REFS NEED LOVE TOO
An honest perspective from the 3rd team on the pitch... the referees. Through humor, analysis and education, we are slowly changing how people view referees and officials in all sports. We care and have a love for the game as much as any player or coach. Sometimes even more. Youth soccer (proper football) is a multi-billion $ industry in the US. Tremendous money is spent on players, competitions, travel etc., but almost nothing spent on developing the next generation of referees. I hope that this Podcast inspires, educates and humanizes the next generation of referees for their own development and appreciation from the players, coaches and spectators they need to work alongside.
REFS NEED LOVE TOO
Protecting Refs: Safety vs. Traditional Uniform Standards
The soccer referee uniform has become an unexpected battleground where tradition, practicality, and safety collide. Drawing from over 11 years and 1,300 matches of experience, I share my frustration with the often unreasonable uniform standards imposed on grassroots referees that sometimes compromise their health and wellbeing.
Despite US Soccer officially approving hats as part of the referee uniform, many senior officials still pressure referees to forego this essential sun protection. This isn't just about appearance—it's a serious health concern. Many long-time referees have developed skin cancers and eye conditions from prolonged sun exposure. When you're working multiple matches in scorching summer tournaments, a black baseball cap isn't just sensible; it's necessary protection against potentially life-threatening conditions.
The uniform monopoly in American soccer creates another significant barrier. Unlike other countries where referees can wear any black shirt with their federation badge, American referees must purchase expensive Official Sports International gear—over $50 per jersey across five different colors. This financial burden becomes especially prohibitive for new officials just entering the profession.
What truly matters for the 98% of us working grassroots matches? A clean, tucked-in USSF Style Jersey, proper black shorts, socks and appropriate footwear create a professional appearance without obsessing over minor details. Yes, regional and national referees pursuing promotion should adhere to stricter standards, but for everyone else, reasonable accommodations for weather and comfort should be prioritized.
We lose 80% of new referees within three years due to abuse and inadequate support—not because they wore a hat to protect themselves from the sun. If we want to develop and retain quality officials, we need to focus on skills like positioning, communication, and game management rather than nitpicking uniform details that have little impact on match quality.
Does your approach to referee development focus on what truly matters? Join the conversation about finding the right balance between professional appearance and practical concerns in the beautiful game.
Hello and welcome to the Refs Need Love 2 podcast, a show that gives you a real, raw and behind-the-scenes view of one of the hardest jobs on the pitch the referee. I'm your host, david Gerson, a grassroots referee and certified mentor with over 11 years of experience and over 1,300 matches under my belt. You can find me at refsneedlovetocom, on Instagram, tiktok and now YouTube. This week, we're going to be talking about referee uniforms. I'm a bit bitter. I got some negative comments on a video I recently posted about my uniform and I want to have a longer discussion about it. At the end, we're going to dive into some letters from the mailbag as well. All right, first, let's give some thanks to a few of our sponsors. Okay, I'm Piro, my gosh. If you have not picked up your Piro pros yet, what are you waiting for? Again, as I mentioned, I'm a big supporter of small business and, specifically, people who are creating products for referees that are outstanding. Okay, it's important for us. We need people who are thinking about us and making our lives easier. Leland invested over 50 grand of his money over six, seven years developing the perfect shoe for referees, knowing what we do on grass, on turf, sometimes running a line, sometimes in the center long days, need them light, need them flexible, need them to look good like a proper referee should. Okay, and that's what he did. Check out the Ampiro Pro. Don't get the original version. The second generation is much better than the first. A lot more flexibility, trust me. They'll be more comfortable and they're available in wides. Now Just advice from me to you. I have a very wide foot. I normally wear a 10-2E or a 9.5-4E. I went with a 10.5, okay in the wide and it fit perfectly. Check them out. Use my code love2, all one word. It saves you 10% off. It gets it down to 106 bucks. And if you're like, wait, 106 bucks, it's expensive, man for good shoes, that is cheap. My Hoka's cost $169. It's 40% less than my running shoes. I think it is a steal. Check them out.
Speaker 1:A referee sports. I've talked about it many times. It is just so frustrating. We still have assigners out there. We're still using spreadsheets, emails, hope and a prayer to try and get someone to cover matches. I want to know where do I need to be, what time do I need to be there? What are the rules of competition? How much am I getting paid? When there's assignments, I can quickly look out and accept and not have to wonder Am I getting assigned? I gave them my availability, am I going to get a game? It's instantaneous, I love it. So check it out. Refersports R-E-F-R. Now for the show.
