World Cup veteran referee Brian Hall reflects on being forced to
watch the 2006 Cup from the sidelines
The echoing voices brought it all back. The emotion. The pride. The responsibility.
As he listened to the packed stadium singing along to the German and Costa Rican national anthems as the World Cup kicked off in Munich Friday, Brian Hall could picture himself on the sidelines. Getting ready to officiate a match on whose outcome the hearts of whole countries depended.
It was where he belonged. The pinnacle of the sporting world. The grandest of all athletic stages. And he could be there – should be there. He had been there before. But this time, he wasn’t there. And he could never be there again.
A DISASTROUS DEVELOPMENT
Just four years ago, Hall had broken new ground. In the Korea–Japan World Cup, the Gilroy resident became the first American to referee all the way to the final. After he refereed two first-round games and served as the fourth official for another contest, Hall was selected as one of the tournament’s top-16 referees.
Already the only one of more than 120,000 referees in the U.S. to officiate in the 2002 Cup, Hall became the first American to referee a semifinal game. That Brazil–Turkey contest was a watershed event in U.S. soccer. But Hall was not finished.
The two-time Major League Soccer (MLS) Referee of the Year had designs on officiating in the Athens Games in 2004 – his first Olympics – and then to work his second World Cup in Germany. With his No. 10 standing in World Soccer Magazine’s referee rankings and impressive performance in the 2002 Cup, Hall seemed a shoe-in for those assignments.
FIFA’s mandatory retirement age of 45 for international officiating meant that the Olympics and the 2006 Cup would be the final elite events Hall would be eligible to work on the world stage. They would be the crowning achievements in a decorated career – “a last hurrah type of thing,” Hall said.
But in December of 2003, disaster struck. 20 minutes into refereeing an international friendly in Los Angeles, Hall buckled in pain. He felt as if a knife went through his right hamstring. The searing pain was not just temporary. He had suffered a serious tendon injury, something that would sideline him for the next 10 months.
The injury itself precluded Hall from working the Olympics, denying him that first-time opportunity.
But the bigger blow came when FIFA decided not to include him among the initial pool of 43 referees from which world soccer’s governing body would determine the 23 referees who would work the 2006 Cup.
“They didn’t want to take a risk with me, that I wouldn’t recover,” said Hall, now 45.
“My heart just kind of saddened because you work all your life for the chance to represent your country, your fellow referees and your community at the world’s largest sporting event. … It’s a big disappointment I didn’t have the chance to go to Germany.”
REFEREE ON THE COUCH
After fully recovering from the hamstring injury, Hall went on to earn his second MLS Referee of the Year honor in 2005. Even though he refereed three World Cup Qualifiers last year and even though FIFA didn’t pare down to the final 23 referees bound for Germany until this past March, Hall was resigned to watching from the sidelines this year.
Thus, as Germany and Costa Rica opened the Cup Friday, Hall found himself watching on television from his home in Gilroy. Reflecting back on his first Cup game – the Italy v. Ecuador contest in 2002 – Hall said, “I can remember getting goosebumps on me with the atmosphere, getting my first chance to referee on the world stage.
“I just started to remember the feeling, the responsibility, how in the World Cup I really wanted to prove to the rest of the world that American referees are as good as referees from any other country.”
Asked his thoughts once the game began, Hall noted how he hoped his fellow referees didn’t face the predicament of game-altering rulings in the tournament-opening contest.
“Refereeing is a family,” related Gilroy High’s boys’ soccer co-head coach. “You still wish everyone else the success because, for the family of referees, you want the good name.”
“People don’t realize the pressures on the referees are tremendous,” continued Hall, an 11-year veteran of MLS officiating. “Soccer is a low-scoring game. Decisions by referees in a soccer game could have a huge impact on the outcome of a game.”
Listing whether to rule on a penalty kick, a yellow or red card, an offside violation, and the legitimacy of a goal as the four critical calls a referee might make, Hall said such controversial rulings are never easy.
“In soccer, with only 2.5 average goals per game, if you make one of those decisions, the teams don’t have a lot of chances to make up for it,” said Hall, who refereed his first professional game as a 19-year old Santa Clara University student. “Refereeing is a lot of luck. You don’t want any controversy. You don’t want any of those games that has those tough decisions in them.”
Moreover, with the high stakes of World Cup games and the intense fervor of fans worldwide, Hall said the 16-20 television cameras trained on the action make the officials’ jobs even more challenging.
“You have a split second and one angle to make the correct call,” he said. “We always laugh about how TV pays a lot of the bills in soccer, but it’s also the referees’ worst enemy. For weeks and weeks, people can be debating your call.”
ROOTING FOR THE U.S.
Even though he was denied the chance to showcase his talents alongside the other top soccer craftsmen in the world, Hall shows no traces of bitterness. Rather, as he continues to excel in his domestic career – one without the forced retirement age of 45 – Hall eyes the action abroad as a fan of sorts, albeit one with a vested interest.
“You root for good soccer,” Hall said. “First off, I always root for the U.S. If the U.S. team is doing well, people’s perception of soccer in the U.S. is elevated. If the national team is doing well, (people will say), ‘Maybe the MLS is better than we thought. Maybe the refereeing in the U.S. is better than we thought. Maybe the player development is better than we thought.’ It’s all kind of tied to the success of the national team.”
Noting the difficult group the U.S. team finds itself mired in, Hall said the Americans have a great opportunity to show the world just how far the game has come back home. A solid showing against heavyweights Italy and the Czech Republic would do volumes for the growth of the game for Americans and in the eyes of outsiders.
Hall spoke of one of the main stigmas soccer fans outside of this country employ when deriding the U.S. game.
“As soon as they hear American, what do they think? They think baseball, American football, basketball. Not soccer. … Through your performance (as a referee or player), you have to show them football, soccer, is something that is an important part of our sporting culture here.”
CONTINUING MOTIVATION
The grueling, eight-month rehabilitation from his hamstring injury gave Hall plenty of time to wonder what might have been.
“You work all your life for one or two opportunities for something and then for an injury to take that opportunity away from you …” Hall’s voiced trailed off. “You look in the mirror and you say, ‘Why me? Why did I have to get an injury that was severe enough to keep me out of the running?”
Long since having come to grips with the unfortunate reality, Hall nonetheless wished FIFA had ruled otherwise.
“You’d think they’d be hungry to want to bring you back for another shot,” Hall related, “but at the same time, I can understand they want definitive answers. ‘Will he be able to perform or not?'”
His exclusion from the Cup continues to serve as a motivation to Hall as he continues his MLS career. Daily 90-minute workouts on the Gilroy High fields consist of the same regimen and intensity as those that preceded his injury.
“I want to prove all these people wrong,” Hall said. “I didn’t get to go, but I want to show them all I still have it.”
“I referee because of the challenge to continue to improve,” he continued. “Even though I’m 45 and my international career is finished, I want to keep improving and keep proving to others that I’m among the best. … It’s that personal challenge, that pushing myself that keeps driving me.”
Stepping back to assess his lot in life – the highs and lows of the past four years – Hall put a lasting positive spin on being forced to the sidelines.
“Refereeing has its ups and downs just like everything in life,” Hall said. “It was just unfortunate timing for me. It just didn’t work out. Every referee … that’s your goal – to get to the World Cup.
“I did it once. No one can take that away from me.”
