A&H

Assessing a frozen pitch

M

Mike Spice

New Member
Level 7 Referee
Hi All

with the bad weather approaching - or in Lancs already here - can I ask what you look for in assessing whether a pitch is frozen and then postponing / abandoning? I've had 2 called off but the coaches have done the inspection themselves....
Cheers, Mike
 
The Referee Store
Mike Spice said:
Hi All

with the bad weather approaching - or in Lancs already here - can I ask what you look for in assessing whether a pitch is frozen and then postponing / abandoning? I've had 2 called off but the coaches have done the inspection themselves....
Cheers, Mike
Click to expand...

"My" youth league have recently sent out an edict saying ALL games must be postponed by the match referee, ie clubs not allowed to.

Only exception is if council "close" the pitch.

In my view this is at best impractical and at worse a complete waste of a lot of people's time.

Will see how this works in practice when bad weather hits the south!
 
From experience i would say make sure your wearing your boots so you can see if the ground will take a stud and take a ball so you can judge the bounce/roll etc. Do the inspection on your own if you can so there is no influence from the managers/players who will undoubtedly want the game on no matter what the pitch is like.

A great piece of advice given to me by a level 4 and i have used this and it works a treat if they are moaning about you postponing the game. Take the manager to the goal area and ask him to dive head first, full length across the 6 yard box, when he obviously says don't be daft then you can reply with, well that's what you expect both goalkeepers to do not to mention your defenders. I rest my case, have a good day boys.
 
PinnerPaul said:
"My" youth league have recently sent out an edict saying ALL games must be postponed by the match referee, ie clubs not allowed to.

Only exception is if council "close" the pitch.

In my view this is at best impractical and at worse a complete waste of a lot of people's time.

Will see how this works in practice when bad weather hits the south!
Click to expand...
Paul this is standard advice across all of the leagues I have ever been involved with. The match referee can arrange a deputy (i.e. a local referee of the same level) to do the inspection. The reason it has to be the referee is to remove the temptation for a manager to call a game off if his star player is missing or he has a couple suspended ...
 
Advice given by The FA (direct from Neale Barry) this time last year was as follows;

If both teams want it off, call it off.
If one team wants it off (and its justifiable to do so!), call it off.
If both teams want it on (and it's safe to do so), play the game.

If you play it and both teams want it off, all you'll get is earache for 90.
If you play it and one team wants it off, that's 90 minutes of abuse from one set of players/staff.
If both teams want it on, why not? Play it, and if it gets considerably worse, you call it off. Everyone will say fair play ref, thanks for trying, see you at the rearranged game!

(This was aimed at L2b, L3 & L4 officials)
 
DanCohen17 said:
Advice given by The FA (direct from Neale Barry) this time last year was as follows;

If both teams want it off, call it off.
If one team wants it off (and its justifiable to do so!), call it off.
If both teams want it on (and it's safe to do so), play the game.

If you play it and both teams want it off, all you'll get is earache for 90.
If you play it and one team wants it off, that's 90 minutes of abuse from one set of players/staff.
If both teams want it on, why not? Play it, and if it gets considerably worse, you call it off. Everyone will say fair play ref, thanks for trying, see you at the rearranged game!

(This was aimed at L2b, L3 & L4 officials)
Click to expand...

So pitch is playable but both teams have key players missing so want to call it off....and the advice is to oblige them?

I don't care what the teams want....if the pitch is safe to play on....it's game on.
 
Brian Hamilton said:
Paul this is standard advice across all of the leagues I have ever been involved with. The match referee can arrange a deputy (i.e. a local referee of the same level) to do the inspection. The reason it has to be the referee is to remove the temptation for a manager to call a game off if his star player is missing or he has a couple suspended ...
Click to expand...


A few Sundays ago after we had torrential rain, manager kindly called me at 8.00am to say pitch was worse than when I had called off the same (cup) match a few weeks earlier.

No surprise as the rain in preceding few days had been very heavy. 95% of games that week called off.

Really see no point in dragging 100 refs and 200 teams out on a Sunday morning to confirm what everyone knew.

At local youth league level its surely about practicality over draconian rules to stop the 1% of teams who may take advantage?
 
Agree with HullRef advice given by my course tutor if you cant push a house key just a few mm's in its too hard..
Done that at one match home manager said it'll be ok then his own kid shot past us sliding like on ice he then looked at me and said
"See what you mean ref" Job done, game off,still got paid.....
 
My son and I both had games at the same venue last Saturday morning. The home manager phoned me early and said the pitch was frozen. The weather in my garden would be very similar to the pitch conditions and even with the morning sun on it, my lawn was still frozen.
Strangely, the home manager of my lad's game said his game was on so I drove him there to play the game. I was a tad suspicious because I knew the field and its layout and there's a few trees that cast a shadow. When we arrived it was plainly obvious that the ground was too hard and unsafe. I let my lad lead and he came up with the "would you dive across the goal area for me, please" suggestion and the managers quickly decided the game was off. To his credit, the home manager willingly paid the half fee and expenses so, my son was made up.
 
As an APPOINTED Assistant Referee,do you have any authority in the the decision to play?
I remember running a line in a county cup semi in 2008 on a pitch that was frozen on about 20% of it.
One of the teams & their fans were known troublemakers so half of the CFA were there. Bit of extra pressure on the ref to get the match played?
Anyway, I assumed my only choice was to suck it up or take the moral high ground and forget ever getting a CC match again.
 
deusex said:
As an APPOINTED Assistant Referee,do you have any authority in the the decision to play?
I remember running a line in a county cup semi in 2008 on a pitch that was frozen on about 20% of it.
One of the teams & their fans were known troublemakers so half of the CFA were there. Bit of extra pressure on the ref to get the match played?
Anyway, I assumed my only choice was to suck it up or take the moral high ground and forget ever getting a CC match again.
Click to expand...
Whole decision is down to the man in the middle. He may seek your advice as appointed AR, but ultimately it's on his head!
 
Any decent referee should involve ARs in the decision making process, but its their decision in the end as Dan says
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top