MIES (Switzerland) - FIBA believes in constantly improving the level of officiating, and one of tool used is the Referee Operations Center (ROC) that is monitoring the main FIBA Competitions, namely last time at FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

FIBA Head of Refereeing Carl Jungebrand and a team of four game reviewers have been sitting in the ROC watching all of the games and evaluating each decision made by the referees, calls or no-calls.

The team is equipped with many screens, including an extra monitor with the same replay system as the one at the scorer's table used by the referees in each venue. The system includes eight different camera angles that can be zoomed in and reviewed for any decision the referees make.

The ROC team can look at any play at any time. They can immediately check if a call was missed, a foul mistakenly called, determine if another referee with a better angle could have made the call or even praise a referee for making a tough but correct decision.

"Our task is to monitor the games, not only the referees. Our main role is to protect the game,” said Jungebrand, who already oversaw the ROC at the 2019 World Cup in China, the first time the command center was used.

ROC’s experts serve as an extra set of eyes for the FIBA Referee Instructors, one of whom is assigned to the games at the individual venues. The instructors mark down instances of interest and registers them into a database, which the referees can later access and review the notes from their games.

For example, whenever an unsportsmanlike foul occurs in a game, the responsible instructor alerts the ROC team, who will analyse it to see how the decision is made.

Jungebrand confirmed that 91,8% percent of all foul calls (40,2 per game)  made in the 92 games of the 2023 World Cup were correct. That number is the result of the team reviewing calls made - some with the assistance of the replay system. All told, 5741 (62,4 per game) calls have been entered into the database (fouls, violations, out-of-bounds) during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

"That is pretty good, considering that most of the calls are made in the heat of the moment without video assistance. But of course, we always want to do better."

Part of the ROC team's work is also to review how the accuracy of the calls changes or stays the same over the course of the game. Referees wear heart sensors and fitness experts can see for example if their heart is pumping rapidly at the beginning of the game.

One note about the ROC is that this entity cannot impact the games. Their work is solely based on evaluation of the referees to help them improve their officiating after the fact. The ROC is not a replay center from where they can call someone in the arena about a missed call.

Besides improving refereeing, another impact that the ROC evaluations and data collection has is to provide facts to help in possible future rules changes.

"We are having constantly very important dialogue with the players and the coaches and all this to make rule changes, this is a joint operation for the good of the game. You need to have all the main people in the game to talk about it. And our job is to provide the facts for better professional discussion and decisions," Jungebrand said.

MIES (Switzerland) – FIBA believes in constantly improving the level of officiating, and one of the tools used is the Referee Operations Center (ROC) monitoring the main FIBA Competitions, last time at the four venues of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in July 2024. The ROC room was set up in the main building where U17 Men’s Basketball World Cup was held, in Istanbul, Türkiye. FIBA Head of Refereeing Carl Jungebrand and a team of two game reviewers were sitting in the ROC watching all of the games and evaluating each decision made by the referees, calls, or no-calls.

The team is equipped with many screens, including an extra monitor with the same replay system as the one at the scorer's table used by the referees in each venue. The system includes eight different camera angles with a zoom-in capability to review the decisions referees make. The ROC team can look at any play at any time. They can immediately check if a call was missed, a foul mistakenly called, determine if another referee with a better angle could have made the call or even praise a referee for making a tough but correct decision.

"Our task is to monitor the games, not only the referees. Our main role is to protect the game,” said Jungebrand, who already oversaw the ROC at the FIBA World Cups in China, the first time the command center was used, and more recently last year's World Cup in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.

ROC’s experts serve as an extra set of eyes for the FIBA Referee Instructors, one of whom is assigned to the games at the individual venues. The instructors mark down instances of interest and register them into a database, which the referees can later access and review the notes from their games.

For example, whenever an unsportsmanlike foul occurs in a game, the responsible instructor alerts the ROC team, who will analyse it to see how the decision is made.

Looking back at last year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup, Jungebrand confirmed that 91,8% percent of all foul calls (40,2 per game) made in the 92 games in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan were correct. That number is the result of the team reviewing calls made - some with the assistance of the replay system. All told, 5741 (62,4 per game) calls were entered into the database (fouls, violations, out-of-bounds) during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

"That is pretty good, considering that most of the calls are made in the heat of the moment without video assistance. But of course, we always want to do better."

Part of the ROC team's work is also to review how the accuracy of the calls changes or stays the same throughout the game. Referees wear heart sensors and fitness experts can see for example if their heart is pumping rapidly at the beginning of the game.

One note about the ROC is that this entity cannot impact the games. Their work is solely based on the evaluation of the referees to help them improve their officiating after the fact. The ROC is not a replay center from where they can call someone in the arena about a missed call.

Besides improving refereeing, another impact that the ROC evaluations and data collection have is to provide facts to help in possible rule changes. "We are having constantly very important dialogue with the players and the coaches and all this to make rule changes, this is a joint operation for the good of the game. You need to have all the main people in the game to talk about it. And our job is to provide the facts for better professional discussion and decisions," Jungebrand said.