Originally published by Soccer America. View here.
Featured photo credit: SANTA CLARA, CA – MAY 4: Referee Victor Rivas during a game between Los Angeles FC and San Jose Earthquakes at Levi’s Stadium on May 4, 2024 in Santa Clara, California.
By: Arlo Moore-Bloom
Victor Rivas is close to reffing 100 MLS games since making his 2018 debut in the league. The league’s Referee of the Year 2023 has also worked more than 30 games as a VAR and nearly 50 as a fourth official.
Rivas’ reffing of professional games began while he served as a swimming instructor and aquatics coordinator in Piedmont, the Northern California city enclaved by Oakland — before becoming a full-time official with PRO, which manages U.S. and Canadian pro-league officiating.
SOCCER AMERICA: Refereeing is a tough job that gets little appreciation from teams and fans. Why do you do it?
VICTOR RIVAS: I have a strange relationship with the sport. There’s an undefined love that we will be willing to go into that theater and deliver someone’s dream. I don’t know how to describe it. But I am genuinely indifferent to the winning, the losing, the tie — I just want to enjoy the atmosphere. Some days I don’t know what that is; sometimes it’s frustration, or joy, or whatever else. But that’s why I do it.
Someone asked me this last year at a tournament because they were an aspiring official. They said, ‘You get all of this hate and you continue to do it?’ In reality it’s a small subset of fans who are like that. Most of them want to take in the weekend, enjoy a game … I’m there for that moment. It’s a bit of both, because not all games are like that. Maybe I’m chasing it. It’s hard to describe.
SA: Did you always want to be a referee?
VICTOR RIVAS: I didn’t see myself as a referee when I started to play. I played club for maybe 10 or 12 years. Near the end of my experience as a player, my frustrations with myself, with my team, with referees — gave me the feeling of, ‘what’s next?’ Because I wasn’t going to be a professional player.
It was my dad who suggested to me to take a referee class. Because I was always arguing with the ref: ‘that it should’ve been that, or this.’ I was 17 years old. The hubris of a young man said, ‘Oh, I’m going to be great at that!’
And it turned out I didn’t know everything. I learned so much in that first class. Something bit. I kinda liked it. On the weekends you can make your own schedule and make a little money. And you get to be an arbiter on a game that has nothing to do with you. You don’t win or lose and I really enjoyed it, those first few games. I told myself I’d come back and keep doing it.
SA: How many games did you referee until your first MLS match?
VICTOR RIVAS: Hundreds at least. At the youth level, thousands. I worked in the second division, USL Pro, and NASL, for about five-and-a-half years. I can’t tell you the exact amount of games so I can tell you the amount of time. I earned my first referee credential in 2006, and in 2018 I got the MLS appointment.
It was a long journey. I’m full-time now but when I started I was coaching swimming and would referee only on the weekends.
I’d fly out on Friday, have the match on Saturday, then back home Sunday and back to work on Monday. It was tough for as long as I did it because I didn’t earn a promotion to a full-time position until 2020. Which is a very difficult jump.
Sometimes our colleagues don’t recognize how tough it can be to go to full-time. You’re putting work aside and committing fully to the football schedule. Sometimes on two days notice or sometimes three weeks.
MLS Referee of the Year Winners
2023: Victor Rivas 2022: Ismail Elfath 2021: Robert Sibiga 2020: Ismail Elfath 2019: Allen Chapman 2018: Alan Kelly 2017: Allen Chapman 2016: Alan Kelly 2015: Alan Kelly 2014: Mark Geiger 2013: Hilario Grajeda 2012: Silviu Petrescu 2011: Mark Geiger 2010: Kevin Stott 2009: Alex Prus 2008: Jair Marrufo 2007: Brian Hall 2006: Brian Hall 2005: Brian Hall 2004: Abiodun Okulaja 2003: Brian Hall 2002: Kevin Terry 2001: Paul Tamberino 2000: Paul Tamberino 1999: Paul Tamberino 1998: Paul Tamberino 1997: Esse Baharmast
SA: How does the schedule work for a full-time MLS ref?
VICTOR RIVAS: As a full-time referee, you’re expected to be available all season for any game. There’s also an expectation to attend camp, which sometimes happens twice a month and sometimes happens once a month. So it varies on the needs of the league. My bag is usually packed and ready to go by the door just in case.
SA: Since you started refereeing in MLS in 2018 the league has grown substantially. From your view on the field, in what ways have you seen the league change year over year?
VICTOR RIVAS: Eyes. Eyes through television. Fans in seats. And, I would say, the pressures on the players. The emotions that come through on the field. In California we call them vibes. With the crew we talk about vibes before the game and after the game. That the game had good flow.
I feel like that’s escalated over the last few years. People talk about how MLS 1.0 was in 1996; MLS 2.0 was in the early 2000s; 3.0 was in the mid-2010s. And I think we’re somewhere around the 3.5. Maybe you even push it to 4.0 because the latest technology is here, we have VAR, we have an Apple TV deal and we’re watched by the world over.
