FIFA. What a joke.

The International governing body for all of soccer is one of the most powerful sports organizations in the world. This week, the United States Department of Justice and Swiss authorities came down hard on FIFA upper-level brass.

With elections just a few days away, FIFA could have done a lot of things to start to protect themselves from criticism, including postponing their presidential election process until more was known. Instead, as FIFA has been prone to do, the leaders acted like nothing was happening and went on with elections as-scheduled and, as predicted, Sepp Blatter won a fifth term at the shamefully corrupt organization’s helm.

Maybe if you just don’t acknowledge the facts, they won’t be true, guys.

Here are some facts via John Oliver prior to the 2014 World Cup…

and here’s another rant from about a week ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhAta_OWGZk

Basically, FIFA is an organization so corrupt, so out of control, and so clueless that not even arrests of a half-dozen or so vice presidents of the organization gave ANYONE any pause. Nobody so much as batted a freaking eyelid. Elections for president went on, Blatter — the favorite going in — won, probably because of the kickbacks he had already promised and/or given voting delegates.

To me, it can only mean that individuals and organizations are already too deep into the scam to go against Blatter.

For soccer fans, it’s not surprising, just despairingly affirming. Here’s to more chaos and conflict before anyone really believes that things are actually changing.

Conflict can really bring about change. If the amounts are proportional, I wouldn’t mind seeing a whole lot of conflict at the highest levels of the beautiful game right about now. The question is, is there anybody even close to the top who’s clean enough to take the sport on and fight a righteous fight?

Landon Donovan took a hiatus from the National Team, but has been great since his return. So have his teammates. By Noelle Noble, via Wikimedia Commons

United States Men’s soccer. It’s not a punchline anymore.

Recently, the US national team has been on a small tear, winning a record 10 straight games. On Wednesday, they defeated Honduras 3-1 to move into the Cup Final where they will meet up with Panama, who defeated Mexico in the semi-finals. During their run, the USA team has not just been defeating opponents but putting beat-downs on them.

The only competitive game they have played was a 1-0 win over Costa Rica in the group-stage finale. Aside from that game, the USA has outscored opponents 19-4 in Gold Cup games. In addition to star players Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore, the team has recently added other creative players such as Joe Corona, Jose Torres, and Omar Gonzalez who have certainly helped in this recent turnaround.

But the new success the team has had is a direct result of the pace of play this team is playing with. It was clearly evident in the El Salvador game when the US team forced an easily noticeable change in pace of play in the second half, created more chances, and cruised to a 5-1 victory. Aside from slowing things down to an unwatchably-slow, defensive 90-minute struggle, having as much conscious control of the pace of a game is not something the US team could ever be counted on to do in the past. Under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, they have really found their groove.

While the Gold Cup is filled with “B” level teams, this is a huge improvement from what they have been. While the red, white and blue has their immediate focus on the Gold cup, Klinsmann is also eying next summer’s FIFA World Cup, a tournament they have all but punched their ticket into.

The team still has much to do. If the US is to be a contender in the World Cup, there are new levels that must be reached. Settling for a few match victories will become less and less acceptable as Klinsmann and the current roster continue to raise expectations from United States soccer fans. Maybe soon soccer in the US will become even half as popular as it is in other countries, and it’s about time. As Terrell Owens once said, “Get your popcorn ready.” For once USA soccer means it.

Officiating a sport is equal parts psychology, integrity, listening, and at the same time not listening. A baseball umpire can miss a single call that determines the game. A basketball official is forced to listen to 6’10” of whining on a nightly basis. In football, the Line Judge has a coach in his ear all night and has to try to not let it sway him.

All those guys (and girls) have tough jobs, but none is as physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding as a soccer referee. While there are three NBA referees for 10 players, four MLB umpires for 9 field players and 4 bases, and seven officials on an NFL field for 22 players, one soccer referee stands alone on a field that can be up to 130 yards long x 100 yards wide. To give you a frame of reference, an NFL football field is 100 yards x 53 yards.

With players spread over most of the field for most of the game, the opportunity for high jinx from players is abundant. And, especially at the highest levels of the game, soccer players don’t disappoint. I would contend it’s one of the main reasons the game hasn’t caught on in this country in the fervent way many soccer fans predicted it would.

Whenever a player takes an elbow in the face behind the play, gets kicked (as Freddy Adu did the other night in the Gold Cup Final), or is pushed or shoved behind the official’s back, the 22-1 player-referee ratio has always seemed unmanageable to me.

One of the marvels of high-caliber soccer leagues and even the World Cup at times is not just how the players play, but how much control one ref can keep over the entire 90 minutes.

FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, has tried to empower the referee (and his two assistants, who mostly stay on the sideline) more recently. There has been experimentation with things like communication systems. Theoretically, the 2 assistant referees should be the proverbial eyes on the back of the referee’s head. But from what can be a 100-yard-wide field in soccer, it would be difficult to imagine seeing anything accurately from the opposite sideline. Even when taking into account the two assistant ref’s, the amount of space and number of players to cover still doesn’t seem altogether reasonable.

An easy solution would be to add an assistant referee. Soccer has experimented with it some and has had limited success. One place this model has worked is in the NHL. In a sport with a referee system somewhat similar to soccer, the additional official on the ice has been nothing but a rousing success. Hockey games are much more exciting since the change a number of years ago and, with players not getting away with many of the grinding, stalling tactics they were in the past, it has contributed to a change in the pace of the game.

I can picture the additional ref having the a similar effect on soccer. If even some of the shenanigans of soccer could be limited, US fans might even find themselves enjoying the game more.

Some would say that soccer is the most popular sport in the world — that changing soccer even by adding an official would be painful and maybe sacrilegious. But every sport has to change sometime and an extra official could help solve a lot of the issues US fans have with the sport… When it comes to crazy soccer shenanigans, players getting away with things during the run of a game, and post-play shoving and trash-talking, an additional official could help.

Along with the great players, one of the reasons I most enjoy watching the English Premier League is the way the game is officiated. The players are the best in the world, but so are the officials. It makes a difference. Unfortunately, not every league has officials that good, and so why not make their jobs easier- at least at the highest level? Why not add a fourth official?