[EricH]

That is something that you can account for. Refs are trained so that they are consistent from game to game, and so that they are consistent within reason between ref crews. It's impossible to make every call exactly the same, but if one ref calls a second defending robot offsides if it's on top of the bump and another calls it when it hits the ground on the offense side, you do have a problem.

I've been known to tell a soccer opponent after a game that they'd need to tone down rough play their next game--the ref crew was loose. The crew for their next game--against us at our home field--and the refs that did our home games as a general rule did not like rough play. A week later, they picked up a few yellow cards.

What you were originally saying was apparently, let's let the call I've already mentioned actually happen between different events. That's not the way the rules are written, and not the way they need to be called.

There's a spotlight that says something like "The problem was too many penalties with too much room for judgment." I don't remember which year that was after, but I can think of two years where that applies: 2005 (loading zone) and 2008 (line crossing). The more room for judgment calls, the less the game is liked, primarily because of the penalties.