Wednesday 9 July
Wednesday was travel day. Flying from Copenhagen to Madrid and on to Malaga was ok. All three of us (Alex, Frank R and myself) met in the airport with The Danish team. The first leg was very uneventful except for a vey bumpy landing.
After landing in Madrid we only had 40 minutes to catch our connection – or so we thought. It was fairly easy to find the gate and we boarded on time, but then the sky way (or whatever they are called) broke and couldn’t pull away from the aircraft, so we had to sit in the plane for about 30 minutes until someone came and fixed it. Luckily, we didn’t have another connection to catch, so it didn’t matter that much that we got a little delayed.
In Malaga, we had to get our luggage and that also turned out to be a more lengthy process that we had hoped for, so we ended up waiting around 30 minutes for our bags. Oh well.
The team had two busses waiting for them but we drove with Henrik, the Danish president in a rental car that – funnily enough – also demanded more of our time than we had anticipated.
Once we found it, Henrik and Frank – our technical experts – had trouble unlocking the doors. Then they had trouble starting the engine and finally they had trouble disengaging the emergency brake. They ended up giving me the 300 page manual in Spanish and I had to find out how to operate the brake.
Once that was taken care of, we started loading the car and discovered that the car was too small for all of our bags, so we had to get another car. Oh well.
Finally we get on the road, and I got to test my new fancy gadget, my PDA and the GPS. It took a while but with some encouragement from Frank and Alex, and some more patience, it finally started worked. Now I just have to figure out how to operate it. 
I left my apartment around 10.30 in the morning and we arrived at the hotel/facility a little after midnight. We all share the same room, but there is plenty of space and the beds are very comfortable. It looks like it is going to be a very good tournament. We are certainly off to a good start.
Thursday 10 July
We decided to take a walk into the center of Seville Thursday morning before it got too hot, and that was a good idea. Both to take a walk but also to do it early.
Seville seems like a very old city with old buildings and narrow streets. This – of course – doesn’t stop the Spanish drivers from being…. well…. Spanish drivers, so we had to watch out for traffic.
Just before noon I decided to head back to the hotel and Frank and Alex decided to do a few more touristy things, so we split up. I got some water and made it back around 12.45. The Russian team was practicing at 1300, but I decided to stay in our room and cool down and relax with some reading.
I don’t know if pets are allowed in the rooms, but we certainly have some. No, I’m not talking about Alex, but rather all the ants that run around here on the 3rd floor. It’s a special feeling to go to bed knowing you’ll be sharing it with an unspecified number of “house guests”. And as soon as you know they are there, you think you can feel them everywhere and all the time.
Luckily, they are very small, they don’t bite and they are not cockroaches.
We have a TV in the room. It’s 14 inches and every channel is in Spanish. The picture is fuzzy and the sound comes and goes, but luckily we are not here to watch TV.
The shower is great!! It’s big and roomy and the water is adjustable and nice. We’ll enjoy taking showers.
Thursday night we went out to dinner with Henrik and an American “USA Football” guy named Jack. We found a little café and had dinner – Spanish style – at 11PM. It was a nice end to our first day here, and to top it all off, we met the nice French officials when we got back to the hotel. It’s getting to look more and more like a football vacation.
Friday 11 July
Tomorrow is Game Day, so today I’ve tried to relax as much as possible. That means stay in the hotel room and do a little work on the computer, watch a movie, and read up on my position and our philosophies.
I finally got my brand new phone to work abroad. My new number is +45 60 60 72 40.
Frank and Alex went sightseeing, so I was able to turn down the air conditioning just a little bit. My two Viking room mates like the room temperature to be in the low teens, so when I get the chance, I like to crank it up to around 25.
For dinner, we went out with Eigil, Einar, Ralph and José. We had pizza. For some reason Einar ordered a burned pizza. In any case, that’s what he got. Maybe he likes them that way?? It was good to see them again.
Tomorrow is Game Day and I can’t wait to get started. Enough with the preparations, let’s get the game on!!
Saturday 12 July
Game Day!!! I like the sound of that. Unfortunately my game was the late game, so I had to wait al day and even sit through the first game as a spectator first.
