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By Essie Osborn


Good match officiating means a good game at the end of the day. A linesman in team sport refers to that assistant to the referee that whose work is to signal on-field offenses in terms of fouls and whenever the ball is ought of play and other fouls that the referee cannot see. For all this to be catered for he needs to have a good set of linesman tools.

The type and nature of tools that linesmen use depend on the type of sport the linesman is. The few sports that entail the need of a linesman are: Football (soccer), American Football, and Rugby. The synonymous nature of the games is not an irony. Rugby is attributed to giving birth to soccer and American football in turn came from Rugby. The basic information is that, in Rugby, we have a linesman and so is soccer and American football. The equipment generally used are: watches, earpiece sets for communication, jerseys, whistles, boots and flags.

This have contributed to key, fair and on point decisions. The many controversies that have bedeviled Soccer, the most popular sport on earth, are the on field poor officiating. The 1986, hand of gold, goal scored by arguably the best player in the world, Maradona on England, was a clean handball.

The handball issue, for the few who know, a handball in soccer is a foul that could earn one a booking. This foul can be explained as the handling, controlling or simply a player being in contact with the ball. Soccer players do the opposite to what basketball or handball players do. Such errors could have been controlled if the linesmen of that time were equipped with the tool, skills and technology that characterizes their counterparts of today.

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 use of flags in field sport have brought in the element of time saving and faster decision making. Time is money. This is the simple reason as to why the use of signs is included in sports. Soccer could have been a tough game to officiate if it was not for the tools and prowess that linesman have come up with for the sport.

Earpiece communication sets are common in Soccer, especially in the English Premier League and American Football. The earpiece is a vital tool for wireless communication and has been termed as a revolution invention in soccer. Referees can counter-check with them wherever in the field without actually going to the linesman, ensure professionalism as the sets can record every word they say. On the other hand linesmen can do the same to other match officials to ensure a more comprehensive sound decision that has in recent times reduced the possibility of the 1986 ordeal.

Boots, whistles and referring attire have traditionally been the tools being used in match officiating. They cannot be ignored because without them field sport could not be what it is today.




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