Our feedback comes from all over the world about the game. The excellent goals, the players coming in.
In terms of eyes, that’s something I feel on the field. Talking to players and simply by being human — you can hear it in their voices that we’re reaching a new level.
SA: You’d say players feel more pressure now than when you started?
VICTOR RIVAS: I would say so, yes. Because the fan attendance has grown and we’ve reached new markets with the Apple TV deal. They know that this is no longer the MLS that was watched by a few thousand people. We’re touching millions now.
SA: What was the transition like into the VAR era, from your perspective?
VICTOR RIVAS: It’s been overall a smooth transition. The American market is generally accepting of video review. It became easy to accept not just the process but also the outcomes. As referees we can actually sleep at night — we can correct our decisions on the field after reviewing it.
Having that mindset made it easier to accept that technology and use it. It became another tool — like, ‘Hey, we’re at a cliffside here, and you’ve made a decision that will have you go over the cliff.’ Or we can take another opportunity to look at the decision again and get it right. Then there’s no controversy. Once you look at it that way it was an easy transition.
There’s still an element of pride where you made a mistake and have to publicly acknowledge a mistake — but making a better decision is so much better than the way we had it in the past.
SA: Before video review?
VICTOR RIVAS: You’d go to the hotel and you wouldn’t know if you had it right. You’d log into your computer and maybe you’d find the stream. You find it, you look at it, you realize you missed it — and now it’s three hours too late. What do you tell the guys?
And then a horrible night of sleep — that doesn’t happen anymore.
SA: What do you think of referees announcing their calls on their microphone to the stadium, a la NFL?
VICTOR RIVAS: Uhh … I think it’s great. I struggled with it. I’ve done it once and it was not smooth. I certainly need more practice. It’s a different skill set — the polish required to go public with your decision is a special skillset that we’ve seen some of my colleagues have and some of us need to work on it. I appreciate it because the fans are now in on the know — the reason why we’re changing the final decision.
SA: Referee manipulation is a big theme in pro soccer. Players have different techniques on selling fouls or swaying you into making a decision that would benefit them. What are your personal keys for tuning out that noise?
VICTOR RIVAS: The more you know the better off you’ll be. I watch games throughout the week — for a match on Saturday my preparation begins on Wednesday. I’m looking at tactics, fouls, yellow cards. That’s how I get to know the players if I haven’t refereed them.
If I do know them and I have refereed them then I kind of have a sense of what might happen. I have clues. But at the end of it the final thing is trust in self. Knowing that I’ve seen something, felt something, and I’m going to trust myself to make the decision. That probably compartmentalizes some of the noise from the players, coaches and fans. We get it from all avenues.
SA: It’s easier to ref players you’ve reffed before?
VICTOR RIVAS: Sometimes yes and sometimes it’s nice not to have any relationship. Sometimes it can spiral: you’ve known them a long time and then you get in a back and forth; you’re distracting them and they’re distracting me. Sometimes it’s nice to just go straight to the point — international games are usually like that because you don’t know many players and there’s an expectation to just do the job.
SA: There are more global superstars in the league than ever. How does that affect the MLS ref?
VICTOR RIVAS: It makes it more exciting. The superstars are the ones who surprise us. They create a play, space, from nothing. And that’s what takes people in. That’s when we as referees must find a new level.
If we have a player who can find new space and create opportunities out of nothing, we have to consider it, anticipate it, and maybe cover that ground. It’s like that maybe that the impossible is possible today. It’s an awesome feeling when you know you have a player on the field who can do that. For me, it excites me because they take the game to another level.
SA: It is said that different leagues are refereed differently. Do you think that’s true? If so, how is MLS reffed differently, than say, the Premier League?
VICTOR RIVAS: Yes. Leagues and markets are refereed differently and I think that has a lot to do with the audience. And maybe the client — our customers are the players, the clubs, the league, and therefore the fans because they generate the most interest.
So to deliver this product there’s an expectation — with the Premier League, you’re expecting a fast-paced game that’s physical. The referees are asked to deliver a game that looks like that.
You tailor the game and the officiating to meet this. I think we can say the same thing about many leagues around the world. Naturally, our priority is player safety and the integrity of the game and its laws. But within those confines, we’re allowed some leeway. It’s for each league to determine what direction to take it in.
With MLS, we’re provided with points of emphasis every year, with the aim of improving the quality of football in MLS. Those points change a little bit every year. This year we saw an intense focus on the amount of time the ball was in play in an MLS match — we call it effective match time.
We have these two new rules in place which are nowhere else in the world. Nobody else has timed substitutions or timed injury rules, but the end game for those rules is to keep the ball in play.
SA: What other points of focus have you seen since your time in MLS?
VICTOR RIVAS: There’s been a big focus on dissent. The physical and verbal protests don’t make the game look good. There’s persistent offenses — either by the same player or on one player.
Sometimes you’ll see us use the halo sign — the halo of protection — to show players that player shouldn’t be fouled again. If it happens again, it’s a yellow card. While these rules are in the written laws of the game we bring a focus on them.
