OT WWC Soccer... Our Punishment...

[CTyankee]

The punishment has started...

FIFA is notorious for subtly punishing a country which has offended them.

The USA has only one referee and no assistants assigned to work this event. This is not necessarily unusual to have only one referee assigned and no assistants but if you have seen the dreadful refereeing from the 3d world countries referees over the last 2 days, you see how FIFA can manipulate assignments to curry favors, especially in future voting... There are some officials who obviously should not be there...

Our USA official, Margaret Domka, has drawn as her first assignment, the Cote d'Ivoire vs Thailand game on Thursday... I don't know a lot about Ms Domka but here in the USA we have a significant amount of women's soccer at the college level and the professional level... Certainly Ms Domka has a resume to do a game at a higher level than these two teams... They are probably the worst two teams in the tournament. Of course it is possible that this assignment has been made because these two teams are so bad that they need someone with a great amount of experience to do this match...

We will see how she performs on the field. I hope there are enough challenging situations so her evaluation moves her on as second round and additional assignments are done based on merit. Of course if the USA moves into the final rounds she will not work. Referees for the final matches are normally selected from confederations and countries not involved at that point.

We have a long history of refereeing big assignments on the women's side including opening day matches as well as some of the big games... I wish her the best.

Unfortunately the USA has had t0 take on the role of the cop cleaning up FIFA... Our punishment has started...

 

[stamfordhusky]

There could definitely be some anti-American bias, but it doesn't have anything to do with recent events. FIFA selected all of the referees and AR's in late March. A lot of it has to do with political connections and incompetency within CONCACAF, who chose all of the referees for this region. In total, there are six CONCACAF refs - two from Mexico, two from Canada, one from Honduras, and one from the U.S.

Agree that there are more competent female refs in the U.S. than in other countries. Unfortunately there are very very few in almost all of these nations - and the incompetency of many World Cup refs has to be very frustrating to the players. The Uruguayan ref who did the U.S. game last night was clearly in way over her head and had no business doing a game of this magnitude. I doubt she has ever done a high-level game before.

 

[CTyankee]

There could definitely be some anti-American bias, but it doesn't have anything to do with recent events. FIFA selected all of the referees and AR's in late March. A lot of it has to do with political connections and incompetency within CONCACAF, who chose all of the referees for this region. In total, there are six CONCACAF refs - two from Mexico, two from Canada, one from Honduras, and one from the U.S.

Agree that there are more competent female refs in the U.S. than in other countries. Unfortunately there are very very few in almost all of these nations - and the incompetency of many World Cup refs has to be very frustrating to the players. The Uruguayan ref who did the U.S. game last night was clearly in way over her head and had no business doing a game of this magnitude. I doubt she has ever done a high-level game before.

Although I for one doubt that the other CONCACAF referees selected have the resumes as other US referees not selected, you are correct that the selection of the referees was done before the FIFA story broke. However the initial match assignments are done at the start of the tournament which was after the story broke... It's the manipulation of assignments to which I am referring. It's a whole other thing to consider how the confederations consider who is selected for consideration for a World Cup final by FIFA.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Here are some possible reasons posited by a knowledgeable referee on Big Soccer as to why no U.S. AR's were selected for this Cup:


1. . First, Sonia left FIFA last year (and now works for CONCACAF instead) for personal reasons. That means that the new head of women officials for FIFA is new in the job and is (probably) not familiar with all of the women who might have been selected.

2. Second, there was an AR clinic in Qatar back in October. Less than a month's notice for a week long event. It appears that anyone who did not attend was not selected, no matter the reason for their absence. The two Americans from 2011's World Cup were not able to attend due to work commitments.

3. Third, one of those AR's is currently dealing with a health issue and can not do the physical fitness test at the present time. FIFA is using trios for this World Cup (as they have for a while on the men's side). That means that if one of the three fails the physical, the whole crew goes home. I don't think anyone wants to put the rest of their crew in that position.

