Columbus Soccer Ref

I’m currently a Grade 7, but for the last couple years I’ve elected to do my recertification during the Grade 6 makeup recert in the fall.  Because Ohio South is changing their recert procedures, I probably won’t be able to do that again.  But all the same, getting the instruction that the 6s get has […]

I was recently pointed to Robert Evans’ excellent blog “For the Integrity of Soccer” where I was reading about an incident in Dallas. While it was often referred to, the video of the incident was never linked to. After doing some digging, I was was able to find it on YouTube - FC […]

I’ve been a referee for a while now, and recently came across a situation where for the first I sent a player off after the match had ended.  It was a U14B match at the Best Of The Midwest tournament.  The match was pretty typical of a higher-level U14 boys match in terms of aggressiveness […]

I did a tournament recently and was definitely surprised at how much whining there was over throw-ins. In the matches I did, most of the complaints came from teams east of Columbus - notably from PA and Ontario, Canada. The majority of the time, their complaints were centered on how much spin was […]

One major difference between players and referees is that referees can’t go to practice. Sure we can read the LoTG and the Advice To Referees, but real improvement can only come from doing matches, making mistakes, and learning from them. Of course the spectators, coaches, and players don’t want to hear/know that a […]

Law 12 outlines the cautionable misconduct offenses as unsporting behavior, dissent, persistent infringement, delays the restart, fails to respect the required distance, enters/reenters without permission, and leaves the field without permission.  Most are pretty cut-and-dried for the most part.  Although most players and coaches I’ve worked with have bought into the myth of “he has […]

I think every referee has heard this at one time or another. Do fans, coaches, or players who try to claim bias on the part of referee ever have a clue about the official they’re directing this at? Do they really believe what they’re saying?
In my case, I think it borders on ridiculous. […]

I’m curious to hear from people about their strangest, craziest, scariest, or most bizzare red card.
For me, on two occasions I’ve had a player put his hands on me.
On one of them I was doing a U16 boys match I whistled a hard foul, and went to the spot to diffuse tension between the two […]