Sport Is Losing Numbers Game With Referees

It’s a funny thing about referees, at least as far as CIF Southern Section soccer goes.

High school coaches, for one, love to complain about them, but at the same time they insist that they want more of them.

How do you figure?

Well, it goes something like this: High school soccer games in this section are officiated by two-person crews, which is one fewer than that required by rules used in international play, professional play or the Olympics.

The standard is to have one referee on the field flanked by two linesmen, but there aren’t enough referees in the Southland to have even two officials at every varsity game.

The referees, in turn, believe that if the high schools were more flexible in their schedules--playing more night games or on weekends--then perhaps more people with an interest in soccer (former players or coaches) might develop into officials.

High schools administrators are generally receptive to such changes. But adding night games means finding more stadiums capable of converting to standard-sized soccer fields, much less the added expense of paying for the lights and added security for an evening event.

As it is, with mostly afternoon games, the Orange County Soccer Officials Assn. is hard pressed to find two referees per game.

Most officials are either professionals or teachers who must work during the day, and can’t make the usual 3 p.m. starting time. Consequently, many varsity and most junior varsity or freshmen-sophomore games are being played with just one referee, putting a strain on everybody involved.

Said Esperanza Coach John Coppage: “The quality of players has increased tremendously and the quality of coaching has kept up, but the quality of refereeing is what’s going to hurt us.

“(Recently) we were supposed to have two referees for our varsity game and one for the frosh-soph game, and we had one not show up altogether.”

Soccer has been plagued with dissension between coaches and officials. There have been fights, verbal abuse, and harassment among coaches, players, fans and referees.

As a result of the violence, the Southern Section placed the sport on probation for the 1984-85 season.

According to most accounts, such incidents have been on the wane since the probation (which was lifted after a season), but Orange County coaches remain frustrated over the quality of officiating.

The one county coach with the greatest sympathy for officials is Adnan Bayati of Santa Ana Valley, who also is head of the Orange County Soccer Officials Assn. When he’s not coaching the Falcon boys’ team, he is officiating games.

“Some of the coaches don’t understand how difficult it is to officiate a soccer game,” Bayati said. “My philosophy is to make them officiate a game sometime, and then they’ll see how difficult it is. Then they might appreciate the officials’ task more.

“The Orange County Assn. has eight instructional meetings per season, lasting three hours each, with all officials required to attend. We bring in the top instructors from throughout California, so I think as we (officials) get better, even more qualified people will join us.”

Bayati is the first to concede, however, that the current system lends itself to friction not only between referees and coaches, but also among the game officials themselves.

“Many officials themselves don’t like the two-man system, either,” he said. “So we have proposed to the CIF to play under the international (three-person crew) system, and I think it will eventually go to that.”

Bill Clark, Southern Section administrator for officiating, said he is examining a pay proposal from the officials for fielding three-person teams. At present, if one official referees a game, he gets $33. If two officials make it to the game, each gets $27.

Under the new proposal, the head referee of a three-person crew would get 40% of the yet-to-be determined total fee, with the two linesmen getting 30% each.

Said Clark: “I’m not uncomfortable with a three-man system, but part of the problem right now is that Tuesdays and Fridays (game days) are big drains as far as officiating goes. All officials are working on those days. If they spread the games out, more of these same officials might be available to work up to five days a week.”

Said Karen Hillyer, Southern Section administrator in charge of soccer: “It all really depends on everybody working toward getting more bodies involved. We’ve asked each school to try to get just one more person per school involved. Even that could make a big difference.”

The Southern Section is generally pleased with the quality of the officiating, particularly since probation, but balancing quality with quantity will still take time.

Said University High School Athletic Director Steve Scoggin: “At this point it’s not really a matter of the officials being good or not. It’s just not having enough available. That’s the main problem.”