Let Players Shout, Says Soccer Coach

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30499, 22 July 1964, Page 19

Let Players Shout, Says Soccer Coach

Shouting was not used enough by New Zealand soccer players, New Brighton’s English player-coach, E. Taylor, told the Canterbury Referees’ Association last evening. Some referees seemed to want to stamp shouting out, but this was all wrong.

“Players shouting to each other are no concern of the referee, unless they are abusive or use bad language,” Mr Taylor said. “They have to shout to learn the game. Their game can improve 100 per cent if they shout correctly,” he said. Even foul language should be overlooked, he thought, if it came out on the spur of the moment. “Bad language is some players’ automatic reaction to anything that happens suddenly,” he explained. The referee was the most important man on the field, because football would never improve with bad referees, Mr Taylor said. Without a referee there was no game; with a bad referee a game could turn into a brawl. New Zealand soccer referees

paid too much attention to their linesman, Mr Taylor thought. “The referee should make his own mistakes, and not let his linesman make them for him,” he said. The linesmen’s work should be confined to throw-ins, cor-ner-kicks, off-side decisions, and goal-mouth melees, “Anywhere else —in about 90 per cent of the field —it is the referee’s decision, but in New Zealand it seems 50 per cent referee, 50 per cent linesman.” Know Players Personally It helped greatly if a referee knew players personally, as he could often help them. “There are a lot of rules, and most players don’t know them. Who can help, except the referees?” he asked. He criticised what he said was the poor marking of lines on football grounds. Referees deserved more help in this respect. He could not see how referees could manage without linesmen. The standard of refereeing in New Zealand was not up to that in Britain, but on the whole was not bad considering the game here was “just growing up.”