with Tonya Antonucci, outgoing commissioner of the WPS, about the league, its future, and some of the twists and turns along the way.

Gamer Alert Part Deux!

Photo courtesy Columbus Crew

FIFA 2011 XBOX Challenge

The Columbus Crew is set to host the FIFA 2011 Xbox Challenge on Saturday, October 23rd at noon. All gamers will meet in the newly renovated Upper 90 Club at Crew Stadium for the chance to compete for cash prizes, Columbus Crew memorabilia, and bragging rights over participating Crew fans. ...

Read the whole story here, courtesy of the Crew.

Tamberino stepping down from U.S. Soccer

Referee director Tamberino stepping down from U.S. Soccer

Craig Stouffer

It's got to be a bit ironic that a bit of non-D.C. United news that recently landed on my desk given the events of the D.C. United/Houston match earlier this evening. Nevertheless, here goes: U.S. Soccer director of referee development Paul Tamberino informed his colleagues this week via email that he will resign effective Dec. 1. An email to Tamberino seeking comment was not immediately answered. ...

See the blog post here, courtesy of the Washington Examiner.

Kicking Back Comments:
While I have not dipped into this story too much yet, this would qualify as a fairly significant shake up to MLS and US Soccer from a refereeing perspective. While no program is run by one man, Paul has been one of the familiar faces for some time.


More on this one to come as we close out this era. Early signs show caution in many for what is to come in 2011.

Gamer Alert! FIFA 2011 Now Available In The US

Photo courtesy EA Sports

For those of us who play the game virtually as well as actually, EA Sports has done it again! Now available "FIFA Soccer 11" is available on US shores for about $55 and by all accounts it looks pretty good.

It is available for PS3, XBox 360, PC, Wii, DS, and PSP platforms. For those who do not know what that is and are still using an Atarii 2600 gaming system, you may be able to find something here.

To me, the most notable feature of this game is the fact that you can, for the first time ever, have (22) players compete against each other. A real (11) v. (11) game, online.

When you do thing EA will include a referee? Some assistants? Nah.

Good review of the game here, courtesy of guardian.co.uk.

Boooooooooooooooooooooo

Photo courtesy markstivers.com

So there I was at the Revolution match the other night when they again seemed to implode near the end. At a point in the match there was a call that went against the Revolution, and a chorus of "Boooooo's" went out. My son who I was with at the match joined in and started to yell "boo" as well.

A brief yet interesting conversation broke out between us at that point.

PK: Why are you booing?
Jr.: Because everyone else is.

PK: Do you know why they are booing?
Jr.: No. Maybe because of the call the referee made.

PK: What was that call?
Jr.: I dunno. Handball?

PK: No. Did you see what happened?
Jr. : Nope.

PK: Then why are you booing?

From there just go to the top and repeat the loop a couple of times and you will get the flavor.

Point is that looking around not many people had much of an idea what had actually happened and how the referee handled it just right, regardless (irregardless in some parts of the country) of the reaction from the fan(atics).

Being a referee take a pretty thick hide, and an ability to filter the right protests to be considered for action. Everything else can be passed off as just noise.

Take heart dear refereeing friends, the next time you hear a chorus of complaints from a large group, it just might be because a group of lemmings just jumped off a cliff together. If you are doing your best, and think you got the call right, keep going. If you follow the lemmings, you take the chance of having your match go off a cliff, just like they did.

They Should Have Sent A Poet

Kicking Back is refraining from comment except to thank the provider of this article.

Soccer referee arrested in traffic incident

METHUEN — A soccer referee on his way to officiate a game at the Tenney School field was arrested after he refused to stop for a police officer and yelled obscenities Wednesday afternoon, police said.

School Resource Officer Michael Farelli was assisting the crossing guard with the lower school dismissal on Pleasant Street about 3:15 p.m. when an SUV driven by a man later identified as Joel Silverman, 55, of Nashua, N.H. pulled next to him and yelled out the window "who the (expletive's) car is this and why is it parked there?" ...

Full story continues here, courtesy of the Eagle Tribune.

NBA: Referee's Don't Count

The NY Times ran a piece the other day here talking about how the NBA intend to reign in players whining and in general carrying on in front of everyone when they may disagree with a decision from the referee.

I whole heartedly agree with the decision to do so as with any game, if it is not attractive to the spectators, there is a problem they need to resolve as it gets in the way of making money.

I can recall a similar problem a few years back in the "D League". There were some players who would get carried away, or even as a normal part of their lexicon would use the word "f*$k", as both an adjective and verb in every possible conjugation they could think of. The best of course when they used it as both parts of speech in the same sentence.

This had the predictable result of insulting the family of (4) who paid $30 of so to see a match on a nice summer evening on the cape ... for example.

This led to the predictable result of the league requiring the referees to be more stern about the language used by players and there was an expectation we would deal with it ... or the league will deal with us.

