Instructor's Corner
Wally Fallman	April 2007

Have you ever been at a sporting event and all of a sudden, something went wrong and the crowd began to get hostile because the home team “was robbed”? The emotions of the happening rolls across the audience and culminates, at times, in behavior that is not tolerated outside the venue.

How often as referees do we “listen” to the crowd before we make a decision? Even at the youth level of soccer, the crowd has an impact on the performance of the referee. You can try to deny that, but the facts are real. The sidelines are only temporary and we have to deal with real situations on a match by match basis. Every match provides us with a challenge sometime during play. We must be ready for that challenge and deal with it appropriately. After the match, we sit at a nice cool spot, filling out the match report, as irate parents (and players) pass by. We have to get the losing team to sign the match report after they have disagreed with our decisions. And how do we handle this pressure? So far, I am proud to say, that we handle it with professionalism, coolness and with a focus.

We need to continue this practice in spite of the changing environment around us. We need to be convinced of our calls, even when questioned by players and coaches. We need to be professional in our dealings with players and coaches as we would have them respond to us as referees. We need to learn, however, from our mistakes as we progress up the ranks of referees and be willing to listen to constructive criticism from our more experienced referees.

Growth as a referee demands that we strive for perfection. After all, the expectation of the referee is that at the outset of a match, he is perfect……………………. And improves thereafter.

Enjoy the learning process, get upgraded and I’ll see you on the pitch.