The dreaded weather is not as bad as we had feared. It’s sunny and warm, and I wouldn’t want to go anywhere without sun screen, but it’s not a problem during the games. At least not yet.
The games are played in two different locations. The two Saturday games were played very close to our hotel, so we decided to walk over there. It was supposed to be a 10 minute walk. On the way we found some shade under a long line of trees and we quickly discovered what the shade could also be used for, because there were a lot of used condoms on the ground. Naturally, we had to name the street Prophylactic Avenue.
When we got to the Stadium – after a 20 minute walk – we were pleased to discover that the organizers had put up canapés to provide shade for the spectators. Very nice.
We then heard that they were having a little problem with the game clock and the 25 second clocks. Apparently they didn’t have a wire that fit. Why that was only discovered 30 minutes before the start of the tournament, I cannot say, but the result was that the first game was played without either clock visible to the spectators or the teams.
The crews for the first two games had to be altered slightly from the original plan. One Finish official didn’t arrive before after his first game, and the Austrian guys found out the hard way what can happen when you check in your officiating gear in stead of putting it in the carry on luggage.
The microphones didn’t work that well either. Both the ref-mike and the PA-mike had holes and static and why that wasn’t tested before the tournament, I cannot say. But what the announcer lacked in technical quality, he made up for in enthusiasm. He was very entertaining.
For this tournament the officials will be graded much like they do it in some of the big conferences in the US, for example the PAC-10. Each official is given 100 points at the beginning of the game, and the goal is to hold on them throughout the game. Incorrect calls, judgment or mechanics deduct points. It sounds very interesting and I look forward to seeing the system in action.
The first game was between Russia and Sweden and the game certainly got off to an interesting start. On Sweden’s first drive they were called for OH 4 times, 2 of which called back TDs. In the end Sweden won comfortably even though they had a player disqualified.
The crew struggled a bit with ball relay, because each team has been allowed to play with their own balls, which means that the balls have to be replaced after every turnover, and it is now possible to have the “wrong” ball on the field. This will take some getting used to.
But now for my game. I was the Side Judge, which meant that I would be on the French sideline. It was Spain against France.
There was a team area, but no coaching box, so the only line was 12 feet from the sideline, which made it difficult to keep the coaches clear, but the French sideline was actually surprisingly disciplined, and I didn’t have any problems.
I had two flags. One with the BJ for a SUI on B and one for a crack back IBB on a Spanish receiver. On that one I got to go “downtown” with my flag. I have to live up to my nick name.
Points of improvement:
- I have to get better at timing the team time outs
- I have to improve my ball relay
- I have to step up my supervisory role on penalty enforcements
Apparently we misenforced a ILF after a punt and even though I was down deep when it all happened, I should have been able to step in and realize that something was not right.
The timing and the ball relay got better in the second half, but I can do much better.
By the fourth quarter the sun was going down across the field from me, and that made it difficult to see anything. The game was 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is a bit long for 10 minute quarters, but we had a lot of scoring with France winning 45-25.
After the game we hurried back to the hotel for dinner and a post-game meeting, where we talked about how we can improve for the next game.
After the meeting the rumors started about Sunday’s game between Denmark and Austria. Apparently, the Austrian officials weren’t the only ones who had lost their luggage…
Sunday 13 July
And so it happened that the game Germany-Finland was played as scheduled at 6PM and the game between Denmark and Austria was moved to a third field with kickoff at 7PM, but I get ahead of myself.
Since we didn’t have an early game, we took the opportunity to hold a meeting for all the officials and look at tape from the first two games and talk about philosophy and mechanics. This meeting lasted 3 hours.
Because the Denmark-Austria game was moved so late, the local organizers struggled to get everything lined up for the game. This meant that 5 of the officials – yours truly included – who were supposed to be resting, ended up working the chains and serving as ball boys. I cannot remember the last time I was a ball boy, but it was kind of fun not to have any other responsibilities.
There was no microphone for the referee, there was no public announcer, there were no national anthems – the teams sang accapella – and the field markings left quite a bit to be desired, but the game got played and I performed a mean ball/water boy if I do say so myself.
