The Serbian American Football Referees’ Association held their annual officiating clinic last weekend in Belgrade, and for two days the Serbian officials were lectured by Carl Paganelli, Supervisor of Officials in NCAA’s Mid-American Conference. He was also in Bergamo, Italy a few weeks ago for the Italian Officials’ clinic. After years of participating in seminars all around Europe, this was his first time in Serbia.

What do you do as a supervisor?
I hire officials, release them, and train them like I’m doing here. I make a test, review them in games live, and talk to the coaches after.

Do coaches complain a lot?
No, they don’t complain, they’re more interested in hearing home come something happened, why a call was made etc.

You were in Italy a couple weeks ago, where some of the Serbian officials were also present; did you talk about different things here?
It’s the same. The difference is that in Italy they’re more advanced in mechanics, the game is played longer over there, and nobody was a player here, unlike in Italy where officials played before. So I would say it’s more in depth here. They asked me very good questions, and that tells me they understand the game. There were no, as we call them – silly questions.

Hospitality has been outstanding, although I can’t keep up with your eating habits. And as an instructor, I respect how they’ve been listening.

Did you get a chance to see some games?
They showed me the final from last year. I was impressed with the players here and with the officiating.

What did you notice about the officiating?
First, I’d like to talk about the good points. I was impressed with their physical condition, they look good. A lot of them are schooled on the rules, but I knew that already after we met two years ago in Italy.

They lack game experience and snap experience. That means working – they have to get on the field and see more plays. They know what they have to do from the rulebook, but the rulebook doesn’t say how you should do it.

Experience is important, because it brings confidence. You can take a test and get a hundred points, but you don’t know about the problems you’ll see on the field.

Teaching a lot of officials around Europe, where would you say the best officials are?
The most experienced are probably German officials. They were influenced by the servicemen there a lot earlier. The Italians are close, and the British officials were strong once, but I don’t know how they are now.

For next season, the 2006 NCAA rules were adopted in Europe, meaning that the new rule regarding time-keeping will be in use. What do you think about the rule?
It’s no longer a rule, they through it out. I thought it was a good rule – there were some games that were three hours long, also games with three overtimes, and the rule sped up the game.

The coaches blamed it when they got beat by a point or two, thought maybe they could’ve scored and won if they had a few more plays.

How would you rate the officiating last year?
For the NFL, the feeling is it was the best this year. College also, I was in a meeting before I came here, it’s considered to be the best in recent years. Instant replay helps; it will help on fumbles, touchdowns and yards. We teach them to make instant replay your friend – continue like you always do and replay will help you. In MAC last year, about 90% of the calls were correct after review.