A year ago my son played on a U-10 club team. For our Sunday games kids from the local college soccer team refereed the games. As a parent, coach, and referee myself I can honestly say they were terrible.

The issue goes beyond making bad calls. When a referee is that incompetent the game can get out of control and it becomes unsafe for the kids. The parents were really letting these refs have it, which is one of the reasons why there are so few refs.

I can't tell you how many e-mails I have gotten already from assignors this year looking for people to do games. Part of the issue is time. This past fall I usually did two games on a Saturday. With my schedule this year I am not sure how many games I will get to do in the Spring. None of the parents I know have any interest in refereeing. Between the time commitment and the garbage you hear from the sidelines it really isn't worth it.

if the game is out of control and they think someone is going to get hurt. Part of the problem is that these refs don't take control of the game, even if they aren't making great calls.

One thing I will say about the ref I complained about last weekend is that he didn't lost control of the game. He just made terrible calls.

And to be clear, I think it is appropriate for parents to have a quick outburst when they think there is a fairly significant bad call, but it should be a quick comment and should be left at that.

Nothing you say to a ref is going to do anything except make you feel better and probably piss off the ref. And you might cause an otherwise good ref to conclude it isn't worth it and stop. There is already a shortage of refs for soccer.

The younger the referee, the more the yelling is going to increase their anxiety and make their judgement worse.

Coaches and parents berate referees, the younger ones tend to quit because of it. Enter less experienced referee, cycle repeats.

When a 20 year grade 6 referee gets screamed at by coaches who have been coaching for 1/4 of that time, in a local league match, why should the 16 year old keep working when he's going to be treated even worse?

The most respectful people involved are the players themselves. That really says a lot.

All others involved in the process are secondary in terms of importance. I focus on that when I hear chirping from people that don't matter. it's also why I focus on youth matches and try to do most of my center work in the u12-u16 age range.