Why soccer allows players to argue calls when other sports do not

Christina Unkel was 10 years old when she became a certified soccer referee. And in all that time, she said she only remembers one instance where she changed a decision after being confronted by a group of angry players.

She was 14 and playing in a youth game in Southwest Florida when she awarded a throw-in. As the team that had lost possession protested vehemently, an opposing player entered the fray and sheepishly admitted to having touched the ball last.

“I’m like, ‘OK, thanks for admitting it. I guess we’ll say it the other way around, right?'” said Unkel, who, as a lawyer in addition to being a public servant, knows the value of a confession.

Without this admission, she said, the protest team’s appeals would necessarily have fallen on deaf ears.

“Could you imagine if someone came up and yelled at you, and you were very strong in your decision, and then you decided to change your mind?” Unkel said. “You won’t come back.”

The referees know they don’t always get it right, but imagine the chaos if they left every call up for debate. However, that didn’t stop all the footballers who had already put on a pair of crampons from arguing.

Football is the only major team sport in the United States in which this is permitted.

Introduce yourself to a baseball umpire and you’ll probably watch the rest of the game on television in the clubhouse. Say more than a few argumentative words to a football or basketball official and you risk committing another foul. And don’t even consider talking to a hockey referee unless you have a “C” or an “A” – for captain and alternate captain – sewn into your sweater.

But in football, anything other than the most obvious foul is often met with the aggrieved team surrounding the official in dramatic protest – sometimes even after the final whistle. Last Saturday, for example, after Indonesia lost a World Cup qualifying match to Iraq by one goal, several players surrounded Chinese referee Ma Ning and his team. This did not change the outcome of the match, but Ning handed out three red cards, including one to a team official who shoved Ning.

This level of protest is the exception. But openly expressing frustration and dissatisfaction with public officials is not.

“It’s part of the sport and it’s been that way for so long,” said defender Aaron Long, a World Cup veteran who wore the LAFC captain’s armband more than a dozen times this year before his season ended in July with a ruptured Achilles tendon. “As long as there’s a healthy respect back and forth, arguing and pleading your case, I think it’s all part of the game.”

Long said the fact that play stops every time a foul is called can also factor into the number of confrontations with the official.

“Football is so fluid,” he said. “And that flow is interrupted by their calls, right? It’s like everyone can stop and chat at that point.”

Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez, right, and Yannick Bright argue with referee Mario Escobar during a Leagues Cup quarterfinal match against Tigres UANL in August.

(A Rich History / Getty Images)

LAFC teammate Timothy Tillman said that because so many calls in football can go one way or the other, there are few decisions that everyone will agree with. And if the percentages favor one side over another, that’s worth discussing.

“There’s a lot of 50-50,” he said. “If an appeal still goes against you, then you need to say so [the referee].”

At the start of the game, there were no arguments with the officials – largely because there were no officials. Disputes were resolved by both team captains on the basis of “gentlemanly” conduct. Subsequent matches were overseen by two referees, one provided by each team with an on-field referee – often the match timekeeper – breaking the tie in particularly tricky situations.

It was not until 1891 that the laws of the game provided for a single, neutral referee with full authority over the game. (Incredibly, 134 years later, the game is still managed by a single on-field official, despite the fact that many of today’s players are world-class sprinters, physical and capable of jumping vertically like a cougar.)

And shortly after the first referee blew his whistle to start his first match, the first argument broke out. Indeed, despite the clear rules of the game, many decisions in football remain open to interpretation and timing.

“It’s because our sport ebbs and flows and there’s a lot of gray,” said Unkel, a CBS rules of the game analyst and host, alongside former World Cup player Lori Lindsey, of the Soccerish podcast. “You make decisions that maybe would have been a simple mistake in the 14th minute. But that will never be a mistake in the World Cup final.”

Long agrees that time and place matter.

“The way our sport is played, fans can influence the referee in many situations,” he said. “Home field advantage isn’t just for the players. Sometimes when there’s a little foul on a guy and you’re out and the crowd isn’t doing anything, maybe you don’t understand.

“But at home the whole crowd goes[es] crazy, so he calls her very quickly. Maybe that’s why we’re trying to make our case a little.

Long prefers to stay out of these battles, believing that his words will carry more weight if he speaks rarely and remains precise.

“I’m not very fiery with the referees. I don’t shout at them so that when I speak to them, they listen to me,” he said.

Evidence also helps.

“If there’s a little blood on your sock or something, you might say, ‘Hey, I got kicked,'” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry I missed that.’ I don’t think they’ll change it in the moment, but they can store it in their head.

Unkel, who became one of the youngest high-level officials in the world when she received her FIFA badge at age 25, agrees with this approach. She said two of the most effective captains she worked with were Becky Sauerbrunn and Christie Rampone, who played for the women’s national team.

“[Sauerbrunn] I wouldn’t say anything. And then sometimes she would come up to me, and in a very professional way she would say, “Hey, can you watch this?” The attackers step on them [my] toes before the ball was in play,” Unkel said. “So I was like, ‘OK, maybe I’m missing something.’

“But if you had the same chirping, chirping player, that player who is always on you, literally everything he says goes in one ear and out the other.”

There are certain lines that players cannot cross, no matter the situation. Foul and abusive language, especially if directed at the official, can result in a quick yellow card; racism is pure and simple red.

Other than that, referees call them as they see them – even if half of those involved are convinced they saw it wrong.

“People are irrational when they play sports,” Unkel said. “A team will not be happy with you no matter what decisions you make.”

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