French Penalties and American Penalties

In the US, you play soccer in school with no experienced refs. Most of the refs are insecure and take advantage of the fact that they have a bit of power to act as if they were superiors. You also have 3 captains, whereas in European soccer we only have one. The fact that you have three captains is strange because they are not even allowed to talk to the ref. They give you cards if you speak in another language, which is ridiculous because they don’t even try to understand. You also play just 20 games a year if you can make it to the state final, which is very short.

In France, we play with very good refs that know the rules. We are not allowed to have women refs on men’s games because sometimes we play in places where the people on the sideline can invade the field and be violent at any time, so they don’t want refs to be scared and give a call for the team that plays at home. 

We also have one captain who is the voice of the team; he is the only one to be allowed to talk to the ref with the coach. You are allowed to speak in another language because it is the language you use when you are frustrated. Because nobody understands, it is not a problem. We also play 60-80 games a year.

Here in the US, when you take a red card, you get a two-game suspension (at least), and you have to take an online class about sportsmanship. In France, a red card is one game or more (it depends). Sometimes you have to do a video call with the federation to talk about it, and as a result, they decide how many games you are suspended.