 

[Bonpland]

Mexico paid the price for poor officiating today. The Fox broadcast crew unanimously thought that last play resulted in a goal for Mexico.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Yes, Mexico paid the price. There were also a number of other bad/bizarre calls by the same ref earlier. I wouldn't have wanted to see her reffing one of my kid's U12 games.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I believe it was ESPN talking head Colin Cowherd - you know, the guy who rides a high horse like none other - who opined that the US indictments were proof that soccer had become big time= big business in the US and since the US was shut out of hosting for Russia and Qatar it was $$$ that propelled the investigation and action. Feeding this is the fact that Bill Clinton was a front man for one of the US bid cities and their corporate supporter. Bill to Hillary to O'Bama's DOJ .

 

[meyers7]

I believe it was ESPN talking head Colin Cowherd - you know, the guy who rides a high horse like none other - who opined that the US indictments were proof that soccer had become big time= big business in the US and since the US was shut out of hosting for Russia and Qatar it was $$$ that propelled the investigation and action. Feeding this is the fact that Bill Clinton was a front man for one of the US bid cities and their corporate supporter. Bill to Hillary to O'Bama's DOJ .

I love Cowherd. Probably my favorite "talking head" (besides the actual Talking Heads). Can't get him on the radio anymore though, the local station has gone with CBS, so we get Rome.

I might be inclined to agree with some of what he said, soccer becoming a big business in the states. Probably more on the sponsor side. Coke, Budweiser, VISA, Nike, all put a lot of money into the sport. (heck, Chevrolet now sponsors ManU). But, Obama and the Clinton's pretty much hate each other. I doubt Obama's DOJ is gonna do anything for Bill or Hillary.

 

[CTyankee]

We have yet to see how all of this will play out... The indictments, the extraditions, the prosecutions, the repercussions...

In the mean time a lone US referee, selected for her most important assignments of her career, selected by US Soccer and sent forward by CONCAFAF to FIFA for the Women's World Cup, gets assigned not to a major game but a game of the number 29 team ranked in the world and the number 67 team. Unlucky? I doubt it. Assignments are not by chance. Retribution, I call it.

Imagine that you are qualified and are selected to referee on such a stage, in soccer or any other sport, with a strong program of games officiated and in a country with a very high level of play where you were a very highly ranked official, so high that you were selected to officiate on the highest of the international stages... Thrilling I am sure...

I hope that Ms Domka overcomes this slight... I hope she has a fantastic game. I hope the honors the country she represents with a superb game and goes on to get subsequent games. Nevertheless, regardless of her performances in the preliminaries and possibly in the 2nd round, she will be probably be sent home if the USA makes in into the final rounds...

Her reward in the end... the knowledge that she did her fellow US referees proud... I hope as I have been one of them in my past. I can only hope that FIFA can be reformed to prevent the abuses seen lately as well as the abuses unseen; pay witness to the referees.

 

[meyers7]

In the mean time a lone US referee, selected for her most important assignments of her career, selected by US Soccer and sent forward by CONCAFAF to FIFA for the Women's World Cup, gets assigned not to a major game but a game of the number 29 team ranked in the world and the number 67 team. Unlucky? I doubt it. Assignments are not by chance. Retribution, I call it.

Looked into this a bit. Not sure I agree with your assessment. A couple things to consider. First it looks like the referee's are being housed in 2 separate locations. East and west. Basically opposite where their country is playing (if that's pertinent). And it looks like they are being assigned East or West games. (looks like up to this point anyway). So any ref is going to get only certain games.

2nd, the Thailand-Ivory Coast game is basically a knock out game. With 4 teams (3rd place) making the knock out stages, the loser here is out and the winner has a chance at one of the 3rd place slots. A very early knock out game really. So a pretty important game, though the teams themselves are not the highest quality.

3rd, they normally don't allow a ref to do the same team twice in a tourney. Seeing how neither of these teams are going anywhere (even if one of them does get a 3rd place slot), this will leave Domka more available for a higher level, quarter, semi. (Assuming USA plays well and makes it to the final, she only has a shot at 1 semi anyway and no shot at the final.)

