US Out of 2018 World Cup Bid

USA Bid Committee To Focus on 2022 FIFA World Cup

NEW YORK (October 15, 2010) –The USA Bid Committee announced today that it has withdrawn from the 2018 FIFA World Cup bid and will exclusively focus on the 2022 campaign. 

The decision comes after several months of careful deliberation with FIFA, UEFA and members of the USA Bid Board of Directors. Four European candidates now remain in the race for 2018 (Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia and Spain/Portugal). Since the FIFA Statutes indicate that the competition cannot be held on the same continent on two successive occasions, the 2022 campaign will now be between Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Qatar and the United States. ...

See the full article here courtesy of US Soccer.

A Tale of Two Cities

The other day I was engaged in what is quickly becoming a ritual for me on the weekend. Assess a match in the AM, coach Junior in the midday, and assess another match in the late PM.

For whatever reason, this series struck a particular chord with me as I had the opportunity to traverse two very distinct parts of the state to assess a competition in the same sport, with very different surroundings.

In the morning, I was in central Massachusetts at Progin Park. This is truly a marvelous complex. Wide open spaces and farmland as far as the eye could see (I even stopped at a farm stand for a peck of empire apples on the way to Jr.'s match). It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, even when the match was going on. A sleepy Saturday morning was barley interrupted by a very competitive adult league match, and the smell of cool clean air was abound.

In the afternoon however it was the opposite in many regards. In the shadow of the John Hancock building, at a local urban high school, another adult league match was played. This environment while beginning fairly quietly, continued with the raucous sounds of emergency vehicles speeding by, loud Latin music, and a chorus of epithets yelled at the referees, players, and coaching staffs alike from the spectators voicing their displeasure about a variety of things in no fewer than 3 languages. Further, the (delicious) smell of food for the teams cooking on charcoal grills brought by the teams was wafting through the air as the sun set.

What's the point you ask? Everyone was there for the same reason, THE game.

While the players came from different backgrounds, the intent of the gathering, and the result, was exactly the same, to play a game.

This may seem exceedingly obvious to some, and in some regards it is to me as well. However for more than a moment, sitting there in Boston, watching a match, it continued to crystallize to me just how much of a unifying force THE game is.

You could take any number of the teams and move them around, even go to a completely different location, tell a few folks about it and they will show up to watch the game. It's kind of amazing really. This is not (generally) due to being forced to go, or some sense of obligation, people genuinely wanted to be there.

I watched spectators in both matches freezing their a$$es off watching these matches and players (some well past their prime) doing the same and chancing injury, just to get together for a couple of hours. Afterwards, everyone shook hands, thanked each other for the match, and left to have a meal and spend more time together in a more relaxed social setting, adding to the social fabric of the universe in the process. All in the name of a game.

Soccer is life.

Then and Now

From an earlier post I opined that the route the modern referee takes is very different from the way a previous generation referee was trained.

[Editor note: I dare not say "older referee" as (1) I am turning into one before my very eyes, and (2) there are some of these legendary referees who read this blog and would not hesitate to take me out to the woodshed should I use that term =)]

While referees in how they are brought up through the ranks has changed, what about the game?

Well here is a very interesting article that opines that some older legendary players, would not have made it in todays game as to some the game in turning into a non-contact sport.

Harris: Moore would incur modern refs' wrath

LONDON - Even England's 1966 World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore, who turned tackling into an art form, would fall foul of modern referees, former Chelsea defender Ron Harris said on Tuesday.

"Bobby was the greatest tackler there was but if he had been playing today he would have been getting cards all over the place, week in week out," Harris, whose uncompromising approach in the 1970s earned him the nickname "Chopper", told Reuters in an interview. ...

The full article is here, and provides an interesting opinion about where the game may be going, courtesy of fourfourtwo.com.

The Liverpool "Red Sox" (Credit to CW Rice)

Liverpool sold to Red Sox owners

LONDON—Liverpool was sold to the owners of the Boston Red Sox on Friday after a bitter trans-Atlantic court fight with the previous American owners over the storied English soccer club.

