It’s tough not to get upset with organized sports these days.  In Major League Baseball, the umps have just recently been responsible for a blown call that negated a pitchers perfect game as well as terrible pitch call that negated a teams ability to tie the game.  World Cup soccer is no better.  Game after game in the world cup has shown inconsistent whistles.  The USA, Mexico, and England were all screwed at the hand of poor decisions. Next I move on to Formula1 racing last weekend where the stewards for the European Grand Prix handed out an insultingly mild penalty to a hand full of drivers for improperly passing the safety car.  Especially Lewis Hamilton’s gimmick to stall Ferrari behind the safety car before he took off around it.

You could argue with me that I am just bitter because my team is on the losing end of the call, but as far as baseball and soccer goes, I don’t care about those teams, so it is not my bias that has me upset.  Foot ball and tennis both have adopted the instant replay and use of technology to improve accountability for the officiating, so why aren’t other sports doing the same?

I think what makes me upset about the whole thing is the lack of accountability with officiating.  Athletes are held to unbelievable expectations and standards.  They are told they have to improve every season.  If athletes are not improving, they are quickly passed up for others who continue to find ways to innovate change and improvement.  That is what makes the competitive nature of sports fun to watch.  Why then, do these standards not apply to the referees?  Formula1 added a professional driver on the board of stewards to provide a voice of the drivers when penalties are handed out, but is that enough?  Apparently not.  Their decision at the European Grand Prix is embarrassing. And for World Cup, they have no excuse.  Soccer players are well known for acting on the field.  They take dives and fake injuries in order to get calls in their favor.  If this is the case, which we all know to be true, then why can’t we put more ref’s on the field to hold the players accountable.  A soccer field is plenty big enough to hold an extra couple ref’s and Fifa has a big enough budget with the world cup to afford an extra couple ref’s, so why don’t they do it?  That is a question I would love an answer to so I can restore my faith in the officials, referees, and stewards that control professional athletes.