I’m not sure how I feel about this. To this point, I’ve been thoroughly on the side of the MLS refs, who unionized last year and formed Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA). They’ve been at loggerheads with MLS’s refereeing arm, Professional Referees Organization (PRO), for months finally culminating in PRO locking the referees out two days before the season opener
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There are two really big matches this weekend, and they’re both on Sunday. Mark Clattenburg will come off his Champions League match this week to officiate Liverpool v. Manchester United. The outcome of that game will have a major impact on the standings, so it makes sense that Clatts – who’s been at the top of his game of late
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Tottenham have been successful in their appeal of Younes Kaboul’s three-game suspension following his red card in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Chelsea. Referee Michael Oliver had adjudged Kaboul to have tripped Samuel Eto’o in the box, denying him a goalscoring opportunity. However, replays showed that not only was there very little contact, but Eto’o was not in control of the
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The Europa League referees for the Round of 16 first tie are announced, and it’s quite the impressive list. Three of the eight – Cuneyt Cakir of Turkey, Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands (above) and Jonas Eriksson of Sweden – will referee in Brazil. Of the remaining, Czech Pavel Kralovec is Elite, and Daniele Orsato of Italy is Elite Development.
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The Champions League referees for the second leg of the Round of 16 have been announced. The rather anti-climactic tie between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen (PSG leads about a billion to nil on aggregate) will be refereed by Croatia’s top official, Ivan Bebek (above). Stephane Lannoy of France, whose year has included being the first French official in forever
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It’s about damn time. Mark Clattenburg has finally gotten a call up to the Champions League. He’ll take Tuesday’s clash between Atletico Madrid and AC Milan. To me, this makes sense. Clattenburg is by far the best referee in England right now, both from a technical standpoint and a fitness standpoint. Even though he’s been taking match after match, his
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Dear me, Michael Oliver. Dear me. Now, let me say that I watched this game at a local pub with friends. (Why, yes, we were drinking at 9:30am California time. And?) And Tottenham were absolutely wretched in the second half, even before the red card. Jan Vertonghen’s slipping on the pitch then recovering by basically passing the ball to Chelsea’s
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MLS has sought to soothe our fears around their refereeing shenanigans by announcing the replacement referees for this weekend’s opening matches. They need replacements of course, because the current MLS referees – including World Cup referee Mark Geiger – were locked out today by the Professional Referees Organization (PRO), an arm of MLS. But never fear, because these scabs replacements totally know
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The Juventus v. Fiorentina derby – at least it’s a derby for Fiorentina fans – is probably this week’s showpiece. Daniele Orsato (above) will be in the middle. Orsato is part of the triad of top Italian referees, along with Nicola Rizzoli and Gianluca Rocchi. I’ve noticed that Orsato has been taking several big games lately as his profile rises. This could also
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The Professional Referee Organization has locked out the regular MLS referees as of March 7. The March 8 and 9 opening games will go ahead with replacement referees. On February 22, Professional Soccer Referee Association (PSRA), the union that represents referees in US and Canada, voted to authorize a strike. Their big beef has been with the organization MLS created
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 