Must Enforce Soccer Rules
“Unless there is a change for the better, soccer promoters will have to take steps to protect the reputation of the game by dealing more drastically with players who dispute the referee’s decision,” reads a warning in an English paper and quoted by Ernest J. Vieberg, a soccer writer for a New York paper, who refers to the warning as applying in this country. For once we vote Ernest correct in his views. Commenting further on the officiating, he dispenses some good stuff in the following lines, all of which should sink deep in the minds of fans as well as players: “Although, of itself sufficiently undignified and unsportsmanlike to inflict injury to the game, the evil carries the further menace of inciting the crowd to disorder. By allowing it to continue, a referee makes himself disrespected, first by the player and secondly by the fans, who follow every move by the contestants while on the field of play.”

Drastic Regulations Approved
Drastic regulations in regard to conduct of players on the field and toward the referee are highly approved by the management of the Bethlehem soccer team. Quite recently this matter was discussed with a member of the management, although the sportsmanlike conduct of the Bethlehem players has never been questioned. In fact, their conduct on the field, accepting defeat in the grace of good sportsmen or celebrating victory in their usual modest way, is one of the glowing tributes to the greatest soccer machine in America. That is one of the reasons why Bethlehem is popular wherever it plays and the biggest drawing card in any town throughout the league. Another reason is the superior merit as exponents of the booting game. While the conduct of the Bethlehem players has never occasioned the censure of the management, it will nevertheless be made distinctly understood that there shall be no referee baiting and if any grievances develop on the field of play, the captain is the logical man to make the complaint. Other clubs should take notice. In several games this season, none of which was in Bethlehem, riots threatened when feeling was incited against the referee.