MLS Referees: What to do?

(warning: settle in, this is long)

I think we can all agree that MLS refereeing, on a good day, can best be described as "mediocre".  On a bad day, well, this is a family blog and most families don't swear like mine do so I'll refrain.  The thing about this particular rant about referees, though, is that it's not just a "the refs hate my favorite team!  There's a bias!" rant - MLS refs are awful, across the board and against all teams.

The big question is, what to do about it?

To answer that question, you first need to know one fact:  MLS does not control the referees that work MLS games.  The league's referees are supplied by the US Soccer Federation, who are responsible for training, evaluating, and ensuring referees in the US are fit (in all senses of the word) to be referees.  So, as it stands right now, MLS doesn't have a whole lot of power or control over its refereeing corps - USSF says this ref and crew is in charge of that game this week, and this game next week, and that's how it is.

This model worked great when MLS was a nascent league that nobody really watched where nothing much was at stake.  MLS needed to focus its resources (both time and money) on growing the league itself, making sure people watched it and stayed interested, and making sure the league would remain viable for the long term and wouldn't flame out the way the NASL did.  So the last thing they needed to worry about was overseeing a referee corps.  USSF is charged with growing soccer as a whole in the country, not just MLS, so you'd think they'd want to ensure that their referees are as good as any in the world.

But here we are, 16 years later, and MLS is on the cusp of an NHL-style success; MLS won't ever get to the same popularity level as the NFL, but they're carving out a really nice niche for themselves and have gone away from their birth strategy, and are now trying to expand awareness and appreciation of MLS beyond the hard-core fan out to the broader American sports landscape.  The problem is, the referees are still inadequate.

There are too many incidents to list here, and it is a damning list - the two that jump out to me from Timbers home games alone are the time the referee blew the whistle to end the first half when the Timbers had the ball on the ground right outside the six-yard box and were poised to score (I can't remember whether it was against Colorado or the Wiz), which while it may be within the letter of the law would never be done anywhere else in the world, and the now-infamous Thierry Henry red card, for a little tiny slap on the back of the head that at best should have been a caution, not even a card.

Every team in MLS has similar stories, as well - this is a league-wide problem.  The question is, what to do about it?

First off, MLS should take control of its own refereeing corps.  It should hire and evaluate referees, and institute quality standards for those referees so that they are held to the highest possible standards by the league.  MLS should have a refereeing "department", for lack of a better word, that is solely responsible for hiring, training, and evaluating referees, and ensuring those refs continue to meet FIFA standards and evolve with the game.

MLS should also professionalize its referees if they aren't already (I can't tell on the USSF site whether MLS-level referees are professional or not).  Making refereeing its own job, as opposed to having part time referees who have to hold down day jobs, allows for better development of a referee corps and more consistent training and development, as referees don't have to fit in training seminars or classes around another job.

In most major soccer-playing countries, the referees' association also has a review board of some sort.  In England, that board consists of the FA's head of refereeing, the chief executives of both the Premier League and the Football League, and the refereeing chiefs from both leagues.  This board is the body responsible for week-to-week evaluation of referees as well as the general world of refereeing - members of the board attend games every week, and each referee meets with the board every two weeks to evaluate their performance and educate/train as necessary.  I see no reason that MLS could not do the same thing, especially since there's only one league here (as opposed to most European countries, where the top league is usually a separate professional entity from the second division on down).

Once all that infrastructure is in place, MLS should then institute some sort of Monday review panel for controversial decisions from the last week.  There is currently no right of appeal for red cards, for instance, and with an institutional review panel that could change.  The panel could also go the other direction - retroactively applying discipline where it was missed by the referee.  Working in tandem with the referees, this board would be able to make for a more consistent disciplinary force in the league - it could say "hey referees this thing you miss all the time needs to be called" and would have both video evidence and the power to enforce what it decides.

So that's my ridiculously long look at what the state of MLS refereeing could be.  What do you think?  Are you content with MLS refereeing as it is, or would you like to see changes?