When I first saw the title I was expecting it to be about younger age groups I.e. U11-U13. In which case my advice is that you can utilise talking more. That’s not to say to ignore carding offences, but communication can play a part at that age group.
U15 though? No sympathy. If it’s a card don’t hesitate. Correct decisions. U15s is quite hard because it’s the last age group parents care at. Once they fail to reach an academy here parents realise their kid isn’t going to make it and parents become less of a problem older. For now they’re still clinging onto that dream, so they will be a nightmare.
When I played, I only ever saw about 5 cards (from U7-U18). Since refereeing, I’ve realised that there should’ve been more.
When I look back at my junior days (U8-U18) I struggle to think how I saw so few cards. I saw max 10 in total. Very few shown as cards and very few submitted. I almost had my leg broken on about 10 different occasions. Kudos to you on the U13 game, I remember one U13 game where it got past the point of communication but the ref still wouldn’t show cards and it just became a battlefield. Ref could’ve made a fortune for county FA that day but kept cards in pocket.
My response was to get my cards and whistle
and gestured to the parent if you want to do a better job be my guest
Surprisingly he let me continue
I’ve seen a lot of refs do this over the years but it’s not advice I’d give to new refs. As a spectator, I’ve seen someone’s bluff be called twice. The first time an experienced ref did it, parent accepted, ref said “well I’ve already been paid” handed whistle to parents and ****ed off (can only guess it wasn’t his whistle.) Parent was predictably ****, and the only losers were the kids.
Second time round a young ref did it and parent accepted. This time young ref froze, as if he hadn’t prepared for that answer. He awkwardly mumbled out a no and carried on but his confidence was clearly shot and his match control had gone