After the game we only waited for an hour for the bus to take us back to Seville. Apparently, our bus first had to take the German players to their hotel before coming to pick us up.
We got back around 11.30PM, had dinner and then started our pregame for Monday’s game, and we didn’t get to bed until almost 1AM.
Monday 14 July
Another game day.
This time we were on the early game, so we had to get breakfast at 8 and the bus left at 8.45. I’m not afraid to admit I had a little trouble waking up after a short night where I had even dreamt about football officiating.
This game was between Sweden and Spain, and I figured I would be on the Swedish sideline, but it turned out that I would have to contend with the temperamental Spanish coaches. Since the same team shouldn’t be the home team for all three games, Spain was the away team for this game.
We were hoping to convince the coaches to use the same balls but that didn’t work. There are tournament balls, but since the teams were allowed to play with their own, we ended up with three balls from each team, which meant an extended ball relay system for every turnover. When you are not used to it, it takes a bit of concentration to focus on the right balls for the right team. Luckily it was a lot better than the first game, and improvement is always nice.
I had four flags. Two of them were DOGs. The 25 second clocks were working so I took over from the referee. I had one late hit out of bounds on a Swedish defender and I had a SUI along with the BJ.
The game was very close in the first half with Sweden going up 13-0 on the last play of the half.
In the second half it seemed that the Spanish team got tired and they quickly fell further behind, which caused their tempers to flair up a bit and the second half was quite a challenge on the sideline.
We decided that the best thing to do was to ignore their comments, and luckily they were all in Spanish, so the Swedes never understood them, and I could easily pretend not to understand.
We screwed up a penalty enforcement for the second game in a row. We had a DOG where the offense got off the snap before the RFP and we ended up with 1st and 15 after that. Of course it should have been 1st and 10 but nobody picked that up during the game.
The weather was nice. It started out nice and warm and just got nicer and warmer as our shadows on the field just got shorter and shorter. So far, the weather has not been a problem. It’s hot, but not to the point where we cannot work the games.
After the game we went back to the hotel for our post game and then rested a bit before going to the second game. It looked like we were going to get a thunder storm, but all we got was a lot of wind and a lot of sand in the wind. At one point, just at the beginning of the game, the wind was so strong that it made the goal posts turn almost 45 degrees.
The only other thing to say about this game is that it was the shortest game I have ever seen. 4 quarters of 10 minutes over in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Including halftime. That was how much they ran the ball. That and only 5 flags and 2 scores.
We got home early and managed to do some laundry before turning in early. With these long days it’s good to get a good night’s sleep when you can.
Tuesday 15 July
The two games of the day were about 15 bus-minutes away. They were both in Denmark’s group, so we – the Danish officials – were not assigned to any of them.
The first game featured an unfortunate QB, who tried to win the game on the last drive with only seconds left in the game. He wanted to get off one more play so he spike the ball to stop the clock. He just didn’t realize that it was fourth down, so the other team only had to kneel once and the game was over.
The second game featured a rookie 25 second clock operator – me. It was fun to try. It certainly is different than working the game clock.
Tomorrow is another game day. Can’t wait.
Wednesday 16 July
When your room is three flights of stairs up, it is not nice when the elevator stops working. Luckily, they managed to fix it pretty quickly and now it works again. Almost. We just have to watch our step when we get off on our floor, because we have to take a step up getting off the elevator.
The microphones for the referees and the PA announcers must run on a special Spanish frequency. They work beautifully before the game, but sometime between the coin toss and the first kick off, something happens and apparently no one can figure out what it is. It is a shame for the spectators and the teams and a working ref-mike would also make our life easier on the field. Hopefully, they will work something out for the finals.
The first game of the day was between Russia and the home country Spain. There were quite a few local supporters and a handful of Russian fans. Unfortunately for the Russian offense, the fans made the most noise when Russia was on offense. I was waiting for someone from the Russian team to tell them only to make noise for their defense, but that never happened.
My game was the unofficial semi final between the two undefeated teams in the group: France and Sweden. The winner would advance to the final and the loser would have to settle for the bronze game.
