A&H

Conflict Of Interest - Opinions

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Chester17

New Member
Grassroots Referee
Hello. I am not a referee but I was hoping to get some opinions on something.

I play for and help run an adults grass roots team. On the 17th April we had a match against a local rival where both teams were positioned near the top of the table, whoever won had a great chance to win the league. Albeit we had several games in hand due to our cup successes this season.

Anyway, long story short we lost the game 3-2. It was a Wednesday night so the light by the end of the game was pretty poor, we were away and the opposition do not have floodlights. When the referee blew the final whistle, my brother, who is the manager of the team still had 6 minutes left of normal time. The general consensus amongst the other teams management and some of our club officials was that the game was cut short. Being such an important game we felt aggrieved by this.

After the game we done some investigation and it turns out the referee is the father of the oppositions captain! We have spoken to the affiliated county FA and they have confirmed that he hadn't disclosed the direct relation to them. We are now in the process of making a formal complaint about it. The fact the game was cut short was our main issue initially but since we discovered the relationship between the referee and the other teams captain this has now compounded the other issue. Has he cut the game short because he knows how important a win was for his sons team? The league we play in are trying to brush it under the carpet. We may not have scored an equaliser but it doesn't sit right at all.

I would welcome anyones comments on the matter. If anyone feels we have grounds to take this further any information on how to go about this would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
The Referee Store
Irrespective of whether the referee in question was league appointed or asked by clubs to do so, under standard league rules he/she has the powers of referee for the duration of that fixture. It’s not uncommon at lower levels and in youth football especially for this to be a parent.

The league has jurisdiction over this matter but will likely point to this rule.

On time keeping, 2 things. The referee is the sole timekeeper for the game. Anyone else’s clock doesn’t matter. This is also laid out in the laws, making challenge difficult.

Secondly, you said that light was poor - the referee has the discretion to end early to prevent it becoming dangerous or farcical due to conditions which includes the lack of light.

Evening fixtures may also be reduced in time for light although both halves should be of equal length and agreed by or notified to both sides before kicking off.

You may have grounds for challenge on this point if it was not done so, but my point on match conditions above may trump that.
 
Really depends on how the referee was appointed. If league appointed did they know that he was the father of a player, i.e. had he declared this fact to the league?

The thing that stands out to me is you yourself state that the light was pretty poor. Could it be that it was so poor it would have been dangerous to complete the final 6 minutes? To all intents and purposes that would mean the game had been abandoned, but that depends on what the referee reports. As @Tealeaf has correctly stated, the referee is the sole timekeeper, so unless he says he blew up early there is ultimately not a great deal you can do about it. If he says be blew up after 84 minutes you probably have grounds to argue that the game was abandoned and therefore should be replayed.
 
Agree with the above it's hard to really find and prove fault to undo and perceived injustice here.

I have always flagged immediately any personal relationships I have with a team, not matter the level, if I am appointed to a game where that's relevant. E.g. a team I had left the season before still had me officially as treasurer, even though I didn't do anything for them anymore.

Last weekend I ran the line for a sunday league team I played for last year in a cup final, the league knew and didn't mind, all their players bar a few knew me and it was a nice atmosphere and ended up a good game. But I still flagged it because it's not worth any hassle, like I imagine this ref might now get
 
Chester17 said:
Hello. I am not a referee but I was hoping to get some opinions on something.

I play for and help run an adults grass roots team. On the 17th April we had a match against a local rival where both teams were positioned near the top of the table, whoever won had a great chance to win the league. Albeit we had several games in hand due to our cup successes this season.

Anyway, long story short we lost the game 3-2. It was a Wednesday night so the light by the end of the game was pretty poor, we were away and the opposition do not have floodlights. When the referee blew the final whistle, my brother, who is the manager of the team still had 6 minutes left of normal time. The general consensus amongst the other teams management and some of our club officials was that the game was cut short. Being such an important game we felt aggrieved by this.

