SportsViews

Umpires, referees, sports officials, call them what you like, they are the ones in charge once any sporting contest starts. The result of most competitive sports can hinge on the decisions they make, or fail to make. They can report, send off, fine or penalize players for infringements.

However, when these officials make mistakes themselves, particularly mistakes that impact on the outcome of a game, they get away with it, often without penalty.

One member on SportsViews blogs came up with a novel, perhaps not new, but interesting way to handle these mistakes - fine the officials.

Unfortunately, match officials seem to be protected species. Even when they make horrendous mistakes, the governing body supports them without question.

It is very rare for any senior official to actually admit that a mistake has been made. If they don’t admit to any errors, we can’t fine them - I guess we just have to put up with them!

There is a tradition that says that once you sign your name to a professional contract, your life becomes the clubs. Every moment, awake or asleep, you are the clubs property. This is to an extent a modern form of slavery with the clubs often able to trade players with anyone, the player has little say in the matter.

What is happening more frequently is that players who transgress off the field, perhaps have a few too many to drink, are finding their social activitiies resulting fines and suspensions by their clubs.

Professional sport is one of the few careers that has such an intense control of an individuals life both on and off the field. Is it right though? At what point does your life become your own? If you are guilty of a transgression that breaches local law then surely local law enforcement should be left to deal with it.

If it doesn’t breach local laws then why the fuss. What are your views? Should clubs control an athlete 24/7. Share your views on SortsViews where fans get to make a difference.

Referee Rob Styles has apologised to Bolton for awarding a penalty to Manchester United when it was plain to all that the tackle had been fair. There is no word on Bolton’s response. However there is a bigger issue.

Does an apology close the incident, or should more be done about decisions such as this one? It is a harder question than you may think. When all is said and done, the referee is only human and human’s make mistakes. In fact, on a football team there are 11 players, all of whom make errors in a game, often more than one or two.

Before the advent of television, decisions like this were always the subject of discussions, however no one knew for sure. With television, we get to see these incidents ad nauseum and from every possible angle.

Referees are human. They will make mistakes. We do however have the technology to resolve some of these situations. There are many sports that now use what is known as a ‘video referee’ or ‘video umpire’. There role is to assist the onfield official by viewing video an incident and advising them. It has worked well in some sports, not so well in others.

The arguments against the use of video are compelling. In sports where they are used, they do slow the game down considerably, particularly when every second offense is referred. This brings in the second argument, which is, what decisions should be referred?

I would be interested to hear your opinions. Have you experienced video use in the decision making process? Did it work? Read my buzz post on SportsViews and add your opinions, or better yet, create your own little buzz - we would all like to see your opinions.

There is a fourteen year old soccer player playing in the Spain that is currently the subject of intense speculation around his future. It appears that Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona are all chasing him to get his signature on a contract - at fourteen.

The kid is still in highschool. It raises the question as to how young is too young? In reality, his signature is not worth the paper it is printed on. His parents or guardians would need to sign on his behalf and that contract would only be legal for a few years.

More importantly, why is he not allowed to finish his life as a child. Let’s face it, fourteen is not an age to be starting a career. There are rules and laws that prevent the clubs from exploiting him, but do they go far enough.

How do you feel about youngsters being drafted into professional sports. Is there an age where we have to draw the line or should it be open slather? Is fourteen old enough to decide on a career? If you have an opinion then feel free to call into SportsViews.com and share it with everyone else. It is free to join and easy to participate.

I am not the only one to be waiting for the match between Chelsea and Manchester United. The Buzz at SportsViews is all about this match and the buzz title, The Clash of the Titans really does suit the match. To quote his opening paragraph:

The clash of the titans’ is a very appropriate term for the Manchester United vs Chelsea match today. They were the winners and the runners up in their league and the champions league last season. Both have got highly talented squads. The match is a very mouth watering prospect for any football fan regardless of which team they support.

It is mouthwatering. These were the two best teams in the league last season by the proverbial country mile. This season is a different story - however it is amazing how matches against bitter rivals bring out the very best in players.

