The Need for Mercy Rules

            On Friday night, I was the referee of an adult match in Ocala, Fla.  The outcome of the match was decided very quickly as one team managed to score ten goals in the first half while allowing none to be scored against them.  The game ended with a score of 15-1.

            This sort of thing happens occasionally and always revives the issue of whether or not leagues should institute a mercy rule.  I have no doubt the two teenagers who had come from soccer practice to work as assistant referees and were exhausted after game one would have loved to leave game two early.  I mean, why work for 80 minutes and get paid $25 when you could work for 40 minutes for the same pay.

            In any case, adult leagues typically don’t have mercy rules because of the pay-to-play aspect.  High school soccer requires a match be terminated at any point after one-half of play is completed and the score reaches an eight-goal differential (one team is ahead by eight).

            Adult leagues need to learn from this and do the same.  If the teams want to continue playing after the match has been declared over, then fine. But, the officials need to remove themselves from the equation.

            Competition is a funny thing. It elevates the level of play, but also typically leads to increased anger.  People playing soccer in a scrimmage type setting for the intrinsic fun of doing so don’t conjure the same emotions against opponents as those in an organized game with an end goal (to win). 

            When one team is pummeling the other, as was the case Friday, players on the loosing team tend to get frustrated.  Unable to compete fairly against the opponent, they resort to unfair means such as reckless play and using excessive force. Both of these can lead to injuries, which can lead to higher insurance rates for the league, loss of players (both from injuries and for the fear of them) and lots of other consequences.  There needs to be a clear rule on when a game is over.

            To the league in Ocala’s credit, they did try to implement a mercy rule this year, but it was a grossly misguided attempt. For seasonal standings, teams are credited with zero points for loosing, one point for tying and three points for winning a game.  This mercy rule stated that teams winning by more than a seven goal differential would only be credited with 2 points. This lead to one team scoring seven goals and the losing team scoring an “own-goal” to make the differential more than seven – thus earning the moral victory of taking one point away from the winning team’s season-standing credit for the win.  It was subsequently repealed. Go figure.