After the game we done some investigation and it turns out the referee is the father of the oppositions captain! We have spoken to the affiliated county FA and they have confirmed that he hadn't disclosed the direct relation to them. We are now in the process of making a formal complaint about it. The fact the game was cut short was our main issue initially but since we discovered the relationship between the referee and the other teams captain this has now compounded the other issue. Has he cut the game short because he knows how important a win was for his sons team? The league we play in are trying to brush it under the carpet. We may not have scored an equaliser but it doesn't sit right at all.

I would welcome anyones comments on the matter. If anyone feels we have grounds to take this further any information on how to go about this would be appreciated.

Thanks.
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Hi,

As I suspect that the league was at Step 7 or below, you may well be out of time to complain to the league. The Standard code of rules requires the compliant to be made within 7 days of the match (with all supporting data).

But as others have said, the referee is the sole judge of time. This has been supported by numerous cases brought to the FA / FIFA. Everybody else watches are irrelevant.

There will be scope to bring a protest via the CFA - but there will be a protest fee to be lodged with them once you make the compliant. The only avenue of protest would be under a conflict of interest, but if no official referee was appointed, the SCOR state the referee is mutually agreed between the teams, so by definition your team agreed to his appointment. Any conflict of interest should have been stated then.

I honestly think it would be a waste to complain, as the only option is to replay the match (and probably at short-notice).
 
lincs22 said:
Hi,

As I suspect that the league was at Step 7 or below, you may well be out of time to complain to the league. The Standard code of rules requires the compliant to be made within 7 days of the match (with all supporting data).

But as others have said, the referee is the sole judge of time. This has been supported by numerous cases brought to the FA / FIFA. Everybody else watches are irrelevant.

There will be scope to bring a protest via the CFA - but there will be a protest fee to be lodged with them once you make the compliant. The only avenue of protest would be under a conflict of interest, but if no official referee was appointed, the SCOR state the referee is mutually agreed between the teams, so by definition your team agreed to his appointment. Any conflict of interest should have been stated then.

I honestly think it would be a waste to complain, as the only option is to replay the match (and probably at short-notice).
Click to expand...
The referee was appointed by the County FA having applied to take charge of the match but he hadn’t declared any conflicts with the appointing FA. The story goes that the County that appointed him isn’t his parent County FA and he wasn’t aware he needed to declare any conflicts. He has reffed two games in our County all season and both have been home games for the team in question. No conflict was declared.
 
With a shortage of refs, many refs do work with teams they have ties to. I’ve done it, but I like to think I can successfully put any bias aside towards either team, and do it impartially.

Whatever has happened in this case, it’d be a shame if that’s not upheld
 
RustyRef said:
Really depends on how the referee was appointed. If league appointed did they know that he was the father of a player, i.e. had he declared this fact to the league?

The thing that stands out to me is you yourself state that the light was pretty poor. Could it be that it was so poor it would have been dangerous to complete the final 6 minutes? To all intents and purposes that would mean the game had been abandoned, but that depends on what the referee reports. As @Tealeaf has correctly stated, the referee is the sole timekeeper, so unless he says he blew up early there is ultimately not a great deal you can do about it. If he says be blew up after 84 minutes you probably have grounds to argue that the game was abandoned and therefore should be replayed.
Click to expand...
County FA appointed the referee but they were not made aware of any conflicts.

With regards to the light it was poor for the majority of the second half so 6 more minutes would have made little difference in my opinion. He said at the final whistle we had played 45 minutes and it’s difficult to disprove that but we know full well he hadn’t.

His report says the game finished at 7:58pm but we kicked off at 6.30pm (possibly a couple of minutes early). His timeline makes no sense.
 
george.g said:
With a shortage of refs, many refs do work with teams they have ties to. I’ve done it, but I like to think I can successfully put any bias aside towards either team, and do it impartially.

Whatever has happened in this case, it’d be a shame if that’s not upheld
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He has reffed two games all season in this county, both home games for the team in question without declaring any conflicts to the County FA.

With it being a midweek fixture I feel there would have been a decent pool of officials to choose from in the area.
 
lincs22 said:
Hi,

As I suspect that the league was at Step 7 or below, you may well be out of time to complain to the league. The Standard code of rules requires the compliant to be made within 7 days of the match (with all supporting data).

