Great Scot! Does MLS Need Pickier Kind of Officiating?

You’ve got to hand it to Kevin Payne. The president and general manager of D.C. United says what’s on his mind. No matter how much trouble it causes. Or how much it costs him.

Last week it cost him about $1,000 a word. Here’s what he said, after Washington had been beaten by the Chicago Fire, 3-2, at Chicago in a rematch of last season’s Major League Soccer championship game:

“I don’t understand why we need to go 4,000 miles to get a referee that poor.”

That comment, and a bit more, caused MLS Commissioner Doug Logan to slap Payne with a $15,000 fine, the second-largest in the league’s four-year history. But Payne had a point to make and was determined to make it, saying he dislikes MLS rating referees in part by how many yellow and red cards they hand out.

“I’ve kept my mouth shut for the most part, but I’ve had it,” he told the Washington Post. “I don’t really care if I get fined because someone has to stand up and talk about this stuff. . . . We had the two best teams in America and the referee shows no respect for the game.”

The referee was Stuart Dougal of Scotland, the latest visitor in MLS’s international referee exchange program, which brings top-flight foreign officials to work games in the U.S. and sends America’s best referees overseas to gain experience.

So far, MLS has brought in FIFA referees Toru Kamikawa of Japan, Juan Carlos Paniaqua of Bolivia, Jose Maria Garcia Aranda of Spain and Dougal. Later this month it will bring in Ali Mohamed Bujsaim of the United Arab Emirates.

Heading the other way have been U.S. referees Tim Weyland (to Japan), Richard Grady (to Spain) and Ali Saheli (to the United Arab Emirates).

Payne certainly did not regard Dougal as a valuable import, not after he called 42 fouls in the Fire-United encounter, dished out a league-record 11 cards and ejected three players.

“This referee clearly has no respect for our league and he should be sent home,” Payne said. “I’ll be happy to pay for his flight. . . . If he ever did this in Scotland, he’d never referee again.”

Logan, who called the comments “intemperate” and “inappropriate,” said Payne subsequently had called to apologize for his outburst. The fine is believed to have been reduced, but Logan would not comment on that.

There had been enough words already in what was an eventful week for referees around the world.

IT’S IN THE CARDS

If Payne was unhappy with Dougal’s officiating, just think what his reaction might have been had MLS invited Spanish referee Antonio Lopez Nieto to call some games.

Last Sunday, Nieto made history of sorts when he brandished 16 yellow cards, a Spanish league record, and ejected two players during Athletic Bilbao’s game against Atletico Madrid.

Certainly, the Spanish first division produces a much more technically refined, faster-paced and more intensely competitive brand of soccer than MLS showcases.

In MLS, the skill level is infrequently displayed. The reduction from a maximum of five foreign players per team to four this season has not helped. MLS would do well to reconsider that for next year.

College players, for the most part, are inexperienced and rash, which leads to foul-ridden games. Top American players and the better foreign imports grow tired of carrying less-proficient players, and tempers boil over. Accomplished players, and all fans, are angered by seeing passes go astray, innovative play go unread and scoring opportunities go begging.

It all adds up to MLS games that are high on physical commitment but low on soccer spectacle.

In any event, considering that Dougal showed 26 yellow cards in the three MLS games he officiated (including nine in the Galaxy-San Jose Clash game at the Rose Bowl that marked his league debut), the question becomes: Was the Scot, a FIFA-qualified referee with 14 years’ experience, being too picky or are U.S. referees not calling the games tightly enough?

The question was put to Joe Machnik and Esse Baharmast, the top two referee administrators in the country. Machnik is MLS’ vice president of game operations, and Baharmast is director of officials for the U.S. Soccer Federation.

They had the same answer.

“All over the world in every league there are different kinds of referees in various countries,” Machnik said. “There are some referees whose forte is that they are good player-managers. They solve a lot of problems on the field with player-management techniques. There are other referees who go to the card right away.

“Even in America and MLS we have referees who are more comfortable with the letter of the law and some who are better player-managers.”

Said Baharmast, whose refereeing in the France 98 World Cup drew widespread praise: “In each league you will have referees who have a stricter style and referees who have a little bit less strict style and more of a player-management style of refereeing. For example, look at Argentina, where Javier Castrilli was refereeing. . . . So I would not make it a country-to-country comparison but rather a referee [to referee comparison].”

Castrilli, a famously controversial colleague of Baharmast in last summer’s World Cup, retired in September after having sent off an amazing 202 players in the 234 professional games he officiated.

He resigned at age 41 while denouncing match-fixing in the Argentine league involving some of his fellow referees.

He called such referees “clowns and jesters of those in power,” demanded that their income be investigated and accused them of accepting free trips to the Caribbean.

Intemperate? Inappropriate? Sounds as if he and Payne would have gotten along splendidly.

BLAME PLAYERS, COACHES

Machnik, for one, believes some of the blame for the spate of cards issued by Dougal in the Chicago-Washington game must be borne by the players and coaches.

“This was his [Dougal’s] third game,” Machnik said. “Most of the coaches have satellite dishes and watch the games to prepare their teams for competition. They know who the referees are well in advance. Part of the preparation is to know the referee’s style.

“After nine cautions in [Dougal’s] first game and six in the second game, it would seem to me that coaches would prepare their teams for the inevitable and maybe they did. Even if they didn’t, the cautions came early, and I think that smart players make the adjustment.”

COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

If Dougal believes he was badly treated during his MLS sojourn, he can always console himself by looking at what happened last week to his Scottish colleague, Hugh Dallas, who had charge of the always-volatile Celtic-Rangers game in Glasgow.

During the match--won 2-0 by Rangers to give the club and its recently signed U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna the Scottish championship--Dallas suffered a head wound that required four stitches when he was hit by an object, possibly a coin, thrown by a hooligan in the crowd of 59,918.

At midnight on the same day, hooligans smashed several windows in the France 98 referee’s home.

THE FINE LINE

It took U.S. Soccer only a day or so to try to disassociate itself from Payne’s remarks, those oh-so-politically correct folks at the federation headquarters in Chicago worrying that they might somehow be tainted when a member of their board of directors lashed out and actually said something worth quoting.

“The comments made by Mr. Kevin Payne, president of D.C. United, do not represent the position of U.S. Soccer,” a prepared statement read in part. “In order to develop soccer in America, it is important that our players be exposed to not only a variety of top level international referees, but also experience the different styles of refereeing throughout the world.”

More interesting was Logan’s answer when asked if he is more inclined to fine owners and front-office personnel than players and coaches.

“I try to balance what I consider to be what’s good for the league--which is to have healthy discourse and differences of opinion, people’s First Amendment rights--with what I consider to be protecting the integrity of the league,” he said.

“I don’t think that I necessarily have a bias one way or another. Generally, my inclination is to allow healthy discourse to take place except when it crosses the line, and I guess I’m the one who draws that line.”

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MLS by the Cards

A season-by-season look at Major League Soccer’s cautions and ejections: *--*

Year Games Yellow cards Red cards 1996 160 524 32 1997 160 462 35 1998 192 619 61 1999 38 131 19

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