In case you missed my initial entry in this blog, I am a very proud soccer Dad. As such I tend to get caught up in my son's games and sometimes take great exception to officials rulings or lack thereof on the field especially when my son's team is not being treated fairly.
The governing body of youth soccer in North Carolina is the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association. Understandably the NCYSA preaches fairness and making the experience enjoyable for all the youth soccer players in the state to cultivate the love of the sport of soccer. Ironically, it is the NCYSA that continually creates situations, ignores participants parents and employs inept officials to work their sanctioned games which flies in the face of fairness and developing a love of the game. There have been two obvious examples of this that I have encountered personally in the last week.
The first is was a game official that due to his gross ineptitude, not only allowed a soccer match to degenerate into a fist fight, but by his ignorance of the rules of soccer and failure to apply and enforce rules properly led to the aforementioned fight.
In soccer there are seven offenses that are suppose to result in an automatic Red Card and disqualification from the match. These include the excessive use of force or brutality against an opponent when challenging for the ball. Violent conduct is also a red card offense. Red cards are also awarded for fouling a player and denying them a clear goal-scoring opportunity, or the deliberate use of the hand to prevent a goal-scoring opportunity. Also if a player receives two yellow cards during a soccer game, an automatic red card is given.
In this case a player on my son's team was heading to the goal on a clear scoring opportunity when a defender from the opposing team grabbed the attacking player and dragged him to the ground. This was an obvious foul which was called by the referee who awarded my son's team a penalty kick. However, the referee failed to issue the red card as called for in the rules of soccer and allowed the defender to stay in the match. My son's teammate converted the PK and gave his team a 2-1 lead. Less than two minutes later on another breakaway scoring opportunity for my son's team, the same defender made a blatant attempt to trip the attacker and pushed him as he got by and went on to score. AS everyone was heading back up the field after the goal the defender and attacker exchanged words and the altercation resulted in a melee in which one of my son's teammates was hit in the face by an opposing player who was picked up and thrown by one of the parents from the other team. The player who got hit in the face ended up getting a red card because he came in to defend his teammate but far worse he suffered a serious concussion.
And all this because the referee failed to do his job on several different fronts...Not the least of which was to send the player off when he committed the first foul which by rule should have resulted in the disqualification of the offending player at that time. Secondly he was oblivious to the situation following the goal which led to the fight and finally he blatantly ignored the assistant referee who had a ring-side seat as he tried to give the referee an accurate and unbiased account of what had transpired. There is absolutely no excuse for the ignorance and ineptitude of this official. Furthermore he submitted a game report to the NCYSA which was a complete work of fiction, no doubt to cover his own negligent ignorance of the rules...
So I would ask how is it that the NCYSA wants to foster an environment of fair play and love of the game when the officials assigned to the matches either don't know the rules of soccer or blatantly ignore the rule book...
The second example is a result of NCYSA's policy of promotion and relegation of teams based on their performance from one season to another. For those of you who are not familiar with this practice it is ultimately an attempt to keep the different divisions equitable as far as competition is concerned. There are 4 boys divisions in the NCYSA Spring season, Region 3 Premier, Premier, Classic A (First Division) and Classic B (Second Division). Unfortunately the relegation part of the equation can be very counter productive and create a less than favorable situation in a division. This is especially true when a team gets relegated (demoted) from Premier to the Classic A or First Division. It is a bigger problem when the team that gets relegated (demoted) is not deserving of the demotion. For instance when a team plays 11 matches and has 2 wins, 7 losses and 2 ties in the Premier division plays competitively but gets demoted because they finish in the bottom two in the division.
So this team gets relegated to the Classic A (first division) and then proceeds to dominate teams to the tune of 17-0 in 4 matches. The team clearly doesn't belong in the Classic A division. They belong in the Premier division. But for the teams that are fighting and clawing for every win in the Classic A division they have to be subjected to the drubbings by this team that doesn't belong it their division. To make things worse this team I saw yesterday has no since of sportsmanship or decency. Yesterday with their match clearly in hand at 4-0 they continue to attack. And even with the score at 6-0 in the final minutes of the match they continue to score on a goal, a diving header off a cross, that if the match had been close or in doubt would have been spectacular. Instead it was an unnecessary display of poor sportsmanship in a rout...
This match was of absolutely no benefit to anyone involved. Except maybe the parents of the demoted premier team who seemed to revel in their sons' lack of sportsmanship and decorum and displayed no sportsmanship themselves...
Bottom line is if the NCYSA is so hellbent on making sure that no one complain and doing all this in the name of good sportsmanship they should quit protecting their officials and get off their collective asses and find some officials that at least know the rule book and have the spine to call a match by the rule book and take control of matches. Then they should examine the relegations and promotions a little more closely and not create these incredibly obvious mismatch situations. Then they might find that all they don't have to threaten and "clamp down" at all...and everyone will enjoy their soccer a bit more...
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