Shirts

Morning all,

I did 3 OA games this weekend. First one in a local league, low standard match on the Saturday morning. I've reffed both teams before on several occasions, both as sound as they come, never any real issues. Away manager comes to me and says that their striker has lost his shirt but has a Man U shirt instead (his team play in red). I said that this would be fine with me as long as the other team are happy with this (I know that im the sole arbitrator of the LOTG, it just seems sensible to do this as I knew they'd be fine and it's good to sort the issue before any possible problems occur). No issues, this lad even scored. As a big Man City fan we had a laugh about it before the start of the game, all good stuff.

3rd game of the weekend, Sunday am, decent enough u21 standard. Away team turn up 10 mins before kick off after what must have been a cracking team night out! No issues all match, an excellent game played in good spirits and a good report between players and myself, we even shared a joke or two! However, end of the game the lady who sorts all the admin for this team (several age groups all at one venue) asked me why they were allowed to have two number 7 shirts. I explained that they weren't and that one lad had turned up without his shirt (spent the night at a house he wasn't expecting to lol!). The manager had made me aware of this and I'd got the name of the 1 sub they had and noted that he'd be taking the shirt off whoever was subbed off (which happened to be the number 7). She wasn't happy with the explanation (we'd had a cracking game with no incidents, everyone including the manager all in good spirits after the game) but she thought that I was in the wrong. I think I've taken reasonable steps to allow the players present to play 'spirit of the game' etc and I've taken measures to ensure there'd be no mistaken identity. I'm also well aware that i could've got this wrong.

Thoughts?

Hi Ben,

I'm with you on the Number 7 issue...generally speaking I'd say you did the right thing, They may well have a valid cause for complaint, particularly if the competition rules are breached (eg if the competition rules are breached, then by rights they didn't actually have a sub to play with), and you find that the higher levels are more likely to want to see the rules being applied strictly. Sunday league they won't care if players are swapping shirts, but once people start taking themselves seriously they'll use the comp rules to give themselves an advantage. So I always either brought a copy of the competition rules or saved them on my phone to review as needed.

So I'd say, the first one is definitely 'wrong', but right. Low grade, shirt colour is close enough, everybody is fine with it. Get the guys playing, all good.

The 2nd one isn't a breach of the LOTG, but might be breaching the competition rules. Maybe. And again, probably fine at most levels, but if it's a 'take themselves seriously' grade, you might want to have run it by the opposition beforehand. Because arguably, that team shouldn't have been able to play with a sub as there wasn't a shirt, so there was an impact.

To me, there's no particular problem with either incident - unless of course, as @CapnBloodbeard has said, the Rules of Competition were breached (though even then, I'd be inclined to allow it at grass-roots level and for youth, veterans etc).

As far as I'm concerned this comes squarely under the provision that says:

Referees are expected to use common sense and to apply the ‘spirit of the game’ when applying the Laws of the Game, especially when making decisions relating to whether a match takes place and/or continues.

This is especially true for the lower levels of football where it may not always be possible for the Law to be strictly applied.

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This "admin" lady - her team didn't lose by any chance did they?

I think play, but it shoukd be reported. Assuming based on location thsts the nw u21 dev league? If so just add it to the match report form when you send it. As its a development league i think you did the right thing.

Agree with the majority - allow it, but report it and say that you chose to play on in the spirit of the game. Chances are they'll get a £10-£20 fine for not having correctly numbered shirts and that'll be the end of it.

Kes said:

This "admin" lady - her team didn't lose by any chance did they?

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Yes they did ha

Yeah I think the spirit of the game trumps all the admin stuff, especially at that standard. It's just a bit harder to control it all when the players turn up 5 mins before kick off ha

Ben448844 said:

Yes they did ha

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Well tickle me with a feather! Fancy that eh?