I have to admit, it did get better for a time, with the occasional slip that rang the top of the rafters. Over time it became more engraved to the players to just not do that ... and they responded well. I have my doubts personally about how the NBA players will react, but I guess we will see this season.

Where I laughed out load is in this part of the article:

League officials decided to crack down based on feedback from owners and market research.

While I agree this is a critical aspect of such a business, how about the abuse to the referees and respecting them as participants? How about respecting the game and not acting like a cry baby on steroids when something does not go your way? It takes market research and owners losing money to move the needle for something like this?

Yipes. I guess gone are the days of doing the right thing for the right reason. Generally it would seem our decisions are based on poll questions, and not a collective compass we have to keep our actions true.

We shall see how this one unfolds and how the NBA responds to the first sign of trouble.

I would opine the NFL has already summarily failed that test with allowing the Jets to allow Braylon Edwards a free pass on his recent DUI incident, as apparently there is no suspension on a first offence, regardless of how drunk a player was at the time of operation. Oh yeah, he's not being allowed to start on Sunday. I guess that counts.

The Insanity Continues

From the other day I shared a story about a former FIFA referee who was arrested attempting to smuggle 6kg of heroin through a US airport.

I also commented how some became unhinged about associating acts (8) years ago, with an act in 2010. As another example of just how wild the imagination of some of these folks are, read the following about "the worst refereeing decisions".

Funny thing is ... I did not count any attributed to a referee. Many of these were from bad acts from players. Read on, it is a sorry testament to just how far people will go to blame referees.

Byron Moreno & the top 10 worst refereeing decisions in World Cup history
Official has been detained for drug smuggling in the USA

The disgraced former Fifa referee Byron Moreno was jailed this week for attempting to smuggle six kilos of heroin into the United States. The Ecuadorian is infamous in Italy as a result of his barely credible officiating during the South Korea - Italy last 16 match at the 2002 World Cup. Goal.com remembers that game and looks back at some more shocking calls from the history of the showpiece event ...

Full fantasy fictional piece editorial, continues here courtesy of goal.com.

... and after viewing the video of the incident here, I don't completely disagree with the send off to Totti (at the end of the video ... even one of the offsides is razor close). He sure fell awfully easy with such little contact. I don't know ... not so far fetched to me. In fact may have been real courage to send him off after a second caution. Gee, I wonder what the first one was for? Well, here is the report. Looks like he was booked in the 22'. Was that a good caution? Clearly if Totti did not have that, there would be no send off. Whose fault is this really? The referee? Totti?

Why did Moreno choose to send of Totti, but Webb did not choose to send off DeJong?

The other comment I see over and over speaks of "Italy's revenge" on Moerno ... this one is a "ponte vecchio" too far for my taste. One of the best parts is Ty Keough's "analysis" of the situation. For a guy who has some pedigree and at one time skill in the game, boy does he get this one wrong.

But like I said the other day ... We report, You decide.

We Report, You Decide

Photo Courtesy Associated Press

Kicking Back Comments:
In almost every news story that I have read on this topic, I get confused. What exactly does an arrest for smuggling 6 kg of heroin in 2010 have anything to do with refereeing in 2002?

These articles, and some of their quotes seems to imply, and in some cases, just states, that this referee had a substance abuse problem that led to his on the pitch issues.

The following quote from the AP story below shows this willingness to blame the referee then, for what the man has done today:

Franco Carraro, an International Olympic Committee member and Italy's soccer federation president at the time of the South Korea game, said the arrest proves Moreno had problems.

Ladies and gentlemen, I urge great caution with these assertions. This one strikes a nerve with me as there have been folks in my career who have made erroneous assumptions about my past on pitch performance and incorrectly connected it to some present, off the pitch issue. Some of these comments smack of this rubbish.

While I don't discount that connections between on and off the field can and should be made, when it comes to something so serious, caution is advised. For me personally it was one of the larger data points in my choice to end my career when it did. I hope Mr. Moreno gets the fair shake he deserves as he traverses what would appear to be a difficult road ahead.

These comments are also momentarily ignoring the sheer lunacy of the physiology of blaming the referee after (8) years has past in what I would consider a pathetic search for vindication from Mr. Carraro. That alone makes me seriously question the competence level from this former coach and IOC member.

But as I state in the title ... we report, you decide.

Ref Moreno's arrest sparks anger in Trapattoni

ROME — Former Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni is hoping fans will look back on his reign in a different light after the arrest of former referee Byron Moreno in New York.

The Ecuadorean, blamed by Italian fans for the Azzurri's elimination from the 2002 World Cup, was caught on Monday at John F. Kennedy Airport with bags of heroin attached to his body, according to U.S. federal prosecutors. A judge jailed Moreno without bail on a drug smuggling charge. ...

Full story here, courtesy of the AP.