27 April 2014

A Linesman Tools Define His Officiating

By Essie Osborn


The word linesman is common in field sport. This entails team play which means a lot of players being involved. Ultimately, the need for a fair play and good match officiating will be a necessity. That brings us to the reason as to why we have referees and linesmen. A linesman plays the subsidiary role to the referee. His work is to assist the referee. For this to take effect, they have to possess good working equipment. For this case, the major concern will be on the importance of linesman tools.

There are a variety of tools that can be used by linesmen. This however depend on the type of sport in consideration. The most common sports that generally ought to have linesmen are Football (soccer) and American Football and in Rugby. Their synonymous nature in naming spreads even to the field of play. Their roles, linesmen, in both sports. The equipment of use are: boots, flags, minute boards for showing additional time especially in football, jerseys, watches, whistles and earpiece communication sets.

The need for good match officiating heightened in the aftermath of 1986 World Cup. Diego Maradona, professionally ball-handled the ball in present of thousands of football fanatics and match officials, and scored a goal against England. This was the height of laxity in Soccer as a sport and in turn culminated to changes being made to the officiating of this sport to what it is today.

A handball to those uninformed is a foul in the Football scenario where a player handles the ball using the arm, which is an offense. Mistakes like this could be prevented, matter of fact they are now, due to the lack of tools, technology and good match officiating.

They at all times has to be alert and be able to make decisions in making decision correctly within a split second of time. This needs well equipping of the linesman. In the English Premier League, Linesmen are equipped with flags, earpiece sets to communicate, jerseys and for the other match officials they get minute boards and watches to keep time.

The flags are important in field sport. For one reason, for communication. It would be quite archaic to use a microphone or speaker every time the ball crossed the line as way to signal that. This is why FIFA and IRB, the soccer governing body and their rugby counterparts respectively, have trained their linesmen in official sign communication with the referee. This is done with the aid of a flag.

Earpiece, this is an electronic device fitted in ones ear to enable communication through either Bluetooth or other wireless communication. This technology has been embraced by American football and Soccer in the English Premier league to be specific. This tool has enabled the easier and fair decision making as communication can be done through that. The referee can talk with the linesman, the linesman in turn can countercheck with the other match officials before reaching a sound decision. This has reduced the possibility of cases like that of Maradona in the 1986 world cup match.

It goes without saying that watches, boots, jerseys and whistles play an essential role in all team sport. It is a must to have them and for that matter some significant level of recognition ought to be accorded.




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