Speaker 1:Okay, I am sick and tired of senior referees picking on other referees for very minor little stuff as it comes to uniforms. Okay, it often comes from regional or national referees or referee coaches and national referee coaches. Yes, should we look professional in the pitch? Absolutely, absolutely. Does having a proper looking uniform make a huge difference? Absolutely, how you show up and what you look like makes a massive impact in first impressions and credibility. A hundred percent, I am with that. But I am seeing way too much of quote unquote senior old school referees picking on other referees for trivial uniform appearance issues. Okay, for 98% of us who are grassroots referees out there, and it's just not necessarily relevant. And I'm going to be specific about what I'm talking about. Yes, should you have a proper uniform? Certainly. Should you look right coming to the pitch? Absolutely. But there's some things that, honestly, we need to have some common sense about. Let's start going top down. Okay, this is specifically from, again, long-term old school referees that are saying this Number one on your head. If you're trying to go regional or national or pro, you're going to get feedback. Don't wear a hat Straight up, even though it is approved for use, and US soccer even put out a directive a few years ago saying a hat is totally acceptable part of the referee uniform. That's right. Goalkeepers can wear baseball style hats. As long as they're a soft material and no danger to someone else, they can wear them. Referees can wear them and should be wearing them.
Speaker 1:If you're going to be out on a sunny day for a significant amount of time, if it's pouring rain and you need to keep the rain off of your glasses or out of your eyes, it's a good idea to have. If you're an assistant referee and you're staring into the sun because your sideline is looking west in a setting sun or it's looking east in a rising sun and whatnot and you can't see otherwise, you have to keep your hand over your eyes to be able to keep the sun out of it. That is silly. We would never tell someone hey, go outside and go stare into the sun for a couple hours. That's not a good idea. You damage people's eyes.
Speaker 1:I've gotten so many messages from people who have developed early onset glaucoma because of sun reflecting off the turf and being out on the turf for so many years as referees and getting sun straight in their face and not wearing a hat. It is ridiculous, ridiculous. Yes, I agree, if you are at regionals or you're trying to work your way up and you're getting assessed and you want to look clean and crisp like a professional, okay, you got one game. Don't wear a hat. Don't wear a hat. It does look better. I got it. I understand that. But if you're like most referees okay, the 98% of us who are grassroots referees and do two, three, four, seven matches in a day in a tournament, okay, in May, in August or over the summertime, where it's crazy hot, wear a freaking hat.
Speaker 1:Man, my father has had a couple different melanomas removed from his face. Okay, and my dad was not a referee. Let me tell you he was a marathon runner. Okay, that's pretty bad, but he was like that in his early days. He didn't run after his fifties, but in his sixties and seventies it caught up with him.
Speaker 1:Okay, I am a man of 50 years old. Okay, I spend every single weekend of my life, if I can, out on a pitch and I need to make sure that I'm protecting myself so that I can be around for my kids and my grandkids and, if I'm so blessed, my great grandkids. That would be amazing. Okay, yes, do I wear sunscreen? Yeah, I do, but there's a point that too much exposure to the sun is dangerous. Okay, many of my fellow referees, okay, it's this thing of age. They're balding, okay, or they're bald by choice. Bald is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with being bald by choice, okay. Okay, they can't put enough sunscreen on their head to protect them. Okay, they need to wear a hat or they will be burned up. Okay, it's a thing. It is approved equipment.
Speaker 1:Stop bitching at referees for wearing a hat. It is a safety issue. Keep the sun off your face and out of your eyes. If you're working more than one game, okay. The downside to not doing it is so much greater than the little bit of appearance benefit of not wearing a hat.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're talking sunburn. We're talking about heat stroke. We're talking about skin cancer. We're talking about damage to your eyes, okay, potentially going blind at way too early of an age. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:We talk all about referee abuse policy and keeping referees safe. How about keeping them healthy? That would be nice. How about not getting cancer? That would be nice, okay. So stop complaining about it. It is helpful. Yes again for regional national, complaining about it? It is helpful. Yes, again for regional national, I get it. At state cup, you're doing one match, got it. Regional, I got it. But for everyone else, take care of yourself, for you and for your loved ones. We want you to be safe on the pitch and, by the way, it's good for the players, okay, and for the spectators and the coaches for you to be protected on the pitch. If you get worn down and you're getting burnt up and let me tell you, it affects you not only physically in your physical performance, but it will also affect you mentally. It's a thing. Protect yourself from the sun.
