This story originally appeared in the 2014 Dr Pepper Dallas Cup Program.
The Dallas Cup Referee
By Daniel Robertson
No one buys a ticket to watch the referee.
For many, the man in the middle is simply an object of derision when your team is losing and an afterthought for the rest of the game.
However, the quickest way to ruin a match, and repel the quality of teams that Dallas Cup perennially attracts in the process, is to put a sub-par referee in a game of great magnitude. For that reason, one of the great initiatives in the 35 years of Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup has been to ensure that the level of referee matches the level of play on the pitch.
“[Quality referees] are probably at the top of the list of what makes a great youth tournament,” said now-retired Dallas Cup Ambassador Randy Jones who was in charge of recruiting referees for nearly two decades. “We’ve always said for many, many years that to have a successful tournament you have to have four things: Good competition across the board at all ages, good fields, good organization to get games started on time etc…and most importantly the level of referees.”
According to Jones, much like the teams are heavily vetted to whittle down hundreds of hopefuls into an elite field, the referees who apply to Dallas Cup are extensively checked to ensure their quality is up to tournament standards. This is not simply something that happens overnight either. Dallas Cup’s pedigree of international referee level is something that has been developed through year after year of relationship-building with soccer federations around the globe.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve built up a huge base of people around the world that we can call and get a confidential report that we can trust, and we can confirm or deny a referee entry into the tournament,” said Jones. “We’ve had that happen from FIFA referees all the way down to grade A’s.”
And the proof is in the pudding.
Much like the Dallas Cup boasts a laundry list of international superstars who have appeared on the field in Big D, a similar list of referees – though you may not know their names – boast Dallas Cup experience. In fact, seven of the 32 referees chosen for the 2010 FIFA World Cup are members of the Dallas Cup Referee Family as well as 2010 MLS Cup Final referee Baldomero Toledo. The referee alumni list is extremely multi-national with alumni from places like New Zealand, Qatar, Japan, Spain, Israel and just about anywhere else on the globe you can imagine.
“Last year, for the first time, we had a relationship with a confederation being CONCACAF, and these federations whether it’s New Zealand, Japan, Qatar, Scotland, I could go on, send at their expense anywhere from two to eight referees and in the majority of cases a coach or coaches and assessors with them,” said Jones. “They’re not going to send bad referees to reflect badly on their federation and that has enhanced the referee family even more.”
It’s this multi-national aspect of the Dallas Cup referee family that is just as much of a story as the quality of referee and while there are numerous relationships from football associations around the globe that are highly valued by Dallas Cup, one of the tightest is certainly with the English FA, who have an extensive program in which they send their best and brightest young referees to Dallas Cup.
“The PGMOL group was first established in about 1997 and they send three young referees [to Dallas Cup] every year that are new to the Football League, normally their first year in the Football League,” said George McCaffery, English FA Referee Academy Director. “They’ve been coming since ’97. It’s been a very successful program to the extent that of the select group, the group that referee in the English Premier League, probably a good 30% of them have been to Dallas including Mike Riley who is the Chairman of the PGMOL. He was the first one who came in 1997.”
It’s not just at the elite PGMOL level, however, as the McCaffery and the English FA send eight referees every year that are nominated from hundreds of referees at the county level, similar to the state level in America. According to McCaffery, two referees from each of eight regions around the country are nominated and then those 16 referees are further evaluated at another tournament to land at the final eight.
“The cost is quite a commitment,” said McCaffery. “But we believe that the benefits of operating in the Dallas Cup and the incentive we get from the young lads who wish to come exceeds the cost easily.”
Just like the cultural exchange programs among players, many Dallas Cup referees participate in homestays as well, making their fortnight in Dallas a life-changing experience.
“That’s exactly what we say is we don’t bring the person just to develop his refereeing skills, but we bring the man to develop him. To that extent, when we do the selection process, many referees get upset because they feel they are the best referee in the selection process, but the point is we bring the person that we believe will benefit the most,” said McCaffery.
“I remember once we had three candidates who were all very similar, but in the interview process the last one asked us if he needed a passport. He said he’d never been out of England before and so we had three candidates with equal refereeing skills, but this was going to have such a dramatic affect on this lad’s life that it was an easy choice to say we have to take him.”
You can see the affect in the fascinating reports supplied by McCaffery written by FA referees who were chosen for the Dallas Cup. One such report outlines in remarkable detail not only each game refereed and the key incidents in each match, but off-the-field uniquely DFW activities like trips to the Fort Worth Rodeo, a Texas Rangers baseball game and the Sixth Floor Museum as well as similar charitable endeavors. One can truly see the appreciation for not only the homestay experience, but the life lessons learned.
“It has not just improved my refereeing ability, but also taught me life skills. It has been the highlight of my refereeing career so far,” said one report. “I have come back to England with such a large amount of information and ideas that I want to try out on my games back home. I am a far better referee now than I was before leaving for the tournament.”
“It’s difficult to quantify [how they improve by refereeing at Dallas Cup] except that I can say that of the eight referees that came in 2012, all of them have now been promoted to the next level of referee so they’re at semi-professional level now in the UK,” said McCaffery. “The next step for them is to become an assistant referee in the Football League, so they’re that close to breaking in to the professional arena in our country.”
It’s what Dallas Cup is all about: excelling on the field while making new friends off it, unique cultural exchanges to make the world around us seem a little bit smaller, sharing an undying love for the beautiful game, and achieving our dreams.
It’s the same whether you’re one of the 22 players on the pitch or the man in the middle.
Liverpool FC Foundation College will return to play in the U-19 bracket after a successful debut in the 2014 tournament. Liverpool finished second in their first Dallas Cup tournament, outscoring their opponents 13-4. Joining the U-19 squad at Dr Pepper Dallas Cup XXXVI will be Liverpool’s U-17 team, which will compete in the U-17 Showcase Bracket.
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