Already the most serious offense in soccer, a red card now carries a heavier penalty for high school players in Tennessee.
In addition to leaving the field without a substitute, players this season also must sit out the next two matches. Many area coaches feel the suspension required by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is too severe.
“One match and the remainder of the match they were tossed from should be enough of a penalty,” Hixson coach Bill Underwood said.
The minimum punishment dictated by the TSSAA for any player ejected from a contest in any sport is suspension for the average number of games played per week.
Until last summer, that number was one for football and soccer and two for all other sports. But after the TSSAA’s Board of Control approved soccer coaches’ request to play a 16-game schedule during their eight-week season, it also added a game to the required suspension.
Some coaches say the change is unfair because in most other sports players are typically ejected only if a sportsmanship violation such as fighting occurs. In soccer, however, several specific fouls automatically lead to a red card and the ensuing ejection.
“I see the concept behind what TSSAA is trying to do, which is try to be fair to all sports,” McMinn County soccer coach Bobby Earls said. “However, you can get tossed out of a soccer match for a couple of different reasons.
“A deliberate handball or a foul as the last defender is a straight red. Well, those are tactical things that I don’t feel deserve a two-match suspension. Does a player get a two-game suspension in basketball for a deliberate foul on a person trying to score a layup? No. Again, I understand what TSSAA is trying to do, but it doesn’t work due to the difference in the sports.”
Red-card variety
Buddy Edging, supervisor of officials for the Southeastern Soccer Officials Association, said the sport’s rulebook lists several categories of offenses that result in a red card. Those include violent conduct, offensive or insulting language or gestures, fighting, taunting and spitting.
The other main category is serious foul play, which includes some mainly tactical violations. Taking down a player to prevent a scoring opportunity, tackling from behind in a violent manner, challenging the ball with a disproportionate amount of force or a handball to prevent a goal can all result in an immediate ejection.
Edging, whose organization assigns officials to matches ranging from Sweetwater, Tenn., to Adairsville, Ga., said seven red cards have been handed out in high school games this spring.
“We don’t eject a lot of players,” he said. “When we do, we feel like it’s the only thing we could do.”
Five of the seven ejections have been for serious foul play, a category that can be considered more subjective. Coaches worry that a questionable call may now cost them a key player for two-plus matches.
“The problem is that there is no clear-cut rule about red cards,” said East Ridge coach Jeremy McIntyre, who agrees with a two-game suspension for some offenses. “Some referees give out red cards without warnings that probably could have been yellow cards. There definitely needs to be some type of accountability.”
CONTINUITY for REFS
While some coaches have questioned whether officials will be less likely to pull out a red card because the consequences for it are now greater, Edging said the responsibility of officials is to call the game and issue reports to the TSSAA without worrying about what punishment it will impose afterward.
The longtime official admitted that mistakes are sometimes made when instant judgment is required, but he said complaints from coaches are fairly infrequent. And he knows how he would respond if one complained that an official’s call had cost a player two games of his or her career.
“I would say, ‘That’s your player’s fault,’” Edging said. “He needs to learn to be under control. The ref may have made a mistake, but he did the best he could with what he had at that moment in time. In every sporting event, the ref is not out there to punish anyone. If he makes a mistake, that’s part of life.”
TSSAA assistant executive director Gene Beck agreed the rule changes shouldn’t alter the way officials call games. He said a red card can be an effective tool to help officials keep a match under control, even if its use is often subjective.
“Soccer does have some judgment situations,” Beck said. “But in general, if we pass on enforcing rules and controlling the game and we let it go too far, then when we come back and try to grab control, sometimes it’s too late and it’s a red card when it would have been a yellow earlier.
“I understand that frustration from a coach, but the control of the game is not just from the officials. Overall, I think control has to be coaches, players and officials.”
Beck also pointed out that the two-game suspension applies only in the case of a straight red card, not a yellow-red, or what is also called a “soft red.” Although a red card is pulled after a player receives a second yellow in a match and that player must leave the field, coaches are allowed to substitute, and no suspension is imposed.
“At one point in our evolution, a second yellow or yellow-red carried a next-game (suspension), but our board listened to our coaches on that one about seven or eight years ago,” Beck said. “That was a change, I think, for the better. I think for the most part, our coaches have dealt with those, because we do not have an abundance of yellow-reds on players.”
Most-ejection sport
Soccer does, however, typically have more player ejections than any other sport in the state. According to the TSSAA’s annual report, soccer has had the highest number eight of the past 10 school years.
And while the intent of the red-card rule change was not to improve sportsmanship in the sport, some coaches hope it will have that effect.
“I think it makes athletes think twice about committing acts that would warrant a red card,” Central coach James Stone said, “and it makes coaches more proactive in handling their athletes instead of reactive.
“During the season, we compete against some players that are probably only on the field because of their skill, not because of their character, and I think the two-match suspension helps keep players like that in check, or at least off of the playing field for a while. Coaches have to decide if it is really worth working with a student who may cost his or her team.”
Beck said he believes a proposal is already in the works among coaches to ask the Board of Control to distinguish between sportsmanship offenses and tactical fouls when determining the suspension after a red card. He said such a request could potentially result in the new rule being a short-lived one.
“We respect any kind of input they would have,” Beck said. “As an example, if I’ve got a knockdown, drag-out fight, for most of our coaches, two games is probably not enough disciplinary action, and nobody has any problem with that. But the intentional handball that was a questionable call to start with in the coach’s mind, that’s a two-game disciplinary action also, and to that coach, there’s no way to compare the severity.
“I think we will see input from our soccer coaches and our soccer community in regards to what is the best route to deal with it.”