Speaker 1:Lacrosse referees wear hats. American football referees wear hats, okay. Umpires baseball they wear hats, okay. Listen, I think a lot of this stems from the fact that football soccer originated in England. Okay, they play from August to May, they don't play over the summertime. And how many sunny days do they get a year? How many times are they in 95 degree heat? Okay, think about, like, the latitude of where England is, or Sweden, or Germany, and where I am, in Georgia, okay, or Texas, or Florida, or Southern California or Arizona. The sun is so much stronger down here, okay, it's not a joke.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people they think, oh, the game originated from there. That's why there's probably no hats, or why hats are frowned upon. We need them here. Okay, protect yourself, protect yourself, and if you've got beef with a hat, bring it. Man, I'd love to chat with you about that, because I can tell you again, us soccer says, yeah, hats are good, okay. So where are you coming from? Like, why are you going to say no, it's not okay, it is okay, okay. Again, if you want to move up to regional, national and you're being assessed, or it's a high visibility game, okay, don't wear your hat. Fine, I get it. One match, everyone else, take care of yourself. Safety should be number one priority. Okay.
Speaker 1:Now on a hat okay, it's got to be a black hat. Okay, majority black. No club logos on it or team logos or something like that US soccer logo. Get it on the OSI website, but has the US soccer crest on it, perfect, wear that, otherwise all black. Okay, they sell them on Amazon. Get it it, Perfect. Wear that, otherwise all black. Okay, they sell them on Amazon. Get it. Okay. It's very easy to do, it's inexpensive. It is not a cheap item to get.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know people have told me hey, I really want to keep the sun off of my entire face and neck and stuff. And I have people tell me they wear like a wide bill black hat. I don't know what to say about that. It's not approved in the laws of the game for anyone to wear a hat like that. Again, a soft build, a baseball style cap is legal equipment for goalkeepers to wear. Therefore, I'm saying, hey, it's good for referees. Any other type of hat. I don't really have any justification. Same thing with sunglasses. I think sunglasses could probably be really helpful for us out there. But the only thing that are approving the laws of the game are prescription sunglasses or prescription glasses, prescription spectacles, if you will, rec specs.
Speaker 1:Again, just be safe, take care of yourself. If you're again in Arizona where you got crazy strong sun, keep that sun out of your eyes, man, I'd much rather you be safe than conform to some silly little ideal or something like that. So safety is the number one priority. That's what's up, okay. Next thing, going on down. Going on down. Okay, in extreme cold situations, and this is very important. Okay, hats If you don't have a baseball style cap, you could also wear a soft wool hat.
Speaker 1:Okay, a knit skull cap or something like that. And I've seen people wear thin skull caps as well. I think that's the word for it. I don't know what the word is for those really warm ones, but it's a thin material. Okay, most of your heat loss is in cold weather. There's nothing against the laws of the game for you wearing a wool winter hat Again, all black. Or skull cap, all black. No team or club logos on it Okay, as long as it's soft material, it's perfectly acceptable, perfectly acceptable.
Speaker 1:Jersey Everyone should be wearing a USSF style jersey. Okay, it's got the two stripes down on the side of your midsection, okay, that's the style. Okay, there are five approved colors, main colors that you can be wearing again the yellow, the green, the blue, the red, the black Okay, I personally don't care if it's official sports branded or not. If you are not going for promotion, okay. Yes, if you're going for promotion to regional or to national or something like that, you got to wear OSI. It just is what it is. They expect you to all have exactly the same uniform. It is the expectation. You've got to have it. Are you going to be sent home from a tournament for not having OSI? No, you're not, but it is the expectation. I get it for those people. Again, we're talking about the 2% of referees looking to make that jump For everyone else. Man, I just want you wearing a USSF style jersey, tucked in. That's what I want, not dirty clean tucked in.
Speaker 1:I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we have only one official jersey seller in the United States. We are the only country in the world who forces a monopoly upon our referee community to buy through a single vendor. In almost every single country, they specify what color you must wear and then they send you a badge and you iron that badge onto whatever brand of jersey you want to wear for grassroots football. That's right. So in England you just need a black shirt, yep. And now they've got referee shirts that you can go out and buy, that have pockets on them and whatnot and make it easy to put the badge on the shirt. But they don't specify that you got to buy through one specific brand and instead of spending 50 bucks on one short sleeve Jersey, they're spending like 12 pounds. Okay, 15 pounds for a shirt and that's it. And you only need one color. My gosh, we are absolutely being raked over the coals to have to buy it through one vendor to conform, and then you know the five different colors. It is ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Now MLS. Next, again, it is in their rules of competition. They want the referees wearing the OSI jerseys. Okay, you got to conform. Again, if you want to work at the highest levels of the youth academy game or you want to start doing those UPSL matches that are going to be televised, yes, wear OSI. Everyone else, everyone else, just get the jerseys from jersey manufacturer of your choice. Wear your jersey tucked in when you come to the field, and that would be wonderful. Have your badge on shirt tucked in. That is good for me, for everyone else. Love it.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk about what else we got to talk about here in terms of Jersey. And again, I know everyone's like oh, why would you tell people not to get the OSI? Listen, it's because I don't want to make too high of a bar for referees to have the jerseys or all five jerseys. Again, I think it's ridiculous that we have five jerseys. I think it's ridiculous that we make everyone buy through or try and insinuate that they buy through one manufacturer, okay, and then that one manufacturer sells those jerseys for over $50 plus shipping for one short sleeve jersey. That is ridiculous. I just I don't know. I can't get over that. It's insane. The other thing about jerseys as well is I've heard some people say if one referee is going to wear the long sleeves, then everyone should be wearing the long sleeves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I own one long sleeve jersey. It's my yellow. We referee high school in the cold spring season, in the wintertime, and so I often have a need for the yellow, other long sleeves. I'm in Georgia. We have nice weather most of the year. It is rare that I need to have a long sleeve jersey. That is that cold out there really rare. So I'm not gonna spend the money for all five colors in long sleeve. I'm just not.
