Had a contrasting experience today, and could do with some advice to be honest... In the morning, watched 14yo son ref an U11s match, make some good decisions, and generally handle things well. It's about the 20th match he's done and he's really grown into it. Has made the odd mistake throughout the games he's reffed, but he's learning, and people have been pretty understanding. Generally speaking he's done really well though.
Fast forward to this afternoon's U15 "friendly" match that he was playing in... The referee was probably in his 50s, relatively slow and struggled to keep up with the pace of a high-level U15s game - including failing to call a really really obvious offside that directly led to a goal because he was so far behind play. He had a pocket watch rather than a wristwatch (which seemed a bit odd) which he seemed to make a big deal about getting out of his pocket every time anyones asked him for time remaining, and his County FA badge on his shirt must have been 20+ years old. In the case of several players he had words with, he spent an excessive time lecturing them (giving them final warnings), which really broke up the flow of the play in a negative manner, and didn't add any time on.
The players and coaches were generally getting a bit exasperated in the second half, but things came to a head when the ball went out for a throw, a linesman (Team B's coach) flagged in favour of Team A, and Team A's coach tried to call the referee's attention to it. After the 3rd or 4th time of this happening in the space of 10 minutes, Team A's coach got pretty exasperated and vocal and asked the referee what the point was of having linesmen if he was just going to blatantly ignore them in spite of them being much closer with a better view.
The referee marched over to the coach of Team B, and stood practically nose-touching the coach, and started berating him - you could easily argue it was assault. The coach of Team B loudly said, several times, to "get out of my space". At no point did the referee back up, and he pulled out a red card and sent the coach off; the coach then left the vicinity of the pitch. I would hazard that if he has reported the coach, the coach would have a reasonable claim to have the red card rescinded given the threatening manner that the referee had acted in.
Personally, it was the worst behaviour I'd ever seen by any referee. I politely asked the referee for his name after the match, because I wanted to raise his behaviour it to the County FA, and he refused, calling me "boring". As it was a friendly, I don't believe there was any paperwork submitted, and the referee was arranged by Team A (the home team).
As a parent of several players, spectator, and parent of a junior referee, this kind of thing exasperates me - it's a referee who's made it all about him, who's been overly officious, made poor decisions, behaved badly, and generally left everyone with a bad taste in their mouth. I think everyone would have been happier if one of the coaches had reffed it, or if they'd split it between them. Also, what motivates this kind of referee, to spend part of their afternoon seemingly actively engineering conflict?
What would you do in this situation? Personally, I wouldn't want to see this guy in the middle for any match my kids are involved in again after the way he squared up to the coach - but without a name, how on earth do I report this to the County FA?
Fast forward to this afternoon's U15 "friendly" match that he was playing in... The referee was probably in his 50s, relatively slow and struggled to keep up with the pace of a high-level U15s game - including failing to call a really really obvious offside that directly led to a goal because he was so far behind play. He had a pocket watch rather than a wristwatch (which seemed a bit odd) which he seemed to make a big deal about getting out of his pocket every time anyones asked him for time remaining, and his County FA badge on his shirt must have been 20+ years old. In the case of several players he had words with, he spent an excessive time lecturing them (giving them final warnings), which really broke up the flow of the play in a negative manner, and didn't add any time on.
The players and coaches were generally getting a bit exasperated in the second half, but things came to a head when the ball went out for a throw, a linesman (Team B's coach) flagged in favour of Team A, and Team A's coach tried to call the referee's attention to it. After the 3rd or 4th time of this happening in the space of 10 minutes, Team A's coach got pretty exasperated and vocal and asked the referee what the point was of having linesmen if he was just going to blatantly ignore them in spite of them being much closer with a better view.
The referee marched over to the coach of Team B, and stood practically nose-touching the coach, and started berating him - you could easily argue it was assault. The coach of Team B loudly said, several times, to "get out of my space". At no point did the referee back up, and he pulled out a red card and sent the coach off; the coach then left the vicinity of the pitch. I would hazard that if he has reported the coach, the coach would have a reasonable claim to have the red card rescinded given the threatening manner that the referee had acted in.
Personally, it was the worst behaviour I'd ever seen by any referee. I politely asked the referee for his name after the match, because I wanted to raise his behaviour it to the County FA, and he refused, calling me "boring". As it was a friendly, I don't believe there was any paperwork submitted, and the referee was arranged by Team A (the home team).
As a parent of several players, spectator, and parent of a junior referee, this kind of thing exasperates me - it's a referee who's made it all about him, who's been overly officious, made poor decisions, behaved badly, and generally left everyone with a bad taste in their mouth. I think everyone would have been happier if one of the coaches had reffed it, or if they'd split it between them. Also, what motivates this kind of referee, to spend part of their afternoon seemingly actively engineering conflict?
What would you do in this situation? Personally, I wouldn't want to see this guy in the middle for any match my kids are involved in again after the way he squared up to the coach - but without a name, how on earth do I report this to the County FA?
