I think it might be a worthwhile idea to remove American Soccer Leagues’ reliance on FIFA refereeing. This might allow American leagues greater control of referee behavior, e.g., what is and is not a penalty, and allow the American leagues to implement rule changes to the game that they think are appropriate, without having to go through FIFA.

If you think about it sports can have different rulesets from country to country or continent to continent, e.g., the difference between North American basketball and European (FIBA) basketball. Why can’t we do the same for American Soccer? FIFA can have its own rules or refereeing practices and the U.S. can have theirs.

This would allow American leagues to better safeguard our players from FIFA referees or FIFA refereeing guidance which may be inclined to greater potential player injury, e.g., from yellow or red cards not being given when they should be. I have written about this before, and I think current refereeing, e.g., FIFA refereeing, is way too lenient, to the point where players often risk injury or are injured. This has to change.

Another idea I’ve had to address this problem is the establishment of a second international soccer/ football organization. This new organization can focus on player safety through effective refereeing guidance but can also address some of the various other issues currently affecting FIFA and international soccer, e.g., corruption allegations.

Look, overall, the long-term goal has to be player safety as well as the integrity of sport, otherwise, what’s the point? To this end, I support a separation between American refereeing and FIFA and the creation of a new international soccer body.