The paper investigates potential bias in awards of player disciplinary sanctions, in the form of cautions (yellow cards) and dismissals (red cards) by referees in the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga. Previous studies of behaviour of soccer referees have not adequately incorporated within-game information.Descriptive statistics from our samples clearly show that home teams recei...

1. Publish essentially as is; the only changes necessary are very simple typographical matters which can be changed by the editor. 2. Publish after author’s minor revision; the referee suggests points which must be changed before the paper meets the standards for publication. 3. Publish only if the author makes major revisions. (Perhaps the paper is much too long or is badly written. The revise...

Plans by universities and research funders to pay the costs of Open Access Publishing ("Gold OA") are premature. Funds are short; 80% of journals (including virtually all the top journals) are still subscription-based, tying up the potential funds to pay for Gold OA; the asking price for Gold OA is still high; and there is concern that paying to publish may inflate acceptance rates and lower qu...

The use of global positioning systems (GPS) technology within referees of any sport is limited. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the movement and physiological demands of professional rugby league referees using GPS tracking analysis. Time-motion analysis was undertaken on 8 referees using 5-Hz GPS devices and heart rate monitors throughout a series of Super League ma...

The aim of this study was to describe the activity profile of top-class female soccer referees during competition and to relate it to the position of the ball. Ten matches from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) under-20 female World Championships held in Russia in 2006 were filmed and the kinematical parameters of the female referees (n=10) and the ball were determine...

BACKGROUND Despite the crucial role of referees in a soccer match, few researchers have targeted the injury profile of referees in their studies. Understanding the incidence, nature, and pattern of injuries could provide important information for educational and preventative efforts at the international level. HYPOTHESIS The incidence rate and patterns of acute injuries to official referees o...