But as others have said, the referee is the sole judge of time. This has been supported by numerous cases brought to the FA / FIFA. Everybody else watches are irrelevant.

There will be scope to bring a protest via the CFA - but there will be a protest fee to be lodged with them once you make the compliant. The only avenue of protest would be under a conflict of interest, but if no official referee was appointed, the SCOR state the referee is mutually agreed between the teams, so by definition your team agreed to his appointment. Any conflict of interest should have been stated then.

I honestly think it would be a waste to complain, as the only option is to replay the match (and probably at short-notice).
Click to expand...
The referee was officially appointed by the County FA but he hadn’t declared any conflict of interest to them. We feel a replay is a fair solution but it feels the league have got Ostrich Syndrome on this occasion.

The league have advised we are out of time to lodge a complaint but County FA have been investigating the conflict of interest so until we knew the outcome of that we didn’t know there was an issue, that’s my argument to them.
 
Chester17 said:
With it being a midweek fixture I feel there would have been a decent pool of officials to choose from in the area.
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised that this often doesn't make a difference. Many refs work full time jobs in the week as well so it is difficult to get to midweek matches. I was appointed to a 19:30 youth KO earlier in the season and because of some of the admin and travel involved I only really made it because I left school 30 mins early, which is the best part of 2 hours before many finish their 9-5.
 
Chester17 said:
Hello. I am not a referee but I was hoping to get some opinions on something.

I play for and help run an adults grass roots team. On the 17th April we had a match against a local rival where both teams were positioned near the top of the table, whoever won had a great chance to win the league. Albeit we had several games in hand due to our cup successes this season.

Anyway, long story short we lost the game 3-2. It was a Wednesday night so the light by the end of the game was pretty poor, we were away and the opposition do not have floodlights. When the referee blew the final whistle, my brother, who is the manager of the team still had 6 minutes left of normal time. The general consensus amongst the other teams management and some of our club officials was that the game was cut short. Being such an important game we felt aggrieved by this.

After the game we done some investigation and it turns out the referee is the father of the oppositions captain! We have spoken to the affiliated county FA and they have confirmed that he hadn't disclosed the direct relation to them. We are now in the process of making a formal complaint about it. The fact the game was cut short was our main issue initially but since we discovered the relationship between the referee and the other teams captain this has now compounded the other issue. Has he cut the game short because he knows how important a win was for his sons team? The league we play in are trying to brush it under the carpet. We may not have scored an equaliser but it doesn't sit right at all.

I would welcome anyones comments on the matter. If anyone feels we have grounds to take this further any information on how to go about this would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
You can only follow the appropriate process with the complaint.
 
Chester17 said:
The referee was officially appointed by the County FA but he hadn’t declared any conflict of interest to them. We feel a replay is a fair solution but it feels the league have got Ostrich Syndrome on this occasion.

The league have advised we are out of time to lodge a complaint but County FA have been investigating the conflict of interest so until we knew the outcome of that we didn’t know there was an issue, that’s my argument to them.
Click to expand...
It was a league game, therefore the only valid protest is to the league itself. If you've missed the 7 day deadline in protesting them it makes no difference whoever you were discussing with, even if you had taken it up with Gianni Infantino himself you would still be out of luck.
 
Unfortunately, as @RustyRef said, if it happened mid-April you are out of time now. Also, as the referee was officially appointed, it wouldn't have made much of a difference if you appealed on time anyway. That means they trusted him to do the game and had no issues. Also, as @lincs22 said, you essentially agreed with the appointment by allowing it.
 
Chester17 said:
County FA appointed the referee but they were not made aware of any conflicts.

With regards to the light it was poor for the majority of the second half so 6 more minutes would have made little difference in my opinion. He said at the final whistle we had played 45 minutes and it’s difficult to disprove that but we know full well he hadn’t.

His report says the game finished at 7:58pm but we kicked off at 6.30pm (possibly a couple of minutes early). His timeline makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Perhaps, because of the poor light, he couldn’t read his watch correctly and misread the time. 😉
 
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