Speaker 1:I wear my black jersey, honestly, maybe one or two times a year. The short sleeve, maybe three at the most. My red jersey, again, I don't know five times a year. I'm usually wearing blue, green, yellow. Those are what the colors are that just work in my area. Why do I need to invest another $300 in those jerseys when US soccer doesn't even tell us when they're going to be changing those jerseys out. I have no idea. I just don't want it.
Speaker 1:Yes, would it be nice if everyone's wearing long sleeve? It would be nice. But again, do I think that parents and coaches care at the grassroots level? No, I don't. I don't at all, I don't. I think it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk another thing about jerseys and the long sleeve. Okay, I don't have a problem for grassroots matches, for referees to wear a black under armor in frigid, cold temperatures. I don't, and I can't even tell you how many times I've posted pictures of young referees out there who are it's cold outside, maybe it's like freezing cold temperature and they're out there refereeing and they've got their black wool hat on, but they also have a black under armor underneath their short sleeve Jersey and people are like typing comments oh, that looks unprofessional, that's ridiculous. They need to invest in getting a long sleeve. Just stop it, man. No one cares. No one cares at all. Man, the players are all wearing that as well. Okay, the parents and spectators are all bundled up with jackets and blankets and everything.
Speaker 1:Listen, if a referee is wearing a long sleeve, black under armor underneath their Jersey and everything else looks good. Man, I'm good with that, I'm fine, we get it. Man, it's freezing. Give it up my gosh. It gets me so upset about something like that.
Speaker 1:Again, yes, for that referee who's looking to make that leap and they're focused on going regional and they want to get promoted, okay, make the investment. Make the investment. There are going to be games where you need to have that long sleeve and make it look like everyone else. Go ahead and make the investment for everyone else. Just make sure that it's black. It's not like a contrasting color. But if you're wearing yellow, don't have white sleeves underneath black generally for referees, underneath all. Good, just go for it. And again, you want to complain to me about it? Fine, complain to me about it, but I think it is a minimal thing that we could allow referees to do, especially at the grassroots level, to be comfortable out there and still look decently professional to be able to do their job, okay. So this is what I'm going to say about that. If it's cold outside, wear your black under armor underneath a short sleeve Jersey. It's fine by me, totally fine by me. Okay, gloves Players can wear gloves.
Speaker 1:Referees can wear gloves, just make sure that they're black. I have a pair of really thin, weatherproof gloves that are fantastic. There's nothing worse than having cold hands on a chilly and rainy night on the pitch. The gloves I use even have the ability and able to still use my app on my watch. That's right. I can still use rough six because it's got like the ability to have like electrical contact through my fingers, which is fantastic. I highly recommend them. In cold weather, they are a lifesaver. Now this is going to be a controversial one Jewelry Okay, referees are allowed to wear watches or other wristwear to keep time in the match.
Speaker 1:We can also have, again, buzzer flags. You're allowed to wear things on your upper arm. You're allowed communication devices not in USSF matches. Of course, you can't have comms Not allowed to have that these days but again, we're not allowed to wear jewelry. Really important.
Speaker 1:Now, for me, this also includes necklaces and earrings. If we are telling players to take necklaces and earrings and bracelets off, it should be the same thing for referees. It just honestly is. I just don't think it looks professional and I think it really does hurt our credibility when we tell people not to take necklaces and earrings out. Okay, I see it all the time with referees who come onto the pitch or there and it's like, oh gosh, come on, really, please take them off. I really do. I think it really hurts our credibility. If we're asking players to take it off, you need to take it off as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, laws of the game approve sports spectacles. I know a number of referees who wear regular glasses. I would never send a child off the pitch in a grassroots match for wearing glasses that didn't want to spend, or doesn't have the money to spend, 400 or $500 for rec specs. Okay. Same thing for referees. I'm never going to give someone grief for wearing regular glasses on the pitch if they haven't spent the money for Rexbeck. Obviously you need to wear glasses.
