In the first part of this series we discussed old school refereeing namely“refereeing by the book” and the transformation into “man management” in modern day refereeing. (Since Jaap Uilenberg used the phrase ‘manmanagement’ when I was first introduced to the concept more than 10 years ago, I used the same phrase. The use of “player management” […]
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Mindhunter, behavioral science as applied to modern-day refereeing
During the pandemic days – with not much else to do – we started watching Netflix series every night. Recently we started watching Mindhunter. Mindhunter is an American crime thriller web television series created by Joe Penhall, based on the true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit written by John E.Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The series is about the establishment of a […]
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GLT and the national anthem
The readers will be wondering about the title. What is the relation between GLT and the National Anthem? None. In these extraordinary pandemic days of our generation, there was notmuch of any soccer action, at least until now. So I find it difficult to identify topics to write about. In the past, I had written […]
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The $19.6 billion youth sports market, soccer and the pandemic
Recently, I read an article with greatastonishment. According to a report by Wintergreen Research — “Youth Sports: MarketShares, Strategies and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2019-2026” — there was a $19.6 billion youth sports market in the USA and a $24.9 billion youth sports market in the world. With those valuesin 2019, 80% of the global youth sports […]
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MLS brought together again with its most loyal and important partner in another time of need
Orlando in the summer — hot, humid and very often rainy — mightnot appeal to everyone, but it just might have to do if MLS is to get back on its feet following the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Orlando is the home of Disney World and morespecifically the ESPN Wide World of Sports […]
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What we can learn from Pierluigi Collina
I think very few people will debate that PierluigiCollina was the best referee of the planet or at least for the last 30 years. I met him for the first time in 1995 for his ever first international assignment for an International Militarygame. It was in Ankara and I was there for a meeting of […]
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Soccer leagues have options … they might include turning 2019-20 seasons into 2019-21 seasons
Depending on who you ask, we’ll all be playing soccer in empty stadiums in a couple of weeks or won’t be playing sports again until a vaccine is available in the distant future. (Researchers are actually making progress on treatment and testing, but some people want to prepare themselves for the worst, as is their […]
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The saga continues
When I wrote the two parts of “The Mountain and the Mouse,” I expected the new LOTG (2020-21) to come through soon. It just came out as a circular by IFAB to National Associations summarizing the changes to the LOTG. IFAB in its websitesays: “The Laws of the Game 2020/21 come into force on 1 June […]
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The mountain and the mouse (Part 2)
When I wrote the first part of this sequel, U.S. Soccer’s president was Carlos Cordeiro, the governing body still did not have a CEO and I could go wherever I like in my freetime. Now we have a new U.S. Soccer president, Cindy Parlow Cone, and a new CEO Will Wilson. Just minutes before I […]
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Just how essential is soccer in our lives?
We don’t yet know how great will be the deathtoll from the coronavirus or how long all or parts of the United States will be sheltered in place or just how badly hit will the economy be. But we will never look at the world the sameagain. Or soccer, too. The focus right now is […]