This match wont be a walkover, it probably wont be pretty either. But hard tough football it will be. Given the feelings between the two clubs, there will undoubtedly be yellow cards. Let’s hope the game isn’t spoiled by a red card.

The United States are unbeaten in the semi-final stage of the World Cup qualifiers. A short post on SportsViews announced their latest win against Trinidad and Tobago, scoring three goals to nil. They now have a five point lead at the top of their group.

From the group stage they will enter the final qualification stage to compete for a place in South Africa in 2010. The US are playing an attractive brand of football that is full of attack. If they continue to attack they will certainly make it easier on themselves to qualify.

The question will be asked at some stage, is the United States football team ready to compete competitively at that level? From what I have seen so far, the US team could make it past the first rounds and into the quarter finals in South Africa - so long as they attack. Teams that defend wind up on the losing side of the scoreboard.

What are your views? Can the US compete at World Cup level in South Africa, or will they be just making up the numbers?

One of the great things about sports fans in general is that they all have strong opinions. Sometimes they agree. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you’ll find that one person in a group simply can’t stand everyone else’s favorite team. What’s great about this isn’t just the opportunity to come together to defend a given choice; it’s the chance to have a great conversation - or at least to get one started.

That’s what the blogs over at Sportsviews.com do: they make it possible to get the conversation started and for different sports fans to share their opinions about big plays, moments that change a given match-up, coaching changes, player injuries and to give others the opportunity to post a reply and to get the conversation started.

By taking the time to check out what others are saying in their blog posts, by making comments and striking up a conversation, what you’ll find is that even with really different opinions from one person to the next, sports fans have a lot to talk about. If you’ve been looking for a better way to get your opinion out there or you just want to see what others are saying, make a stop in over at Sportsviews.com .

It doesn’t really seem like much can change over the course of a single baseball game - at least relatively early in the season - but the closer that it gets to the post season (at least for some teams) the more that every single game starts to count.

You can read basic baseball recaps, but they aren’t going to give you the same excitement about the game as watching it would have - nor will it have the passion that the same story as told by another sports fan or another fan of the same team or the opposing team would.

When you make an effort to talk with other fans of the games, you’re going to find that it is a whole lot easier to pick up on what happened. It’s going to be a lot easier for you to figure out what you missed when you hear it from someone else who is just as passionate about the sports and about the teams as you are.

Of course, sure, there’s always a risk that when you hear someone else telling the story you’ll regret missing it even more, but you’ll still be able to start talking, and you’ll still be able to keep up with the excitement.

Every team has that one player that they value - not necessarily more than the other players on the team, but that has done a lot for them. For the Baltimore Orioles, that player was relieving pitcher George Sherrill, the only member on the team who made it to the All Star Game earlier this summer.

He’d been out of the game for nearly a month before reactivation - an inflamed shoulder kept him from throwing the ball to his full potential. It’s safe to say that the O’s at this point are just looking for the chance to push themselves forward, to keep their head’s in the game and to get through the season with the best record possible.

That’s the thing that gets most teams going these days; the idea of wanting to go out with a bang - the desire to make the most out a season even if it weren’t the most successful season that they’ve had.

On some levels, whether you’re talking about baseball leading into the World Series or football and the pursuit of the playoffs or you’re talking about the NBA or any other sport: the later that it gets in the season, the more that the teams push through and give it their best.

There’s always plenty of talk whenever an athlete says that he or she is going to be retiring from the sport. The challenge is that there are plenty of professional athletes who don’t seem to understand exactly what retirement is or what retiring means because they’re often right back in front of the cameras announcing their return as soon as the sports media stops talking about it.

Roger Clemens has been the king of sports retirement in this sense. Often saying that he’s done with baseball for good only to come back out on the pitching mound the next season. Brett Favre did it with football, retiring in March and then staging a comeback as training camps and pre-season games were about to get underway.

The latest athlete who seems to be thinking about coming out of retirement is cycling’s Lance Armstrong - winner of the most Tour de France titles ever. So far there is nothing definite about Armstrong getting back onto his bike to ride, but the word is out that his manager has inquired about anti-doping tests - something that likely wouldn’t be an issue if he were not planning to return.