Speaker 1:One thing that is an issue for me and I'll be open about this one, and something that I've struggled with, is and wedding band. I know players are not supposed to wear any jewelry, especially with adult matches where you've got like arms going, flying and stuff like that around and you want to make sure everything metal is off. Certainly anything protruding a woman was wearing, like an engagement ring with a stone on it, whatnot. You definitely want to make sure that would be off. That could cause some serious injury. For me, I never take my wedding band off and I know that it's a bit hypocritical. We're telling people to take off their jewelry.
Speaker 1:My issue, like I have a really hard time taking my wedding band off. I think I've removed my wedding band one time in the last five years and it's because I was having surgery and they want it all metal removed in case there was an emergency. Should I be taking my wedding band off before I go to the soccer pitch? Probably because I don't have a secure place to lock up my stuff when I'm at the pitch. I just put my bag down on the side of the field and I would be pretty mortified if my wedding ring went missing. I've been married to my wife for over 20 years. I'd be really upset about that. Do I think players and coaches, spectators, care about a grassroots referee having a wedding band on? No, I don't think it's a serious safety issue. But I do understand that some people may say that hey, if you're asking the players to take all jewelry off, including wedding bands, that you as a referee should be taking a wedding band off as well. So I recognize that's a bit of an issue there.
Speaker 1:Shorts, black shorts, no branding, no stripes okay is the basic that you have to have. Yes, do I think you should have the OSI shorts out there. Or again, other referee shorts, usf style that's great, but the USF style is just black shorts, that's all it is. So I have grassroots referees who are just starting out. Man, as long as they haven't got black shorts, okay, no stripes on them, no colors on them, anything like that I'm fine with that, all good, no problem for those low level, grassroots matches. They just got the Jersey, they just have black shorts on. All good for me, I'm fine. Again, I will say I think the OSI shorts are really high quality. They're fantastic. They last a long time, they don't get bleached by the sun too quickly and I don't think it's that expensive of a of an investment. You only need one color, just black. That's fantastic. So I think it's a good thing to to get quick little interjection about two of our sponsors real quick ref six and talk about equipment for the pitch for the referee.
Speaker 1:Again, I use an Apple watch on one arm and I use a regular, cheap digital watch. I got off of Amazon on the other, but on my Apple watch I always have my ref six timer on my watch. I literally feel naked if I don't have it going. I'm not kidding, if my battery dies for some reason, I didn't charge my watch the night before, or something like that. I don't have ref six going, it's. I'm a blind man walking around naked out there, can't figure out what's going on. How much time's left? Hey, how much time is left, sir? How many minutes have we played? How much stoppage time, like all that kind of stuff. I'm like, oh, let me think about that. But when I have ref six, I know everything. It even vibrates when time is elapsed. You're not constantly looking down at your watch during a critical play to know that the time has expired, which is fantastic. The data is amazing. I love seeing my heat maps and my sprints post-match match. It inspires me on the pitch. Man, if you use ref six, you want to use my code, ref C love two. It's 20% off subscriptions. That is awesome. It's crazy. Definitely check it out. What a deal.
Speaker 1:Travel ref Okay, I had to look it up myself to referee in another state when I was heading to New York city to hang with friends last year and it was crazy. It was not easy to do finding local signers. It took me four months to get a sign. I really was proactive about it. But it was an amazing experience. I got assigned Roosevelt Island fields, overlooking Manhattan. It was gorgeous. I grew so much as a referee going to another place to ref with referees. I've never met before with teams. I've never met before at fields I'd never been to before Like I feel, like I grew so much through the experience. It was wonderful and I want you to have that experience too.
Speaker 1:You can head to travelrefcom. It's a brand new website, it's no cost to you and they help you travel to different tournaments all across the country to have a ref vacation Florida, colorado, wyoming, you name it. They are have tournaments there and we'll have tournaments all year long. If you want to take a ref vacation, get paid to go travel someplace. New man, go have some fun over the summer or any other time when it's cold up North. You want to come down to Miami? Check out travelrefcom. They'll help you do it. Make sure to mention that you were referred by me. All right.
Speaker 1:Now back to the show Socks, the two striped USSF socks. It's pretty simple. Okay, it just at the minimum for a brand new grassroots referee. Okay, just get the socks. Okay, I don't care that it doesn't say official sports on the front. I think the OSI socks are pretty good quality. I like what they have. I think it's important. But go invest in some socks again, just like shorts. Okay, socks, it's only one color. My gosh, it's basic. It's the uniform. Okay, socks need to be pulled up above the calf. Low-cut black socks or even mid-calf socks are just going to look too different from the rest of the crew. It's not proper uniform. Okay, it's very inexpensive investment. We're not talking about 50 bucks like for a jersey. We're talking like 12 bucks for the proper socks. Just get the proper socks. Very important Footwear Sneakers, cleats, turf, shoes.