So you may be right, it may not be chance, but rather an award.

 

[CTyankee]

I haven't had a chance to see what the other assignments were for assistant referees, especially from the lesser countries, but the ARs assigned to Domke were atrocious (unfortunately for Ms Domke)... And her game control was not her best tonight.

The trouble with games with lesser skilled players is that there is so much bad play that a referee has to make very quick decisions on what to call and what not to call (for the protection of the players and the entertainment of the fans)... A number of fouls in my opinion warranted cautions which Ms Domke did not give as well as a number of situations in which fouls should have been called but were not... Ms Domke's first yellow card came very late in the game. It should have come much earlier in an effort to change the players behavior. Not a very pretty match.

Round one to FIFA. I hope she gets a second assignment and does much better.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Looked into this a bit. Not sure I agree with your assessment. A couple things to consider. First it looks like the referee's are being housed in 2 separate locations. East and west. Basically opposite where their country is playing (if that's pertinent). And it looks like they are being assigned East or West games. (looks like up to this point anyway). So any ref is going to get only certain games.

2nd, the Thailand-Ivory Coast game is basically a knock out game. With 4 teams (3rd place) making the knock out stages, the loser here is out and the winner has a chance at one of the 3rd place slots. A very early knock out game really. So a pretty important game, though the teams themselves are not the highest quality.

3rd, they normally don't allow a ref to do the same team twice in a tourney. Seeing how neither of these teams are going anywhere (even if one of them does get a 3rd place slot), this will leave Domka more available for a higher level, quarter, semi. (Assuming USA plays well and makes it to the final, she only has a shot at 1 semi anyway and no shot at the final.)

So you may be right, it may not be chance, but rather an award.

Good points. Also relative to #1, as you know the games where a ref can be assigned are not only limited by this regional segmentation but also by two other issues: (a) A referee usually won't be assigned to a game involving one team from her own federation. Thus the American ref won't be assigned to games involving the U.S., Canada or Mexico. and (b) Usually they don't assign a referee who speaks the same language as one team but not the other. So the American is unlikely to be reffing games involving Australia, England, and New Zealand (plus Canada and the U.S.) Putting all of this together - plus the implications of #3 - and there are limited games that a ref can draw.

Unfortunately Domka's team had a horrible game tonight in the Ivory Coast-Thailand game. It was partly Domka but more so her AR's, who blew a couple of key offside calls. Since FIFA usually has the reffing teams joined at the hip, Domka's assignments may be limited going forward.

 

[stamfordhusky]

One correction on the above. Based on a quick look at a replay, it appears that the announcers are wrong about one of the "missed" offside calls. It appears that the ball was closer to the goal line than the attacker when it was crossed - which means there can be no offside. In any event, their analysis was completely wrong since they didn't even address the key issue.

 

[UcMiami]

I do not see a conspiracy here at all - a lot of incompetence in terms of the reffing and especially in terms of calling of off sides so far in the matches I have watched, but the timing is completely wrong to have anything to do with the indictments.

As for the reason for the indictments ... it started as an IRS investigation into a high rolling man living in the US and failing to file taxes for 15 years - he owns something like $10M in NYC apartments and was spending lavishly but it still took the IRS years to catch up with him. When they did and started seriously examining his finances all sorts of red flags were set off and he was looking at serious jail time and started to sing. The IRS got both the FBI and the NY AG involved and with the millions of dollars of illegal transactions going on, the whole case got a lot bigger. I doubt the Clintons or Obama had anything to do with initiating this or likely were even aware of the investigation until quite recently and it would probably have remain in the control of the NY AG except that she has moved on to Washington and brought the case with her.
I think Cowherd is completely wrong in regard to this as the popularity and monetary importance of soccer in the US has nothing to do with the initiation of the case, nor its reaching its current state. Soccer is big business in the US in terms of equipment and apparel but has yet to gain much support for the pro league or international soccer - the commercialization of it does not lend itself to the US model - a running clock and no stoppages except at halftime doesn't sell enough advertising time for the big sponsorship money.