Just returned from literally the hardest game I've ever refereed - green v blue 2-2 AET, 2-4 on penalties with 11 cautions and 2 dismissals (7 and 1 to home team 4 and 1 to away team).
HT had 5 cautions, 3 for FT, 1 for C3 and 1 for HB (tried scoring with his hand)
6th caution added in second half - C1 - another simple caution. Dismissed the home team manager from the vicinity for making a number of comments to me - none of which merited a dismissal alone.
Extra time it becomes 2-1 to home team with 4 more cautions - all standard tactical fouls (apart from one which was dissent). With 5 minutes to go, away team CB makes a challenge which denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity so I dismissed him. I kept having to stop the watch for stoppages but in the 120th minute the away team have a corner which the away GK comes up for. Home 17's arm came out and the ball hit it at the top of the arm. I felt that his arm went towards the ball and as such gave the away team a penalty at the end. Everyone goes ballistic, I get called most names you could think of - including a cheating whatever which was nice of him (all of which were spectators). Home team manager runs onto the pitch, Penalty got scored and home 17 gets a second caution for dissent. Penalty scored and ends up as a shootout which the away team wins.
After the game, the home team manager tries talking to me about it in the car park before referencing events which happened two years ago, refusing to accept anything I had to say. When I informed him of the report to the spectator that was going through he said 'prove it' to which I answered 'I can't. How can you prove he didn't?'
Basically the response was that he would say the spectator in question never said it, the spectator would say he didn't and all the parents (mens game but young team) would say that he didn't say it either.
What is the point of reporting misconduct to the FA when it's going to get appealed, at a hearing they'll lie about everything. Especially when I have no faith in the FA since when I was once unable to attend a personal hearing as a witness through illness they tried charging ME.
Rant about the game over, I'll obviously make the reports I need to make but to be honest debating whether I quit refereeing, I've had injury setbacks over the last couple of seasons, large criticisms of a video which ended up getting a fair amount of views on twitter and now this. There's no enjoyment anymore where nobody has respect for referees.