Speaker 1:They need to be predominantly black. That's what I love about the Ampura Pro. It's like black with the little cool U white logo. I love that. The bottom portion, the shoe just needs to be black. I just want to say that the logo itself could be red. Okay, if you've got a new balance cleat or something like that, or Adidas or Nike or something like that with a swoosh, okay, that could be some other color, but the shoe needs to be black.
Speaker 1:I've seen people show up on the pitch with white cleats. No, that's unacceptable, not okay, it's gotta be black. I don't get worked out about, worked up about like shoe color, a shoelace color. I should say like shoelaces. If your shoelaces are white, orange, okay, it's a minor detail. Just as long as they're majority black, it's good by me.
Speaker 1:Okay, they need to be running shoes or soccer cleats. I've seen people show up in american football boots that are like high tops or something like that. It's's not ideal, okay, anything that's going to stick out and be really particularly noticeable, such as like baseball or American football cleats. It's not advisable Trying to look like we're all on the same team, okay, and sometimes you show up in a different color cleat, it's just not the uniform and it's going to just stand out too much. Just try and find something that's made for running or made for soccer. That would be great. I appreciate that. Again, that's why I love Ampiro so much. It's like perfect for soccer referees. I love that Clean, well-styled and no doubt when you put them on, it looks like you should be on a soccer pitch, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, in summary, I just wish senior referees would spend more time picking people up and supporting junior referees and the 98% of us who work grassroots or volunteer soccer referee than putting people down for, like, really minor things that don't matter at the level that they're working at Okay. Again, totally appreciate that If you're looking to get promoted and move up that ladder and you're in that top 2% or you aspire to be in that top 2%, the rules are a little bit different for you. I'll just say that, and there are certain competitions where it's really critical that your appearance is absolutely top-notch and completely unified with the rest of your crew. For that, 98% of other matches, as long as you're hitting the baseline of professionalism. Shirt, tucked in USSF style okay. Black shorts the referee shorts ideal. Your USSF style socks. Black cleats okay. Man, that is a huge step forward. Love that. Would love to see you on my pitch. Would love to see you. Okay.
Speaker 1:There are so many other things I can talk to you about as a mentor. I can talk to you about positioning. I can talk to you about communication. I can talk to you about presence on the pitch. I can talk to you about foul recognition Okay. I can talk to you about dealing with dissent from coaches. All of those things would help that referee make it to year two, year three, year, four Okay. Those are important things for these new referees who are coming up in grassroots. Okay, that other stuff.
Speaker 1:If someone's given some grief for wearing a hat, man, you're not a very good referee mentor. I should say you're not a good ref mentor. Okay, If that's what you're talking to a grassroots referee, a young person or even an older person telling them not to wear a hat on the pitch Okay, man, you really need to be questioning yourself as to what you're focusing on and giving feedback to grassroots referees. Yeah, you want to give that feedback to a regional referee who's doing one game on an assessment? Fine, but for those 98% of grassroots refs, save it, keep them safe, keep them in the game, keep him coming back next year. That would be a deal. Focus on what matters. Focus on what matters. We lose 80% of referees within three years because of spectator abuse, coach abuse, player abuse, because they lack proper mentorship and training. I promise you we're not losing referees because they're wearing a black baseball cap to keep the eyes out of their face while they're refereeing a match. I promise you we're not All right, guys, we're going to jump into a mailbag and then wrap this puppy up here.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is from Kyle and this is interesting. Okay. So he says I'm new to soccer and that my daughter, who's a U16 player under 16, plays and I'm forced to watch it. Not a big fan if you can't get that already. And he says forced because I get no enjoyment out of soccer, only in watching my daughter do something she likes. I am trying to inform myself on the rules, but I have a question what do I as a parent do when the ref truly is horrible?
Speaker 1:Last weekend my daughter had game where she was forcibly shoved down from behind nowhere near the play about two minutes into the game, five feet in front of the ref who hesitates to even give a foul call and had to be convinced by the assistant referee to. He called him the line judge. Okay, for clarity there, I'm trying to like help him out in his grammar here to give a yellow card for what should have been a straight red. Okay, interesting, he wants a red card for the push from behind. He allowed a player on the other team to elbow at least four players in the head without calling foul. Ooh gosh, that doesn't sound good.
Speaker 1:Called a player on our team for tripping on a hole in the field and bumping an opposing player and was active. So the player like fell and tripped an opposing player. But it wasn't their fault, of course. Opposing player, but it wasn't their fault, of course. I'm sorry I'm adding too much commentary into this guy's email. I'll stop now, I'll just read it as it is.
