There has been a great deal of honest (though divisive) debate about officiating in the EPL lately. A certain Frenchman has incurred the wrath of the FA for his rather impolitic comments about officials, their capabilities, even their allegiances. While we somewhat forgive this man his grievances (we haven’t been happy, either), we do believe there’s something of a myopic discussion about potential remedies to referees’ travails absent a more thorough consumption of actual time and space relative to the jobs that referees must do.
VAR this, tradition that. Gadgetry this, technophobia that. There are those who support the use of video, and those who think any electronic device within 50 miles of a football pitch will give us all Chuck McGill-like reactions. Before settling on whether there should be assisting devices (or people) that might expand the vision and correctness of subjective (or, in the case of some rules, objective) determinations, we wanted to take a quick look at other sports, their geography, and how they staff the oversight of their field of play. At first this is simply a quantitative bookkeeping exercise. We will merely look at different sports and their fields of play, how they staff officiating teams at the major professional level.
Some caveats: not all sports are created equal. Some are heavy contact sports by design (American Football, Ice Hockey), some are true non-contact sports (Tennis, Baseball), and some are non-contact sports that also engender contact between players, though with some concurrent and ostensibly commensurate penalties (Basketball, Football). Some sports involve densities of players and constant groupings or layers of players, while others isolate their participants throughout most action. Some sports have deliberated movements of players that limit speed naturally by athletic ability, while others involve tremendous velocity, smaller projectiles, and locomotion of bodies or elements facilitated by blades, bats etc. We do not intend to create false equivalencies* here or render judgment on technology, rather we are compiling this information to continue an informed and thorough discussion about how football might smartly approach improving officiating to create more predictably applied rules, to facilitate the execution of what seems to be a cruel and difficult task: the human judging of high-stakes athletic contests performed at tremendous speed across what can be literal acres of space.
*those come later
Non-Contact Contact Sports
EPL Football
Pitch Dimensions (Emirates): 114.8 yards x 74.4 yards
Pitch Area: 76,602 square feet (1.76 acres)
Number of Players: 22 (11 per team)
Number of On-Field Officials: 1
Number of Sideline Officials: 2
Number of Off-Field Officials: 1
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: NO, other than Goal Line Technology
Timing Mechanism: Running Clock
Basketball
Court Dimensions: 94′ x50′
Court Area: 2,106 square feet (0.11 acres)
Number of Players: 10, five per team
Number of On-Court Officials: 3
Number of Off-Court Officials: 0
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: YES
Timing Mechanism: Start/Stop Clock
Non-Contact Sports
Baseball
Field Dimensions (varies): MLB fields all vary in overall dimension
Field Area (Average, AL): 107,010 square feet (2.46 acres)
Number of Players: 18 (9 per team)
Number of On-Field Officials: 4
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: YES
Timing Mechanism: No Clock
Tennis (singles):
Court Dimensions: 78′ x 27′
Court Area: 2106 square feet (0.05 acres)
Number of Players: 2
Number of On-Court Officials: 1 Chair Umpire
Number of Off-Court Officials: 8 (6 Line Umpires, 1 Referee, 1 Chief Umpire)
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: YES
Timing Mechanism: No Clock
Contact Sports
American Football
Field Dimensions: 360′ x 160.5′
Field Area: 57,780 square feet (1.33 acres)
Number of Players: 22 (11 per team)
Number of On-Field Officials: 7
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: YES
Timing Mechanism: Start/Stop Clock
Ice Hockey
Rink Dimensions: 200′ x 85′
Rink Area: 17,000 square feet (0.39 acres)
Number of Players: 12 (6 per team)
Number of On-Ice Officials: 4 (Two Referees, Two Linesmen)
Number of Off-Ice Officials: 2 (goal judges, whose import has become suspect)
Video Replay or Remotely Assisted Officiating: YES
Timing Mechanism: Start/Stop Clock
Up soon, hopefully: some subjective thoughts on the above.
-ab