WATCH: Tampa Bay Rowdies Release A Video “Proving” Referee Bias Against Them

By James Bridget Gordon  |  July 26, 2016 | 2:43pm
Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty
Soccer Video
WATCH: Tampa Bay Rowdies Release A Video “Proving” Referee Bias Against Them

American soccer is inextricably tied to American culture. That means, among other things, the sport is ever so lightly steeped in trutherism.

To wit: Bill Edwards, head honcho for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, released a statement addressing what he feels is a pattern of officiating biased against his team. Edwards, whose side is currently in seventh place in the NASL table, published what amounts to an angry diatribe outlining various refereeing decisions this season that he feels unfairly target the Rowdies.

”I have been quiet all season about the poor officiating that has been taking place at Rowdies matches, but after Saturday night’s match against the Cosmos I feel compelled to speak out. It’s become clear these calls are not going to ‘even themselves out’ over the remainder of the year.”

He continued:

”As Stuart said after the match, the officiating was disgusting. It was the last straw in what I believe to be a season full of inconsistent, incompetent and unprofessional refereeing. And while it’s easy to dismiss it as ‘just a game,’ these bad calls can affect the lives and livelihoods of everyone associated with the club.”

It’s the sort of rant that would seem at home on Big Soccer.

But Edwards wasn’t done. The statement was accompanied by the video shown above, highlighting those decisions that Edwards says hit the pattern of biased refereeing.

It’s seven minutes long.

Truly, American soccer has now entered a twilight realm where everyone is out to get you and nothing is as it seems. Referees are now fair game for the disgruntled and the paranoid, in the way that Hillary Clinton and Anita Sarkeesian are currently. (Hopefully with fewer death threats, but you never know.) League campaigns are now ideological battles. Your uncle will post pictures from his night out at a Cosmos game and you’ll block him on Facebook. Fans will demand to see the opposition goalkeeper’s birth certificate. Soccer will have finally made it in America, courtesy of George Soros and/or The Rand Corporation.

At press time it’s unclear whether offside calls can melt steel beams.

 
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