During our pregame our supervisor comes in to inform us that there had been some “altercations” between Swedish and French players at the hotel where both teams are staying, so we should be prepared for everything. How about that for an introduction to the game??
Luckily, we managed to prepare very well for the game and I’m happy to say that this was – by far – my best game yet in this tournament. Right from the start in got into a good rhythm with my presnap routines and taking care of my duties, and I manage to stay in the zone for the entire game. It was one of those games where everything almost seemed like it was slow motion. What a feeling!!!!
I had an OPI, where the receiver looked like he was blocking on a running play. A PF for a late hit out of bounds. A DOG on the offense. A couple of adjustments of the 25 second clock because it started early or late and a nice call on a deep TD to my corner of the end zone.
And then of course I had a DPI in the end zone with the back judge, where we ended up putting the ball on the wrong hash mark. If nothing else, there is still room for improvement.
Sweden went up in the 4th quarter and they were pinned deep. All of a sudden the wind picks up and Sweden manages to get a loooooooong punt helped by the wind and a very nice bounce. Then France takes the field for their last drive and it starts to rain with some of the largest rain drops I have ever seen, and with the wind, the French team had the rain right in their faces.
This last part of the game is hectic enough. I’m on the French sideline, so I’m also trying to keep the French coaches off the sideline. To top everything off, the stadium clock malfunctions and we have to communicate the clock verbally, which is very difficult because of the rain and the noise and then the 25 second clocks stop working, so the referee takes that job.
During all of this I’m having the time of my life staying on top of the game, the players, the coaches and all my duties. Great!!!
Oh, by the way, Sweden won.
After the game, both the supervisor and our fellow officials complimented us on a job well done, and that was also special. It’s one thing to have a good feeling about the game yourself, but it is another to learn that your peers also felt you did a good job.
The game was over at 20.10 and we went back to the hotel for the post game meeting, where our observer shared his comments with us. Then a quick shower and a meal and then back in the meeting room for the daily officiating meeting to round up the day.
And what a day it was!!!
Thursday 17 July
Thursday was the last day of group play and it was in the Danish group, so the Danish officials were not working. At least not on the field. Alex and I worked the game clock and the 25 second clock on both games, and that is actually very interesting.
The stadium didn’t have an actual press box or anything like that, where the clock operators would normally be situated, so they had set up a table for us behind the corner of one of the end zones on the away team’s side of the field. It was located so that we couldn’t see the game clock and one of the 25 second clocks and the other one we could see roughly 50% of the time. It was an interesting challenge to run it correctly.
When the offense was driving towards us, we couldn’t see the referee or his signals either, so we had to go with the sound of his whistle and if the play ended close to our sideline at the other end of the field, we could hardly see any signals, so we had to guestimate the status of the clock.
When we were not busy stopping spectators and photographers from standing in our line of sight or standing in front of the scoreboard, which was at ground level, we had to concentrate on the clocks. Especially at the end of every quarter, to make sure we didn’t run the 25 second clock when the game clock was running with less than 25 seconds to go in the quarter.
After the games Alex and I went out to eat with some other Danes and a good time was had by all. After we got back to the hotel I watched game tape until around 1AM and then it was off to bed.
Friday 18 July
Friday was our relaxation day. Well, at least for some of us. Our evaluators worked hard all day to finish up all the evaluations.
Let me just dwell on our supervisors / evaluators for a second. Not only did they double between being referees and being evaluators. Some of them also worked a game as LJ. When they were not working games themselves, they sat in the stands taking notes on the crew on the field, and back at the hotel they evaluated the crews based on the game tapes, so that all crews were evaluated on all plays in almost all the games.
I must take my hat (whitecap) off for what they have done this week.
And while I’m paying compliments, I have to mention a person who has not only worked 4 games, but on top of that has functioned as local liaison and worked tirelessly to make the tournament as good as possible for the rest of us. Thank you, José.
The playoff games have now been assigned, and I will be working the game for 5th place between Russia and Austria. It should be an interesting game.
Saturday 19 July
Each group played their games on the same field. The game for 5th place was my first game on this particular field. You might argue that working on one field or another makes no difference, but here in Spain it does.