Speaker 1:They called a player on our team for trapping, tripping on a hole in the field and bumping into an opposing player and was actively coaching players on the opposite team during the game. And when I loudly called him to quote care, call the game fairly. He threatened to have me removed. This is in Georgia, where you are from. What am I supposed to do? Just allow the ref to allow dangerous one-sided play. He should be removed, not me.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm going to come back to this one in a second. I've got another one here that talks about referees and how to give feedback to refs, but let's just respond to Kyle here. I'll go to the next one in a second. Okay, so for Kyle, who is a dad who cares a great deal about his daughter and has no knowledge of the game of soccer at all, okay, admittedly, he doesn't know it. He's not played it, he doesn't know the laws, he doesn't watch it, aside from watching his U16, possibly recreational level daughter playing soccer Okay, and he wants to know what he can do about this referee. My advice to Kyle and I emailed him back, and we emailed back twice on this one is that players make mistakes. Sometimes referees make mistakes, but we certainly would not yell at a player for missing a pass or a shot. There's no reason to yell at a grassroots referee as well.
Speaker 1:If your coach has a particular concern about a particular referee and it's not just a subjective call, but it's something that is egregious or a dangerous situation or something like that, they can send an email to the league and to the assigner expressing exactly what their concern is. And that was my advice to them and he said so. There's nothing that I can do and he emailed me back. There's no form that I can fill out and I said no, kyle, because oftentimes parents, believe it or not, are a little bit biased and may not have a lot of experience as a referee in the laws of the game. If your coach is really concerned, he should be the one who sends in the report, and the reason why I think it's so important for the coach to be sending in the report is that if coach is complaining every single match about the referees, obviously there's a pattern of behavior there. Maybe it's not the ref, maybe it's the coach.
Speaker 1:Listen, if some referee is refereeing at a level that maybe they're not qualified or is going through a tough time and just really having a hard time on the pitch, I don't see any issue with a coach sending an email to the assigner to express it. The assigner knows the referee too and he may blow it up and be like no, that guy's fantastic, maybe he had a bad game or whatever, but I know he's okay. Referee gets a couple different emails from a couple different coaches and they're really concerned about what might be happening out there. Hey, that assigner can reach out and maybe he doesn't need to be reffing that age group. Maybe they need to go to a lower age group, maybe they need some additional training. Maybe we need to send a mentor out to the pitch to watch his next match. I think that's perfectly acceptable. I just think parents need to trust their coaches to make those complaints, if you will, as opposed to parents yelling at a referee in a grassroots match or trying to send messages to the assigner or something like that. So that was my advice for Kyle.
Speaker 1:Again, there can be bad referees. I am certainly not oblivious to the fact that there can be a bad ref. It happens, man, it does. Generally, though, most of the complaining that I see is completely uncalled for and way overblown. So that's just my personal experience, all right. Next email here says hey David, my name is Adam and I'm a National Sea Licensed Trained Coach in Canada. So we've got a coach here. Your Insta is fantastic, keep it up. I recommend your channel to all my players. It's a great way to build knowledge about the laws of the game to complement their technical and tactical skills. I'm always respectful of our refs because I think coaches are supposed to have a model behavior for our players and staff. I'd like your opinion on a challenge I have, if you're willing to share your thoughts. Here's the context After the pandemic, the district ran into a referee supply shortage.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, that coincided with a general degradation of socially acceptable behavior that made its way to the sidelines. Understandably, it's a challenge to recruit referees in the face of verbal and physical abuse. After several years, and with better protections, we've emerged from that supply constraint and that's great news. However, it's coming to cost. While referee numbers are up. We can't say the same about quality, and that is despite many of the recruits being former refs that are coming back to the pitch To address the parent and coach sideline behaviors. Protections were put in place for referees.
Speaker 1:Coaches cannot complain about a call during the game and even if that is done respectfully and away from the ears of our players, it's a five-minute game pause and a second comment is immediate red card to the coach. Whoa, canada, how about that? Even for dangerous situations where a ref has let conduct become violent and dangerous, our options are A ignore or B pull the players off the field and concede the points. There is the potential for reporting grievous offenses such as intoxicated refs in parentheses. Yep, that happened in parentheses, but those are thankfully few and far between.
