This is a long overdue and a badly needed outlet for frustrated fans of Major League Soccer.
On Friday, RedCardTheRef launched a fan’s poll for worst referee in Major League Soccer.
The installation of the newly created Professional Referees Association (PRO) hasn’t eased concerns over the poor quality of refereeing this season in Major League Soccer.
Instead the PRO association has become a vehicle or focus point for fans to vent their frustration. Headed by former English Premier League referee Peter Walton PRO has taken a beating this year from fans, players and coaches after some horrid decisions.
Last weekend after a controversial penalty kick call by D.C. United coach Ben Olsen said “It’s a joke, every weekend we’ve got the same clown show.”
Check out Olsen`s comments about referee Matthew Foerster in this Youtube video post below:
Seattle Sounders fans were so enraged with referee they launched a petition against referee Ricardo Salazar pushing Walton and PRO to evaluate Salazar claiming he has a “bias” against their team.
Earlier this season, Toronto FC boss Kevin Payne went so far as to declare his players are “lab rats” for training of inexperienced referees.
“Six of our 10 referees this season have refereed 10 games or fewer during their MLS careers,” Payne said.
Montreal Impact coach Marco Schallibaum was suspended by Major League Soccer for Wednesday’s game against Toronto FC after he walked on the field at half time of a recent match in Kansas City to criticize the awarding of a penalty kick to Sporting K.C.
Major League Soccer its controversial mass-confrontation ruling during the offseason to lessen widespread hostility against its embattled match officials and prohibit players and coaches from approaching them to question calls.
It’s probably a good thing Schallibaum wasn’t on the touchline in Toronto as the Swiss coach likely would have needed a straight jacket and sedative after some of the horrid decisions against his team. The chippy game saw a number of late, mistimed slide tackles go unpunished by Baldamero Toledo in his team’s grisly 3-3 tie at BMO Field.
On Wednesday Major League Soccer fined coaches Olsen for his send in the clowns comment, and also Toronto FC coach Ryan Nelsen for his violation of the mass-confrontation rule.
Sports Illustrated website The Bleacher Report recently posted an informative analysis of Major League Soccer’s postgame press access to its officials declaring the process a “joke”. While its supposed to be an open process, according to one Sporting Kansas City beat reporter Alan Hainkel, it seems the league picks and chooses which questions to answer and which answers they give to suit their needs.
“If we, as reporters, have done what we’re supposed to do, the referee should put his big boy pants on and answer the questions,” writes Hainkel.
Who knows what strange decisions lurk around the corner in the coming months in Major League Soccer. Please share this poll with friends, fellow supporters and on social media so we can get an accurate cross section of fan discontent.
At the end of the season we will announce the name of Major League Soccer’s worst referee. So please vote in the online poll below - you can cast up to three votes upon each visit to our site:
Who is the worst referee in Major League Soccer? (Pick up to 3)
- Geoff Gamble (1%, 4 Votes)
- Dave Gantar (1%, 4 Votes)
- Edvin Jurisevic (1%, 5 Votes)
- Fotis Bazakos (2%, 6 Votes)
- Drew Fischer (2%, 6 Votes)
- Jose Carlos Rivero (2%, 8 Votes)
- Chris Penso (3%, 10 Votes)
- Jair Marrufo (3%, 11 Votes)
- Hilario Grajeda (4%, 14 Votes)
- Juan Guzman (4%, 15 Votes)
- Allen Chapman (5%, 16 Votes)
- Armando Villarreal (5%, 17 Votes)
- Sorin Stoica (5%, 17 Votes)
- Silviu Petrescu (6%, 20 Votes)
- Mark Geiger (6%, 21 Votes)
- Ismail Elfath (6%, 21 Votes)
- Jorge Gonzalez (7%, 24 Votes)
- Kevin Stott (7%, 26 Votes)
- Matthew Foerster (9%, 32 Votes)
- Baldomero Toledo (26%, 91 Votes)
- Ricardo Salazar (62%, 216 Votes)
Total Voters: 348
This would be terrific: A “Blown Call of the Week” contest. It would be just like MLS’s Goal of the Week and Save of the Week…. people would nominate calls, the top 5 would be assembled into a video and put up for an online vote, and the winner announced each week. Anyone want to do it?
This is a good idea but could be a labour intensive undertaking - especially the number of blown calls in each game let alone all of them - but if there is some brave soul who would like to take a run at it I would be happy to edit and post the material and give you a biline - the overall contest though is for worst referee for the season - each MLS blog post could have the poll at the bottom and obviously with each blog post the voting patterns may change. Bloggers can contact me here in the comments section for immediate response or write me at [email protected]
How about shedding light instead of just venting heat? I’d love to know more about how MLS finds, trains and selects officials.
Good idea Coffeerob - will try to do some more research on this.
“Seattle Sounders fans were so enraged with referee they launched a petition against referee Ricardo Salazar pushing Walton and PRO to evaluate Salazar claiming he has a “bias” against their team.”
and yet he continues to ref Soudners games (see the red card for Martins that got rescinded) I wish I could use all of my votes on this #!@!hole
This (website) is a great idea. How about you add a “Who is the best ref” category too. That way it will be easier to promote a link to here on blogs and other sites that frown on negativity - that way you are a “fair and balanced” site.
I, for one, would then be happy to post this URL around on various blogs so you get a statistically significant sample of votes.
Dave Gantar is definitely the worst referee ever he is so over his head