TORONTO

Before I met with him last week, I questioned myself: “Have I ever openly ripped Fotis Bazakos?”

The MLS referee has been assigned a number of Toronto FC matches in recent seasons, leaving open the possibility I’ve dragged his name through the mud on multiple occasions.

Because that’s part of covering this sport. Lambasting officials is a regular occurrence, especially around MLS circles.

Who knows if the 35-year-old official, who met with me under the bleachers last week in Bradenton, Fla., logged on to the Sun’s site and checked for himself.

If he did, it didn’t seem to impact our 20-minute sitdown.

“You get (grief) all the time,” Bazakos explained. “I always try and give a little latitude.

“(Players and coaches) come up with so many crazy things.”

He offered up what a second-year player said to him last preseason as an example.

“He came up to me (after a non-call) and said, ‘Oh ref, you’ve never liked me’. I think I’d seen him twice,” Bazakos said.

“I said, ‘I don’t’know why you say I have anything against you. Every time I look you in the eyes it’s like the first time I heard the Beatles sing.”

Off the field, though, MLS players, coaches and fans haven’t joked around.

Criticism for MLS officials is at an all-time high.

Some of it’s justified. Much of it isn’t. It has gotten so bad the league has started handing out fines for referee criticism on a near-weekly basis.

“There’s a lot of public criticism of officials around the world,” Bazakos said. “We don’t referee the game based on what people will feel afterwards.

“There’s going to be a decision where half the guys are mad at you.”

Even if that decision is the correct one.

“The rules are very simple,” Bazakos continued. “That leaves a lot of interpretation and opinion.

“The challenge is to try and get consistency in the group, across games and the season.”

The Professional Referees Organization is working to establish more consistency among its officials, many of which have worked together for two decades.

“If you look at the guys and the time commitment they’re putting in, it’s only helping,” Bazakos said. “As the league increases its resources, you’re only going to see it get better.

“There are only a few experts qualified to tell us what we should have done.”

The commitment North America’s top officials make is massive.

It involves being away from home for 180-plus days, including meeting with PRO’s top brass for three days every other week to play back tape of previous games.

“When we get together every other week with PRO and we look at clips, we’re trying to get consistency,” Bazakos said.

“We sit and we watch all of the other games — with 20 cameras and slow motion — but part of our training is finding the best position on the field. We only get that one moment.”

Which is the biggest sympathy often-times ruthless onlookers should have.

Sitting in the press box, the media immediately turns to the TV screens following a major decision. As for guys like Bazakos, well, they don’t have that luxury.

“You have a moment to take the information in,” he said. “Fans misunderstand our patience, which is very deliberate. Maybe we confer over the headset and put together a jigsaw puzzle to maybe get the right decision.”

Even then, as the fourth-year official said, someone’s not going to like the call.

“There are players and coaches who have a tendency,” Bazakos said, refusing to use the term “reputation.”

“There are some coaches who think they have figured it out and think that they understand you. I wish I could sit down with them.

“I’m the first one to say if I make a mistake. I can say it in the moment or later. That’s the point is to identify the mistake.”

There’s a chance some of those mistakes could be amended in-game over the next few years. Major League Soccer’s head honchos have openly stated interest in making North America’s top flight the first soccer league to use NFL-like instant replay to get calls right.

“I’m a real numbers guy,” Bazakos said. “I understand the development of technology ... you’re going to see (replay) eventually.

“There’s a lot of limitations to what the human body can see. It’s to the point where it’s becoming very obvious when a call isn’t right. If there’s a way to make our call quality better, I don’t see why we wouldn’t take advantage of it.”

It would certainly take a lot of the pressure off a group of officials who are under siege every single week.

“Everyone handles the pressure differently,” Bazakos said. “The pressure doesn’t affect me. I’m bound by the Laws of the Game.”

Still, he acknowledges many of his colleagues have a reputation.

“People start to realize, ‘We have this referee so there are going to be a lot of cards.’

“There are guys who have a certain way of doing things. I try to be personable and calm with the players.”

For Bazakos, that might mean signing We Can Work It Out at some point this season.

REFS BACK PLAYERS IN CBA DISPUTE

North America’s top referees are backing MLSers in an ongoing labour dispute.

The league’s top suits are scheduled to meet with the MLS Players’ Union on Sunday to try and hash out a new collective bargaining agreement in hopes of staving off a work stoppage.

“The referee union is trying to support the players right now,” MLS referee Fotis Bazakos told the Toronto Sun. “They supported us last year. We can empathize with what they’re dealing with.

“We hope cooler heads prevail and they can come up with a fair agreement.”

It’s believed if the two sides don’t come to terms by Wednesday, the first weekend of the season could be cancelled.

The main sticking point at the moment is free agency, which the players say they want while the owners have refused to budge.