Speaker 1:I feel that the situation ignores the continuous improvement interest of most refs. If written effectively, a coach's in-game notes can be helpful in that regard. I also fear that, as a group, not enabling coaches to inquire about calls in-game and provide feedback about refs' effectiveness 24 hours post-game is damaging to all refs in the long run. It conveys an air of perfection and performance that is beyond reproach. That's not just something that seems to align with any of the refs with whom I've spoken to. That's just not something that seems to align with any of the refs I've spoken to. In your experience, what can we do to continue to enhance protecting our refs while also enabling continuous improvement of refs through objective coach reviews? Do you know of any districts or leagues that enable a coach to include ref operations as part of their game report? Happy holidays.
Speaker 1:This is from a long time ago. This is from Adam up in Canada. Okay, a lot of things to unpack here. The first thing I want to say is I think having rapport and communication during a match is definitely helpful. I mean, without a doubt, I think that's a good, good thing. Now, it took me a long time, as a referee myself, to figure out the right balance, to be able to figure out how to communicate and when to communicate with coaches and when to allow emotional outbursts just go by, and when to really know. Hey, I definitely need to have a conversation about that. It takes a long time. It takes a long time.
Speaker 1:I think what this region of Canada is doing is progressive and it can be helpful, without a doubt, but I think there is something to again, if someone has a question about a call. Understanding what's happened out there is helpful. It's actually a good thing to hey, do you mind if I understand what that call was there or what the reason was for the card there on that one or something of that nature. It is a helpful thing. It's not a bad thing all the time to be answering a question from a coach. Now listen, I know that it can be a slippery slope and if you start answering one question then you have to answer another question and people don't know where to draw the line.
Speaker 1:But I think it is really helpful to have that kind of ability to have dialogue on a few key match incidents during a match, not only for the coach to understand. Hey referee knows what's going on. They understand the laws of the game and the considerations. This is what they saw. I can't change what they saw, but at least they told me what they saw and I understand, as opposed to it just being there's no dialogue and just frustration build and people don't understand what's happened. I don't think that's a positive thing. So I like what this, this organization, has done in Canada and what they're trying to lay down, but I also think that it might be a step too far. Again, a respectful question once in a while, while maybe once or twice in a game, whatnot to understand call, I think, is a positive thing, not a negative thing. Okay now, one thing that he also said in this email was about referee assessments.
Speaker 1:Now in many other countries that after the match, the manager of the team not necessarily the coach of the team, but the manager of the team, not necessarily the coach of the team, but the manager of the team actually fills out an assessment on the referee and they grade them, scale it once down, they grade them on their match control, fitness, whatever it might be, and they send it in. It's part of the match report and it's part of it's not the whole thing, but it's part of what a referee gets assessed on. Now in England they do three additional assessments a year by proper trained mentors and coaches who come out to the field to watch. So it doesn't make up all of your marks, but they are looking for some feedback from the matches.
Speaker 1:I got to tell you like here in my high school association and listen, I love the people who run it. You know they're fantastic. I know they're outrageously over overworked and do they even get paid. I don't even know if they get paid for the work they do. We're going into high school playoffs assignments right now and no one has ever come seen me ref this year. I get no assessments and somehow they're assigning referees to these games and you get no idea. Are they actually in good shape this year? Maybe they were in good shape last year. Maybe they put on 30 pounds. Maybe they just stand in the middle of pitch. Maybe they haven't kept up to date on the laws of the game changes. Yeah, maybe they've done high school for 10 years, but does that mean that they're still a great referee? Again, I don't think that they know.
Speaker 1:They say, hey, they might hear some things here and there, but getting some feedback from coaches, I think could be helpful and I don't think it hurts. Obviously, you take it with a grain of salt. There's no doubt. If one of the coaches is like, yeah, this guy was fantastic, unbelievable, and the other coach was like, yeah, he sucked. And then you see that the person who said yeah, he sucked lost six to one, or something like that, you could understand there might be some sour grapes there, without a doubt. So yeah, taken in context as one potential source of feedback. Taken in context, as one potential source of feedback, I think coach feedback forms could be very helpful. So, yeah, I agree on that, adam, and I would love to see that implemented here in the United States as well, and in Canada. I think it could be a helpful thing. As of right now, I think, again, you just need to send a message to the assigner and the league if you're seeing something that really is a concern, and I love how much thought you've put into the email you did send to me, and I really do appreciate your support of the beautiful game and referees as well. So, thank you so much, adam.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, I'm going to wrap things up right here. Again, thank you so much for listening in for today's podcast. If you made it to the end of this, I love all of you, like, sincerely love all of you. I can't even begin to describe what this has done for my life. This channel, this thing, this community that we've created, the messages of love that I get, the amount of people who are reaching out to me coaches, parents, players, fellow referees it's so unbelievably inspiring. It fills my heart with so much joy and I just want to just say thank you Really. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, this platform, this chance to be able to connect with you and referees and people, part of the beautiful game all around the world. I love you all and I hope that your next match is Red Card Free. We'll see you next time you.