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The goal of this non-profit website is to add pressure to FIFA to change and improve it's officiating system. If you are unhappy with the referees this World Cup and want to see things improved, sign the petition below. FIFA must make many changes to improve the officiating system and make football/soccer played fairly and become "the beautiful game" again. I may not agree with all of the changes suggested on this website but I agree that at least one or a few of the ideas must be implemented. Note about signing: We use PetitionOnline.com to host our petition. It is safe and secure. The confirmation email you will receive does ask for donations in support of the PetitionOnline.com service. You are in NO WAY obligated to donate. This Web site has no financial ties with PetitionOnline.com. |
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More About This PetitionNote: Let's keep the comments about improving football/soccer. Not bashing other commentors or countries. We're on the same side. We just want to see fair and better officiating for football/soccer. And may the best team win. My theory is that is the entire officiating system needs to be changed. You can't just blame the referee. You need to blame the whole referring system. It is unrealistic to think that one referee can see all the fouls that go on during a football/soccer game. Football/soccer needs more officials. I have a plan that will add more referees and not disrupt the flow of the game. It will eliminate many of the bad calls made by referees as well as eliminate fouls by many of the players who constantly cheat. This will bring football/soccer back to being about football/soccer. Games will be decided by which team has the best skill and teamwork instead of by poor calls from the referees or by which team can cheat the most. Because football/soccer has only one main referee making calls, players get away with cheating all the time. Football/soccer is over run by cheating players who pull shirts, touch the ball with their hands, and tackle illegally. All of this fouling makes the game unfair, lower scoring, and less exciting. It encourages ugly play instead of brilliant skilled play. The team that flops/dives and fouls more and is better at deceiving the referee, is often the team that wins the game. Improving football/soccer's officiating system will:
All of these changes will make football/soccer higher scoring, more exciting, and most importantly: more fair.
2 REFEREES ON THE PITCH.1 for each half of the pitch. It is unrealistic to think that a referee who is older than the players to be able to physically keep up with them and be in position to make correct calls. When players get tired they make poorer mental decisions in a game–so do referees. INCREASING THE NUMBER OF REFEREES WILL MAKE FOOTBALL/SOCCER HIGHER SCORING.Football/soccer has 1 referee with 2 officials who call offside. NBA basketball has 3 referees. NFL American Football has 7 referees. NHL hockey has 4 referees. A football/soccer pitch/field is much bigger than a hockey rink, basketball court, or an NFL field. Yet it has less referees officiating the game. American football (NFL), basketball (NBA) and hockey (NHL) are all high scoring sports leagues. This is largely because they are better officiated than football/soccer. They have very little controversy due to bad calls from referees. FIFA's attempt to make football/soccer higher scoring by making the ball lighter and less predictable is a bad idea. If the game is properly officiated, scoring will be greatly increased. On corner kicks, when the defense is pulling on shirts, elbowing, pushing with the hands and grabbing a player with both arms and inhibiting him from jumping up–it is extremely difficult for the player to get open and score. Pulling on shirts, elbowing, pushing with the hands and grabbing a player with both arms are all fouls but they are rarely called in football/soccer. In American football, players are allowed to tackle each other violently, but when a receiver is jumping up to catch a pass, the defender is not allowed to pull on his shirt or put his arms around him and hold him–and in the NFL if the defender does that–it is almost always called immediately and correctly–so it is a problem that the NFL does not have. If the NFL officiated wide receivers attempting to catch passes for a touchdown the same way a football/soccer referee officiates a player attempting to head in a corner kick, the NFL would have hardly any touchdowns scored. In NBA basketball, players are allowed to get very physical. However, when a player is shooting, he is not allowed to be hit or touched by another player. Imagine if Kobe Bryant had his legs taken out, was pushed, elbowed or had his shirt pulled every time he took a jump shot? He would hardly ever score. This NFL and NBA style of calling fouls needs to be applied to football/soccer. When a player is heading or shooting the ball, these fouls must be called by the referee. As it is now, fouls are either purposefully not called by referees or they are missed. If football/soccer wants to increase scoring, FIFA shouldn't make a horrible ball like the jabulani–it needs it's referees to call fouls when they occur. Having additional off-field referees also calling fouls in the penalty box will greatly reduce these and that will increase goals. Fans want to see goals, not shirt pulling. PENALTY BOX REFEREES.A referee needs to be placed off-field behind and to the side of each goal to help make calls inside the penalty box. The penalty box has fouls made by the defense on nearly every corner kick. The penalty box has diving/flopping and handball fouls made by the offense on many plays. These referees will also be able to better judge than the on-field referee is the ball has crossed the goal line or not. MAKING CORRECT CALLS ON GOALS SCORED. GOAL LINE REFEREE AND INSTANT VIDEO REPLAY (WHEN NECESSARY)The goal line referee will be in a better position than the on-field referee to see if the ball has crossed the goal line. He must signal when the ball has crossed the goal line. Instant video replay should also be used. But the first initial discretion should go to the goal line referee. When a goal is scored in football/soccer, there is time given by the referee for celebration. This time should be used to very quickly replay and review video of the goal by an off-field official with video monitors to make sure that the goal is indeed valid. If the goal is invalid because of offside or a foul such as a handball from the offense, it will be announced by the on-field referee. This is the only time I recommend that instant video replay be used during a game. If it is used more it will disrupt the flow of a goal. But if used immediately after a goal is scored, it will not disrupt the game. If a team believes it has scored a goal and the ball has crossed the goal line, but the referee did not see it and did not call it a goal, the coach should be allowed to challenge this on the next dead ball. The off-field official should have 60 seconds to review video and then make the call. To limit abuse of this new rule, each coach should only be allowed to do this once per game. YELLOW AND RED CARD REVIEWS AFTER THE GAME.After the game, officials need to review all yellow and red cards. If video shows that a player was unjustly given a red card and is suspended for the next game, the red card should be removed from his record and he should be allowed to play the next game. So often a player is red carded for a foul he never committed. And too often a player has committed a foul that deserved a red card, but no foul was called at all. REFEREES MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND MUST SAY WHAT FOUL HE CALLED IF ASKED.There must be transparency with referees. They must be held accountable for their calls. If they made a controversial or incorrect call in a game–they must be required to explain their actions. If not, this opens the game up for fixed matches and corruption. These are some ideas that I have come up with and I'm sure other people have come up with as well. They must be tried immediately to save soccer and make it the beautiful game again. Even if you don't agree with all of these changes (they are just suggestions) but you believe improvements must be made, please sign the petition. This website is operated and owned by Judah Friedlander. Any questions: soccer@judahfriedlander.com
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