Soccer Law 5: The Referee

Football (Soccer) Referee

A referee presides over a game of association football (soccer). The referee has "full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed" (Law 5), and the referee's decisions regarding facts connected with play are final, so far as the result of the game is concerned.

The referee is assisted by two assistant referees (formerly known as linesmen), and in some matches also by a fourth official. The match officials utilise a positioning system known as the diagonal system of control.

The vast majority of referees are amateur, though they are usually paid a small fee and/or expenses for their services. However, in some countries a limited number of referees - who mainly officiate in their country's top division - are employed full-time by their national associations and receive a retainer at the start of every season plus match fees.

Referees officiating adult competitive international games are required to be selected from the FIFA panel of referees; this restriction does not necessarily apply to non-competitive (so-called friendly) games or youth games.

Powers & Duties

The referee's powers and duties are described by Law 5 of the Laws of the Game. These include:

• enforcing the Laws of the Game;
• controlling the match in co-operation with the assistant referees and, where applicable, with the fourth official;
• ensuring that any ball used meets the requirements of Law 2;
• ensuring that the players' equipment meets the requirements of Law 4;
• acting as timekeeper and keeping a record of the match;
• stopping, suspending or terminating the match, at his discretion, for any infringements of the Laws;
• stopping, suspending or terminating the match because of outside interference of any kind;
• stopping the match if, in his opinion, a player is seriously injured and ensuring that he is removed from the field of play. An injured player may only return to the field of play after the match has restarted;
• allowing play to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in his opinion, only slightly injured;

History

The term referee originated in association football. Originally the team captains would consult with each other in order to resolve any dispute on the pitch. Eventually this role was delegated to an umpire. Each team would bring their own partisan umpire, allowing the team captains to concentrate on the game. The umpire could not run onto the field and interfere with the game, but could be appealed to by the players in order to solve disputes. Umpires were given the right to award a free kick for handball in 1873 and for other offences in 1874. Later that year, umpires were given the right to send off a player for "persistent infringement of the rules."

By 1880, the need for a neutral observer was evident, and the referee, a third official was added. The referee would be "referred to" if the umpires could not resolve a dispute. The duties of the referee expanded, as they were now responsible for keeping a record of the game and timekeeping. For the first time, referees were permitted to caution or send off players for unsporting behaviour or violent conduct, without consulting the umpire. The referee did not take his place on the pitch until 1891. At this time, they were allowed to award free kicks for fouls without an appeal.

Then, umpires became linesmen (officially called assistant referees since 1996). Today, in many amateur football matches, each side will still supply their own partisan linesman to assist the neutral referee appointed by the governing football association: this is usually due to a lack of available referees. Non-sanctioned assistants are permitted to signal when the ball leaves the field, but are not allowed to call fouls or possession.

Whistle Use

Referees use a whistle to indicate the commencement of play, to stop play due to an infringement of other reason, to indicate half-time and full-time, and as an adjunct to verbal communication in other situations, although the use of whistles is not mandated by the Laws of the Game. Before the introduction of the whistle, referees indicated their decisions by waving a handkerchief. The whistles that were first adopted by referees were made by Joseph Hudson of the ACME Whistle Company who first began to mass produce whistles in the 1870s for the Metropolitan Police Service. It is frequently stated the referee's whistle was first used in a game between Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Norfolk in 1878; however no such fixture is known to have taken place between the two clubs in that year.

Uniform

Modern day referees and their assistants wear a uniform comprised of a jersey, shorts and socks: until the 1950s it was more common for a referee to wear a blazer than a jersey. Traditionally that uniform was almost always all black, unless one of the teams was wearing a very dark jersey in which case the referee would wear another colour of jersey (usually red) to distinguish himself from both teams. At the 1994 World Cup finals, new jerseys were introduced that gave officials a choice of burgundy, yellow or white, and at the same time the creation of the FA Premier League in England saw referees wear green jerseys: both changes were motivated by television considerations. Since then, most referees have worn either yellow or black, but the colours and styles adopted by individual associations vary greatly. For international contests under the supervision of FIFA, Adidas uniforms are worn because Adidas is the current sponsor.

Source: Wikipedia