The Soccer Green Card

Enhancing the Sport of Soccer through Positive Refereeing

Created by two volunteer soccer referees, Richard Bradwell and Bob Blackburn

Their concept is simple: “To foster honorable sporting competition by recognizing and rewarding exceptional sporting behavior”

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Welcome to the online home of the Soccer Green Card, a concept originally thought up by Richard Bradwell and Bob Blackburn, volunteer youth soccer referees, in 1997.

The pair had just finished painting the soccer fields on a late evening before the weekend of soccer games was going to begin, and they got to talking about how the games would probably go over the following days, and what their roles were as referees to control and influence the game, not in the negative way most spectators see them, but in a positive way that can enhance the game.

Referees are given tools to maintain control of the game, most notably the Yellow and Red Card, to point out bad behavior, fouls, and other unsportsmanlike behavior on the field, and the game naturally grows around playing in the dirtiest way possible to win without being called out for it by the referee. In doing so, the players may sneak shoves and trip other players behind the referee’s back to their advantage, and these subtle cues tend to build up more and more throughout the game as the competitive nature takes control.

But what if, thought Richard and Bob that night, there was a way for referees to be a source of positive influence on the gameplay. The rules of soccer are pretty firm and have been established for a long time, and the flow of play is paramount to maintaining the nature of the game, so any tool to encourage positive behavior would have to fit within this framework. Something to encourage players to think of how they can be a good sport during play instead of seeking out ways to manipulate the rules at the other team’s expense. Something to reward players for going above and beyond the norm and show positive humanity within the game.

Soccer is unique in its execution as it leaves a lot of personal authority over one’s behavior, more-so than most other sports. Especially in youth soccer, this is a game where one’s personality can really develop and be tested in how certain behaviors are made light of in the context of the game.

For these reasons, the Soccer Green Card was conceptualized. A solid, tangible way to recognize and encourage good sportsmanlike behavior, deliverable in a streamlined way as to not impact game-flow. Over the years since that idea, Richard has honed and tested applications of the Green Card in soccer games throughout South Florida, and has exhibited the concept at a Referees course in Atlanta, where he gave a talk to a room full of other volunteer referees to encourage them to practice the Art of Positive Refereeing by using the Green Card in their own community’s soccer matches.

 

Soccer referees enter the field with the authority, power and responsibility to facilitate a ‘fair’ game of soccer. Armed with a stopwatch, whistle, yellow and red card, they have what is needed. And throughout the game, referees closely watch all the action, while being critisized by the players, coaches and spectators, waiting for the inevitable opportunity to blow their whistle to point out a foul or misconduct by the athletes. 

What encouragement do players have to do something good… or great? The Green Card is the answer. Do you get a green card for scoring a goal, or making a nice save? No. That is part of the intent of the game. A Green Card is used to recognize a player for going above and beyond what is expected, and show a truely extraordinary display of great sporting behavior.

After many years gathering stories of the positive effects of good sportsmanship encouragement, we are now bringing knowledge about how to implement the Green Card in soccer to further publicity through this website. While this site was established in 2006, life has been in the way of getting the information available online, but now it will be coming more and more, including real life stories and courses for how to implement the Soccer Green Card strategies to impact the game in a positive manner as a referee.
 

We welcome your own stories of the soccer green card in action and want to help see this concept develop into even further implementations across the country and around the world.

Richard Bradwell teaching Soccer Green Card Class in 2008

Soccer Green Card Store

The Soccer Green Card Blog