The $476 million deal with New England Sports Ventures ends the turbulent three-year ownership by Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr.

The sale went through after Hicks and Gillett withdrew the temporary restraining order they had obtained in a Texas court. Later, they also dropped their claim for $1.6 billion in damages. ...

Full story continues here, courtesy of the Boston Globe.

True to his word

Back a few months ago, Sepp Blatter and IFAB were in discussions about goal line technology in an effort to assist referees with such incidents. I have to be honest, I did not think the effort would get as far as is currently being reported by several news outlets.

At this stage there is apparently an evaluation that will be launched into the 13 companies vying for an opportunity to be the official company to provide goal line technology for FIFA.

This is assuming that it gets that far ...

One aspect that needs consideration is that effect on the referees who have to use the technology. When I was on the way up we would be asked to evaluate new technologies from time to time such as various time keeping devices, uniforms, and communication devices such as the famous "beeper flags."

Interesting too as I saw this from not only the inside out as a referee with US Soccer, but also the outside in as my role as engineer with a company named Trakus, where we worked with the NHL refereeing ranks to test the feasibility of real time tracking of professional hockey games. Of particular concern to the engineering involved was to assure the technology was unobtrusive to the referee doing their job, and seamless in appearance.

I hope these 13 companies recognize this, and give the referees the voice to work with the engineers to better the product to make it both effective and invisible to those viewing. In my estimation, this will be the only way for such technology to succeed in FIFA's eyes.

Is it worth it?

I am very lucky. I was one of the generation of referees who was given the glorious opportunity to traverse the entire spectrum of matches in the United States from local youth matches, to professional (MLS) and international matches.

Those referees who came before this generation were not given the opportunity to experience the youth game in the US but largely came from the ranks of ethnic league matches, which in their own right served as excellent preparation for the professional (NASL) and international game.

Both routes have their merits and have produced exceptional referees such as David Socha, Angelo Bratsis, Jen Bennett, and Tom Supple. Currently however, there is a particular purgatory that every youth referee making their way through the ranks must endure. It is the often surreal dealings with the youth fan(atic).

This single topic alone would take up chapters of books I will write some day about my experience and those of my peers who had to struggle as a youth, and a youth referee, to find their way through the fog of youth sports.

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe soccer is unique in this respect as adults in all youth sports seem to loose their marbles at times. Nor do I believe that all adult participants are responsible for such behavior as I have had so many more positive experiences than very negative ones. The issue of course is that the very negative ones leave a much stronger and lasting impression.

Recently I was reintroduced to a long time friend of THE game, Paul Levy, who in his blog, Running A Hospital (now linked at right also), wrote an excellent article, entitled "Dear Coach", about just how wide an effect such conduct can have on the participants of a match, not just the referee. From the article:

Dear Coach,

I was refereeing your team's game yesterday afternoon in the Natick Columbus Day soccer tournament. (This was eleven-year-old boys.) You didn't like one of the calls I made, the one awarding a penalty kick to the other team. You demonstrated this, first, by throwing your clipboard energetically on the ground and yelling. Even after the kick was taken -- and missed -- you loudly yelled out to me across the field in complaint. ...

I implore you all to read this as it eloquently details the plight of the youth referee today and what they must endure for the sake of a group of children trying to have fun playing a game. The blog itself is excellent also, and provides a wealth of information on a variety of topics I am finding fascinating.

So from all of this I have one question to ask and answer for the youths growing up as youth soccer referees across the United States: Is it worth it?

My answer: An unequivocal Yes.

Your question: Why?

Well, that too could take up chapters of books I have yet to write, about how soccer can be transformative to life itself and provides such tremendous opportunities to learn some life lessons that so often are never realized without that spark to do so. THE game provides that spark.

To be sure, these are heady topics, and ones that were furthest from my mind as a teenager trying to do their best at managing a group of children playing a game, while reconciling the truly brutal affronts of some adults who were maligning all the participants for their efforts. I do not believe my teenage situation to be unique, this is happening all over the world.

