Open Age Advice- confrontation and alledged racism

Whilst being assessed for the third time this year it was alledgedly that the CAR racially abused the striker of the opposition after he called him a cheat for giving an offside.

The opposition were shouting and after the ball went out of play I stopped the game to address the situation. My response was to ask the team to change the assistant to stop any further incidents. Before this I got the captains together to explain that I did not hear it and therefore all that I could do is put it in my report and could not send off the assistant formally. The Home captain was fuming and tried to get the team to walk off the pitch, he was the only one that did so the team had to carry on with 10 players. This talk with the captains must have taken 5 minutes as he wasn’t accepting my explanation.

Has anybody had experience like this? Is there anything else that I could have done differently to show more match control?

It wasn’t mentioned in the assessment report so I am a little insecure as to whether I could have done any different. Only ever had one mass confrontation so far in addition to this in my 2 years of reffing, I’m now a level 6

It happens, you can't be expected to hear everything that is said on or around the pitch. Presumably the observer didn't hear it either otherwise he would have mentioned it.

As there has been an allegation of racial abuse you are obliged to report it even though you didn't hear it. Add it as an extraordinary incident on WGS making it clear that you didn't actually hear it and rather it was brought to your attention by the home team. County can then deal with it as they see fit.

He didn’t hear it either. Luckily I did exactly as you said, put on WGS, and the county contacted me on the Monday. Not heard anything since- I am assuming that will be it from my side

Out of curiosity, did you have to book that captain for his walk off?

If you did, was there any further fall out from that?

I honestly can't imagine being in that situation. Not that this helps you at all, sorry!

I would have booked him.... but he didn’t come back, just stormed off! Didn’t get marked down for it though, he said that it would have just added insult to injury. They ended up with 9 players in the end as someone got injured too

Not in the assessor's report? What was in it?

About the alledged incident. We had a 10 minute debrief about it after the game though

Davidkenn17 said:

I would have booked him.... but he didn’t come back, just stormed off! Didn’t get marked down for it though, he said that it would have just added insult to injury. They ended up with 9 players in the end as someone got injured too

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He doesn’t need to come back to be cautioned for leaving the FOP permission, you could have noted his number, showed the card in his general direction.....people would have understood he was being cautioned.....then got his name afterwards.....

Going 6-5 I would have expected you to caution him.....mandatory caution.

and what about the original cheat shout from the player to the assistant? any action there?

In hindsight further action would have been good for the cheat comment but again I didn’t hear fully and was based on other players telling me. Had a public stern word, would have been more if I’d heard fully I think. In terms of the leaving the pitch again, hindsight would have booked him, the situation had got a bit out of hand by then and was more of a case of damage limitation

I had a similar situation but with homophobia rather than racism. Pretty much dealt with it in the same manner as yourself but thankfully, the captains were more accepting and didn't try and leave the pitch etc. You dealt with it correctly (if you don't hear it, what else can you do?) it's just a case that some people will be more understanding than others

Davidkenn17 said:

I would have booked him.... but he didn’t come back, just stormed off! Didn’t get marked down for it though, he said that it would have just added insult to injury. They ended up with 9 players in the end as someone got injured too

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Normal approach would still be to caution him, just not bother with the card but write it up instead.

As for the 'cheat' comment...well, if you didn't hear it clearly then not much you can do.

Match control is a really hard one here - because he may well have a legitimate grievance. Normally you wouldn't tolerate that much arguing, but being too quick with the cards is going to make it worse.

But aside from firmly advising him that he can't expect you to act on something you didn't hear - you'll keep an ear out for it and he's certainly able to report it himself, there's not much you can do - and if it goes on too long you might have to start threatening a card.

Sometimes the best way to end an argument is to walk away from it yourself and gesture for players to get ready for the restart (in this case in particular you probably want to be really careful if it's the opposing team's restart).
"Okay, this is going around in circles, discussing it further isn't going to get us anywhere. We have zero tolerance on racism but you know I need to hear it to take action. I'm sorry I didn't hear it, but please make sure nobody retaliates because I have to take action on what I hear. I'm asking for your help here to do the best thing by your team. Now, it's your goal kick, let's go" and run off signalling the restart. I dunno, something like that.