SA: Studies have shown that home crowds can often have an effect on refereeing — that the home team typically gets more calls than the away team. How do you confront that kind of bias in your work?
VICTOR RIVAS: If it’s subconscious bias it’s very hard to overcome. It’s about trusting what I’ve seen and making the best effort to limit any outside factors. Just like a player who works hard to influence you the crowd is another factor and you’ve got to tune out the noise.
SA: If you could have one call back from your career, what would it be?
VICTOR RIVAS: Arlo. I have many. The penalties given or not given are obvious, the red cards are also obvious. The one that jumps out to me has to do with referee craft and player management. For me, it was a situation where I lost my emotional control and I went after a player. It was about seven or eight years ago in a non-professional game.
And that’s one thing I remember that I would absolutely change and would not have done. It’s my lesson learned — this responsibility of the referee is to have either no reaction or the perfect reaction. The most popular and respected referees around the world — their emotional intelligence is bar none. They always have no reaction or the perfect reaction.
SA: Do you have a favorite referee?
VICTOR RIVAS: I have many. Some of my favorites are ones from early on — they really understood who they were working with. Whether it was youth players or Sunday league pub players. They knew what the players needed at the right time.
You can translate that to the international game — the most successful referees know who they’re dealing with and they know what the game needs at the right time.
So yeah, I’ve got a list. Some you won’t recognize because they’re local to Northern California. And then there are some like Mark Geiger (photo above), Brian Hall, Jair Marrufo — guys that have reached another level and have gone to World Cups and been successful.
Someone like Esfandiar ‘Esse’ Baharmast, who was one of the first Americans to go to a World Cup. He’s got a story of controversy where he was actually correct. And he went on to work with FIFA as a referee instructor — that’s equal to his World Cup successes or maybe even more because he’s been able to influence more people.
SA: How does PRO evaluate referee performance? Is there a score you get after a game?
VICTOR RIVAS: It’s lengthy. Some of it is highly technical and others are good vibes or not. And that’s how I sum up my weekends personally, sometimes. For PRO, we have an assessor who watches the match on Saturday. We debrief on Monday or Tuesday — two separate columns.
One column is key match decisions: penalties, red cards, controversial fouls that lead up to a goal.
The other is general performance and that’s about game management, positioning and movement, teamwork, communication with my team. Those two separate scores combine into the report that’s published on Friday.
I’d take that report, absorb the feedback and the adjustments I need to make, and then referee my next game and the process starts all over again. Over time, the idea is not just to inform and educate but also adjust to the needs of the league and requirements of PRO.
I always think, ‘Did I deliver a performance that people feel good about?’ That’s the vibes for me. While I have the report and the scores, did I walk away from the game going, ‘Good job.’
If not, I need to reconsider and address those issues. At the end of the day we want people to enjoy the game.
SA: Has your reffing style changed over time? Do referees have style?
VICTOR RIVAS: We’re not stylish people, but I would say yes, we all have our styles. Our swagger maybe. It’s been highs and lows for me: there was a period where I was very strict. And I was very cold and rigid. Then I softened and was more approachable and found ways to be more relaxed. Then I came back from that because I started to miss decisions. Then I swung the pendulum back over and became a little more strict.
I don’t know what my style is now, I’ll let you be the judge of that. I can’t define it — I just do what comes naturally.
SA: What can governing bodies do — at any level, including youth — to better protect referees?
VICTOR RIVAS: That’s a difficult question because the issues are multi-layered and I don’t think it falls to one organization. We all play a role to prevent abuse and better educate the fan groups, coaches, players and clubs.
Apart from educating and reaching out to these groups and informing them of not just the laws of the game but also our role? The reality is that we are human. Mistakes will be made.
But we don’t just strap on our boots on a random Saturday and give it a go. We don’t just go out there and try. I study for the weekend and prepare for it — physically, mentally and emotionally. And then I go out there and do the best I can. And I don’t know if everybody knows that!
So informing them that these who these people are — they’re human and this is the work they’ve put into it. So respect the sport, respect the person, behave in a proper way — and then you can fall back to the typical punishments and sanctions. But I do think it comes down to education.
SA: The reality is that a lot of people go to soccer games with the knowledge that they can and will yell at the referee, because that’s what you do at games and it can feel good.
VICTOR RIVAS: And I understand that. I’ll draw their ire when I call a foul. I give a call that’s clear and I’ll still get boos — no problem. You can complain within reason, express emotions within reason, it’s a sport. But there is something just outside of that and they know when they’ve crossed the line.
SA: Describe your perfect soccer game?
VICTOR RIVAS: It’s strange. It’s where every tackle is perfect and every shot on goal is saved. And when the game is over everyone is exhausted. Everyone comes over happy with their performance and there’s not a complaint in the room — but we had fun.
That feeling of knowing both teams worked so hard, we’ve ended with a ridiculous nil-nil, and you had a blast. That’s the great feeling for me.