On our “regular” field the 50 yard line was the 48 yard line and on this new field it was the 49 yard line. This is important to know in terms of penalty enforcement across midfield and also for the deep officials when we have to line up 20 yards from the line of scrimmage.
On our “old” field there had been no coaching box for the first games. The only line to keep the players off the field had been 12 feet from the sideline. When they finally made the coaching line they made it 1 yard from the field, so we didn’t really have that much room to work with. This, of course, was extra bad for the linesman and the chain. On this new field we had something resembling 6 feet to work with, so all in all, a step up in terms of fields.
It seemed like it was the hottest game all week. Especially in the first half. It was 45 degrees Celsius or 110 degrees Fahrenheit, but it wasn’t so bad that it made it difficult to think or move. I still don’t know what the big deal is. I would rather have 45 degrees Celsius than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. And in the second half it cool off considerably, so we ended up with around 35 degrees. Down right comfortable.
In the first half the Austrian team dominated the game and went ahead. In the second half, the Russians used every page in their playbook and managed to make the game interesting. So much so that the Russian coaches asked us if they could bring unused timeouts with them to overtime.
They also ended up using all their timeouts in the same drive to stop the clock and it was up to us on that sideline to be ready for their signals after the plays. It’s always fun when we get to practice our game awareness like that.
I ended up with a DPI, and an OH and we had two situations at the end worth mentioning. The Austrians had the ball and tried to run out the clock. All of a sudden, the 25 second clock doesn’t start and as SJ that is my responsibility. I kill the game clock and we have to reset the clock and start them both back up. It was very fortunate that our linesman knew exactly how much time was left when the last ready-for-play had been blown in.
The other situation is in the same drive. The game clock is running and the Austrian offense commits a false start. Under normal circumstances the clock should start on the ready-for-play, but in this instance we invoked our old friend, rule 3-4-3 and started the clock on the snap, so the offense was not able to gain an advantage – clockwise – by false starting.
Right after the game, I had a funny feeling in my stomach. The tournament I had been looking forward to for almost 6 months, was suddenly over. At least for me. Tomorrow will be the final installment of this diary, from the bronze game and from the final.
Sunday 20 July
The final day of the tournament. Alex and I had volunteered to work the game clock and the 25 second clock. Luckily, we managed to get through both games without any screw-ups with the clocks.
I guess now is as good a time for a little reflection as any. It’s been a good tournament in many ways.
The level of competition is as high as I have ever seen it. All teams need to bring their best performance, or they risk losing the game. No team really fell through, and I think that is a testament to the fact that the overall skill level is rising in Europe.
The organizers worked very hard to make everything run smoothly. What they lacked in organizational skills they tried to make up in hustle and hard work. Most of the time that worked fine.
The officiating improved throughout the week, thanks to our tireless supervisor and evaluators. We have learned a lot about using a grading system and we have learned a lot about being graded.
It is an interesting experience working a game, knowing full well that you are being watched and evaluated. Everything you do and everything you call or don’t call is being second-guessed and the same night or the next day at the latest you’ll get to see the game on tape and hear what your evaluator thought of your calls.
It certainly made most of us think twice before calling OH or IBB, knowing that it had to be very clear call for it to stand up to the review.
In this sense, the grading system worked extremely well.
The next step we need to take is to have a continuous game tape instead of the cut up version we had at this tournament. It was cut up so badly that the entire game only lasted around 35 minutes on tape.
When we get a game tape that is only stopped between quarters and for serious injury timeouts, we’ll be able to evaluate pre-snap routines and dead ball officiating as well and that will make us improve by leaps and bounds. That is my opinion, anyway.
So what have I learned this past week? What am taking with me back home, that I will implement in the future?
My only two downgrades this week – which were enough to bump me down to number 3 in the SJ group were allowing the crew to mis-enforce two penalties. Even though I was not directly involved in throwing either flag, I could/should have paid more attention during the enforcement of the two fouls to make sure we did it correctly.
I failed to do so, and I missed two crew-saving opportunities.
From now on, when I work a deep position, I will make it a priority to know what is going on with every penalty and make sure it is enforced properly.
I think that is all from the EJC 2008. Can’t wait for the next one.