Officiating and Conflicts of Interest

We have a real good sense of fairness and we know there are lines we just shouldn’t cross and we don’t.

The problem is that this varies from official to official.

Some of the obvious ones that more experienced officials recognize but others might not:

· We don’t have friendly conversations with one team or coach and not the other.

· We don’t chat it up with the home team crowd at half time or pre game.

· We don’t officiate teams with our family members in them (unless there’s an emergency situation).

· We don’t officiate games at our club or high school if we have played there in the past 5 years or so.

· We don’t respond to a team or coach calling you by your first name if they know you.

But what about:

· Your girlfriend is the assistant coach of the team or the team’s coach is your sister’s boyfriend.

· You’re a former member of the club where you had a well-known conflict which resulted in burnt bridges.

· You’re doing a playoff game for a team in a tournament which you just saw once or twice in the pool play.

· You used to play for the team and the coach cut you from the team (or some form of that scenario)

· You tell jokes or laugh during half time so the fans and coaches think u may be laughing at them

Conflict of interest policies are protective, not punitive, and an official should remove himself or not accept any assignments, which can be perceived as a conflict, and otherwise avoid any of the  ones mentioned above.

Ethics of integrity are NOT being disputed there, and those are a complete and separate issue and discussion.  You are likely to be very good at foul discrimination and judgment and game management.  Officials will argue their “fairness” over a perceived conflict.

But, Perception is reality….

You, or another official you know, or a game you may have been a team member on, may have made, or would make, a perfectly correct, but controversial call, which could be PERCEIVED as scandalous and would call into question your integrity.  You would need to consistently defend it, even though it was the right call(s).

It’s impossible to think that you shouldn’t officiate games that affect people you may be acquainted with or even know personally, as if that were the case, you may not be able to officiate at all any longer.  At all levels of the game, officials come into contact with the same players and coaches on a regular basis.

Not all “specific” standards are all encompassing.  You can’t possibly identify every relationship that would lead to an embarrassment or a conflict.  Again, some are obvious.  Others are not.

YOU have to judge that if it may be PERCEIVED that you are partial in ANY way, you need to inform the parties. If they do not object AND there is no alternative, then go ahead and officiate the game.  Even still, you may subject yourself to certain criticism both during and after the contest that is unfounded, yet still going to be there.

I have PERSONALLY witnessed:

· An official reffing his dad’s game where his brother played, too.  He was making good calls and doing a good overall job, until ONE controversial decision led to an uproar from the opposing team and called into question everything he had done.  Parents of the opposing team did not want to hear about it.  The coach’s son was obviously making calls for his dad’s favor, they said.

· An official’s son was the A/R and did NOT call an offside (on the father’s team) that not only resulted in a goal, but an injured goalkeeper as a result of the “non-call.”  This was a u-12 game.

· An official called a fair game between two seemingly neutral teams, when it was discovered he had previous (severed) ties to that team’s club and now all of a sudden he was calling the game unfairly.

· Officials chatting it up with one coach that he knew and the other team’s coach saying, “well I guess we have no chance today since that coach is his buddy.”

When my integrity as an official is challenged, I am quick to remind the dissenting player or coach that I could CARE LESS WHO WINS.  I once did a game in New Orleans where the coach called me a “homer.”  It was my first time in New Orleans and I obviously don’t live there. 

We get into enough conflicts during any and all games.  Let’s make sure that we don’t give them something else to create an embarrassing situation or PERCEIVED conflict of interest.

If you have any other specific instances of conflict of interests, please feel free to share those and I’ll update this memo for all to see and read.

*Written with notes from NFHS Quarterly Magazine