This is the fog of the youth game today. This is the plight of the youth referee.

It is not the end of the story however. There are ways through the fog. Family, friends, and a host of communities such as the refereeing community itself. There are those out there who have been through the fog and want nothing more to help others do the same. I urge you to take advantage of those people. They can help.

For me I also found solace in a birthday card my dad gave to me. To this very day, it makes me stop and think about how to get through that fog. I offer it here for any in the fog of the youth game today.

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Chilean Miners

I just watched the news coverage about the Chilean miners who were finally rescued after 69 days underground. The story is captivating to say the least, and it takes a special kind of person to survive that experience.

During their confinement, their lifeline to the surface was a small hole through which was sent the essentials they needed, such as food and antibiotics to fight infection.

To combat boredom, they were also sent tapes from soccer games, including a live feed of their National team playing a match on September 09 against the Ukraine. (click here for full story)

Soccer is Life!

Things Have Changed

When I was a kid and wanted to play soccer, I would pump a little air into the beat up old ball in my garage and just start walking to the local park. By the time I got to the playground I would have picked up a few other kids along the way, and joined in with whatever crowd was hanging around and got a game going. Maybe it would be 6 players on a team, or maybe 15, but we worked it all out, without referees.

Now we have organization. Now there are lots of people that work behind the scenes in order to get soccer games played. For every organized game you see there are probably more people not playing than playing. From local volunteers who may line the fields, to the trainers, coaches and referees, to the administrators who make out the schedules, on and on it goes. There are layers of people who work at the game in state, regional and national levels, all trying to get the games played.

All of these people are just as passionate about the game as are the players themselves.

And so it was that I found myself in Philadelphia over the last three days, surrounded by about 200 of these dedicated people, who were there to discuss such weighty issues as secondary insurance coverage and whether two or four people should be added to their Board of Directors.

There was not much talk about soccer. In fact, if it were not for the predominance of soccer-logo apparel being worn, a casual observer would have never imagined this was a meeting of the leaders in a sports organization. It sounded more like a general shareholder meeting of a Fortune 500 company.

Don’t get me wrong, the discussions were heated and at one or two times, downright contentious. These are passionate people, as I mentioned. But, just like after a hard-fought game at the local park, when the boardroom battles were over we were all able to go to the bar and drink a few pints together. (Well, maybe we did not go have a few pints when I was a kid, but substitute a can of tonic and you get the idea.)

Sometimes I don’t know if organization is always the best thing for sports. The games look nicer; the fields are more evenly laid out than the makeshift patches of ground we staked out as children, when two well-placed trees often served as goalposts. The uniforms are definitely classier, since we had none. There are lots of people that play soccer now, so I guess that means things are better.

But somehow I find myself lamenting the passing of a time when all of the extraneous BS surrounding a game did not exist, and we could just walk down to the park and play.

A funny thing happened........

So EPL is not playing this weekend (EURO2012 games), England does not have a game until Tuesday, so what should I watch....

Scanning the channels had me stopping at a Spanish channel showing Futbol Mexico. It was a Premier Division game. A couple of minutes was spent checking out the TV settings, is the ball really pink ?? Yes it is and hopefully in support of one of my favorite charities.

Referee awards a direct free kick to the attacking team about 10 yards out from the Penalty Area, ideal ceremonial free kick conditions. Traditonal kicker/defender/referee exchange of pleasantaries occurs at the ball. It becomes apparent that the kicker has asked for 10 yards. From his pocket, the referee takes out a spray can, sprays a short white line on the grass in front of the ball, paces 10 yards and then sprays another white line on the grass. The defensive wall lines up on the second white line and the kick is taken.
Research so far has not revealed that this is anything more than an experiment in Mexico.

Later, I watched highlights of SJ v DC. Other than the goals, the highlight(lowlight) for me fell in the realm of 'what will commentators say next'. An altercation between 2 players lead to both being sent off, with the apoplectic commentator telling his audience how bad the officials are because 'it is not allowed to show 2 red cards at the same time' HUH!!!!

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.