Hardest sports to officiate

[Gumboy]

So, what do you think are the hardest sports for officials to do there job correctly in? With all the new instant replay being added to some sports, you have to consider that as part of the officiating as well (Which makes it somewhat easier, in my opinion)

My list would go like:

1. NHL/hockey (Speed of the game in general)
2. Basketball (Speed of the game, rules being applied differently at different times)
3. Soccer (Mainly because of the acting/flopping epidemic, hard to tell when something really goes on)
4. NFL/American Football. (Speed, lots to look at)
5. Baseball (Balls and strikes)
6. Baseball (everything else)


I don't watch enough of any other sport to have an opinion on them. This is not about the sport itself, but the officiating, so please don't start bashing something just because you don't care for the sport :P

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

3. Soccer (Mainly because of the acting/flopping epidemic, hard to tell when something really goes on)

So not because the referees have a limited viewpoint, and have to make decisions in a split second that have immediate consequences and often come down to a couple of millimetres (goal calls, who committed the foul, offside, was it a foul, do you let play continue, give advantage, yellow card, red card etc)?

[Gumboy]

Keep in mind soccer is now usin instant replay and goal line tech. Makes a big difference . Everything else you listed is a problem for pretty much every sport :P

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Also I would put the top three of my list muh higher then anything else , a big drop off after that.

[draynay]

I think they all have their difficulties, hockey has a bit of everything and its on ice, so it gets my vote. You've got high speed projectiles with much less protection and less room to avoid them than in baseball. Big bodies coming at you at high speed and all you can really do is grab the boards haul your skates off the ice and kiss your ass goodbye. You have fights breaking out and the need for intervention in violent encounters is risky. Just a lot of fast painful stuff on an enclosed surface while wearing skates and having to deal with the same pressures every other official has to deal with makes me pick hockey refs as having the toughest job.

[MerinPally]

I fail to understand how Americans call diving "flopping" and then not snigger like a child. Damn you and renaming everything in our sport.

Speed doesn't necessarily come into it, without using the technology some of the slow sports could be very difficult - cricket even, when someone is run out or LBW you have to try and picture a fairly large area in 3D and real time. That's pretty hard to get right. Now with technology it's pretty simple. A slow decision but a good batsmen being out is a massive impact on the game, so situations are few and far between but the impact is huge.

Tennis is another occasionally awful one I'd put up there, not so much the womens game but definitely the mens. Especially now that they use a titanium based paint for the lines rather than some kind of chalk, there's no mark left on the ball and no puff so it's very hard to judge sometimes and these things can be a hairs breadth away.

[Deleted]

Mma .

[Gumboy]

I didn't even think of Tennis, t hat can be quite hard. THey do have those instant replays for that now as well though, but it has to be a player initated challenge.


Don't watch MMA, don't know what the umpries/refs do in that even.

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Also I know nothing about cricket, so that would be in my "ignorance" file :P

[Spectral]

So not because the referees have a limited viewpoint, and have to make decisions in a split second that have immediate consequences and often come down to a couple of millimetres (goal calls, who committed the foul, offside, was it a foul, do you let play continue, give advantage, yellow card, red card etc)?

That's pretty much the same thing officials in every sport are expected to do. Pointing those things out doesn't really separate it from other sports. What's unique about soccer is the extent of diving, and the sheer impact a single call can have because of the low-scoring environment.

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THey do have those instant replays for that now as well though, but it has to be a player initated challenge.

Which seems odd to me. Maybe I've fundamentally misunderstood something, but those replays take like 5 seconds. Anytime something's close, why not just automatically review it between points? Getting every call right seems like a good thing.

[Deleted]

Cricket because its so fucking boring.

[draynay]

Which seems odd to me. Maybe I've fundamentally misunderstood something, but those replies take like 5 seconds. Anytime something's close, why not just automatically review it between points? Getting every call right seems like a good thing.

It seems a common thread throughout sports to cling to traditions. Perhaps there is a fear that cameras will replace everyone and then we won't have those people standing along the wall ducking humorously as tennis balls whiz by. At least those girls will still crouch by the nets and sprint back and forth until they get robots or something.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Keep in mind soccer is now usin instant replay and goal line tech. Makes a big difference . Everything else you listed is a problem for pretty much every sport :P

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Also I would put the top three of my list muh higher then anything else , a big drop off after that.

They don't have instant replay.

[Gumboy]

They don't have instant replay.

They kind of do, if they allow plays to be reviewed after the fact :P

[draynay]

They kind of do, if they allow plays to be reviewed after the fact :P

that doesn't sound "instant"

and "after the fact" is not "kind of" instant either

so I guess its like instant replay except without the instant part that makes it useful

[sarecho]

according to officials, basketball is

[Greeney]

according to officials, basketball is

Can I see a source for that? There's a lot less people to monitor at a time than football and it's occurring a significantly slower pace than hockey. I can't see how it's more difficult than either of those two sports.

[Pendulous]

American Football because there's some many people on the field at a time, moving fast. Also the insane amount of rules and fouls that can be committed. With baseball, you really only have to follow the ball, which is admittedly hard because it's smaller and moves a lot faster, but still. Basketball only has five players per team, which sadly isn't low enough for the refs to catch everything.

[Reg]

American Football because there's some many people on the field at a time, moving fast. Also the insane amount of rules and fouls that can be committed. With baseball, you really only have to follow the ball, which is admittedly hard because it's smaller and moves a lot faster, but still. Basketball only has five players per team, which sadly isn't low enough for the refs to catch everything.

There are like 10 refs on the field for football though, with some who have specific jobs and watching specific areas of the field.

My vote goes to hockey.

[efter7]

I would have to say professional paintball. A general cheaters attitude out of many player, lack of visibility, and chaotic gameplay lead to a lot of wipes or missed hits. Not to mention some of those refs get lit up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Attackrabbit]

Rugby Union.....more players on the pitch than in NFL with just 3 guys trying to officiate the match whilst most of those 30 players on the pitch are doing their best to sneakily injure their opponents and then you as a tiny ref have to make some huge bastards stand down.

[koodledrum]

Football (soccer) isn't using instant replay, that can only be used for retrospective punishment of incidents mentioned in the match report so called "trial by TV" - for on the field calls there is no instant replay, as a game it's relatively easy to officiate so long as you can keep up with the game & have good assistant referees! (easier said than done!)

For me it would have to be a game with a combination of factors, namely speed of game, number of obstructions (i.e. players) & size of object involved, hockey & lacrosse would immediately spring to mind for me given the speed & the fact the objects involved are relatively small. Similarly any "artistic" event such as gymnastics or figure skating but I believe both make extensive use of replay technology.