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Thought of the Week
September 6, 1997

The "Thought of the Week" is brought to you by Rolando Otero, Area 10B Director of Referee Instruction. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please e-mail Rolando at photero@aol.com.
And now our thought for this week.


Common Sense
We all think we have it. We all know what it is. But, never a game goes by where we as parents or fans do not say: “What was that call? What was that ref thinking?” It was probably a situation where we as officials forgot the easiest of all laws, Law 18-COMMON SENSE.

As a new season approaches let us all make a commitment to use more common sense. Lets remember that soccer is a simple game and that common sense can be applied to any law. Use the laws to provide a fair and fun match for all.

For example, why punish a player for moving up on a thrown in if you are not being specific about where to throw it from? Why stop the flow of the game if someone has committed a trivial foul? Why change a handling call from a direct to an indirect? It is either handling or not. Remember the written Laws well, but always be aware of their “spirit”. That’s what makes this game the best one in the world.

We are starting to get ready for our Area upgrade clinic. Bob Hurwich from Area E will be the lead instructor, Dave Karchem will assist. Dave is trying to upgrade his instructor level to intermediate, so he will be our point person in Area 10B. He can be reached at 818 773-9854 or e-mailed at david_karchem@countrywide.com. But, you should register through your Regional Referee Administrator.

The clinic will consist of an all-day Sunday session, Sept. 28th, then two week night sessions, Sept. 30th and Oct.7th, 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm. The clinic will likely be at the LA Times Chatsworth office.

Also, someone wrote in that they would like to talk about tricky game situations that have happened to them over the years and how they were handled. It was expressed that junior referees as well as senior referees may benefit from this. I would like to start this. So, can you e-mail me some tough game situations that you feel would be good examples. Write the situation first then write how you handled it. I would then put them on our page and we can see what kind of response we get.


See you out on the pitch,



PS. This will be a weekly section where I talk about experiences relating to soccer officiating. Please feel free to e-mail me with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover.

me at photero@aol.com


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