A&H

Embarrassing moment pre kick off....

SM

The avuncular one
biggest game of my season, of my entire time refereeing. Middle in a national youth competition quarter final. Quite a big deal. Nice crowd. Low winter sun is out and the stand is half blocking the sun light which is making it a nightmare to look across that side of the pitch.

Count the away team, all eleven counted for. The home team are wearing a dark kit (not black though I stress). I count the home team and I only count 10. Count again, 10 and again, 10. One final time, 10. I turn to the home captain and say "do you only have 10 players on the field?" He looks around for a second, "are you counting him?"

Now I had spotted the right wing who was right on the touchline in the shade making him difficult to see. I had, however, not seen the right back who was also stood right on the touchline hidden in the shade.

Blow the whistle. Game on.

Nice start eh? Anyone have a more embarrassing start to a game than that?
 
The Referee Store
Third game ever, U11. About to kick off and someone at the side screams 'any chance of some flags ref?' I left them in my bag. Cue all the parents laughing and cue me giving pre match instructions to CARS while red faced trying to laugh it off!
 
A couple of times I've had to go and ask if anyone has a coin I can do the toss with... I also once gave the flags to two members of the away team, mistaking one of the coaches for the away manager. The away came up to me 2 mins before k.o and asked why I wouldn't speak to him in a quite hurt tone :-(
I explained and we all had a laugh
 
I dont bother with flags anymore, half the time they just chuck the flag on the floor anyway and dont bother helping. Waste of energy carrying them in my bag IMO
 
Local league senior cup quarter final. Hyped up and really focused on having a great game. Do my pre match instructions to CARs and check boots do the handshake, call skippers up and do the toss so I'm thinking right let's go. Next as I'm counting I realise- no corner flags. Two red faced minutes later we kicked off with all equipment in place
 
A couple of times I've had to go and ask if anyone has a coin I can do the toss with... I also once gave the flags to two members of the away team, mistaking one of the coaches for the away manager. The away came up to me 2 mins before k.o and asked why I wouldn't speak to him in a quite hurt tone :-(
I explained and we all had a laugh

Whenever I forget a coin I just put my whistle behind my back, then stick my hands in front of me closed and ask the away team which hand the whistle is in. If he guesses correctly then he chooses ends
 
I've had this scenario before

First half went fine. Go to start the second half count the players start my watch and hear a shout of "Ref get that dog off the pitch".i then turn round to see a dog running round the pitch followed by its owner.

"Oh sorry, he just runs off sometimes" to which I replied (probably a bit to sourly on reflection) "They don't normally do that when they're on a lead."
 
Anyone tried to kick off without a match ball? Done that. Got given the match balls in the changing rooms, went out briefed the CARS, did the toss, went to kick off, no match ball. Took the walk of shame back to the changing rooms to get it
 
called captains into middle to do coin toss then realised i'd lost it fell out my pocket when pulled match card out earlier, put pencil in one hand (behind back) job done ..... oh never found it ... 2 months old it was.,,:(
 
My first real game as a center ref, was U17
(I did one U15 center few months before as the exam of the referee course but after that, only AR for 10 games, that's standard here)
Anyway, arrived on time, everything good, cards set, pen set, whistle set, here we go, I leave the locker room, go on the pitch, take a few steps aaaaaaaaand... i forgot the ball of the game in the locker room.........
 
Anyone tried to kick off without a match ball?
Couple weeks ago.

Fortunately, we left it sitting at the touchline. The ref had put it down during the equipment check/coin toss and we realized when we all got out to centre. Oops.

Neither team noticed since they were all in group huddles at the time.

Alex
 
Haha, im thinking about investing in Walkie Talkies because you can connect headsets to them similar to proper ref comms ones and its only like 200 quid which is a hell of a lot less than the 2 grand red headsets haha. Uni games with my assistants would come in very handy haha
 
A few weeks ago I called captains in for the toss, did the handshakes etc, then for reasons best known to himself as I say 'away captain call in the air please' the away captain decides to lean in for a closer look at the coin.

So the end result is I flip the coin straight into his left eye.

Christ knows what he wanted to look at, maybe he thought the coin had 3 sides or something.

After doing it again he lost the toss and kicked off with one pink eye.....
 
Haha, im thinking about investing in Walkie Talkies because you can connect headsets to them similar to proper ref comms ones and its only like 200 quid which is a hell of a lot less than the 2 grand red headsets haha. Uni games with my assistants would come in very handy haha
Search the yapalong 4000, might be a better option if you are serious about it :)
 
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