The Ref Stop

Should I include in dismissal report

tomh

New Member
Level 7 Referee
Hi,
Had an eventful morning!
I'm level 7, I reffed an u14 game today then picked up my 3 year old daughter and drove to WATCH my sons u13 game.
Arrived bang on KO time to be met by the coach who said "ref hasn't turned up, could you please ref otherwise we'll have to cancel it"
Not ideal but handed daughter to a friend on sidelines (essentially plugged her into Bluey on my phone!) pulled my ref top back on and (5 mins late) we kicked off.
My kids playing red (vs green), not an ideal start cos everyone has seen I'm a red parent but I professionally distance myself from red players and coaches and ref it like I would any other game.
All fine til 5mins to go. Absolutely no contentious decisions so far.
Green leading 2-1 but green defender (blatantly) handballs in area.
I give red penalty and a green player runs over and says "you're cheating" to me.
For me that crosses the OFFINABUS line and I give a straight red card.
Penalty scored and then 3 minutes later red score and go on to win 3-2.
Green coach fairly aggressive at full time, mainly telling me I can't send off anymore, I can only sinbin for 2 minutes. I told him I can, I described the difference between dissent and OFFINABUS and also told him sinbinning would be 8minutes not 2.
Interested to heat if "you're cheating" in an u13game would be OFFINABUS for you but really interested in whether, when reporting the dismissal you would include the background story about my not being appointed to this game and being there to watch my son. Is that important background info or is it irrelevant/giving greens unwarranted arguments against the decision?
 
The Ref Stop
Once you’re officiating the game your affiliation to the club as a parent is irrelevant, you report as you would any other game unless you’re submitting an extraordinary report and it would be relevant.

I’d give a red for that for that age group but some don’t give any cards to kids
 
I officiate quite a lot for my lad’s team (U13) and not yet had a problem, and always confirm in advance to oppo coaches I’m a parent of a player so they don’t find out afterwards.

Being called a cheat is OFFINABUS and a straight red for me even at 9v9, let alone U13, so the right decision. That said, I could understand and wouldn’t overly criticise a referee who is also the parent of an opposition player deciding to sin bin for dissent instead in 9v9 and maybe at U13s due to the immaturity of the players.
 
Red card.

I wouldnt include in the red card report as that is just standard offinabus.

If you really think it necessary then you can add that context via an extraordinary report.
 
I'm not sure... this could be a 12 year old who doesn't really know what he can say and what he cannot say to an official. He will certainly have learned now.
 
Arrived bang on KO time to be met by the coach who said "ref hasn't turned up, could you please ref otherwise we'll have to cancel it"

Would it though? Really?

Most league handbooks I have read usually say something along the lines of "if a referee doesn't turn up, both teams will agree on an official (usually from the home side), not having an official is not grounds for postoponement"

In regards to the accusation of cheating, red card every single time and hopefully a lesson learnt for that young person. Depending on the aggressiveness of the coach at full time I think I would be keen to give him his own red card.

Final point on the cheating accusation, has any ref actually ever explained to a player/coach that we couldn't care less who wins the game, or would this just escalate the situation?
 
Would it though? Really?

Most league handbooks I have read usually say something along the lines of "if a referee doesn't turn up, both teams will agree on an official (usually from the home side), not having an official is not grounds for postoponement"

In regards to the accusation of cheating, red card every single time and hopefully a lesson learnt for that young person. Depending on the aggressiveness of the coach at full time I think I would be keen to give him his own red card.

Final point on the cheating accusation, has any ref actually ever explained to a player/coach that we couldn't care less who wins the game, or would this just escalate the situation?
If you’re a parent AND referee in the same game, and are not alive to the perception of bias issue, you probably shouldn’t take the match.
 
@tomh

Agree with everyone. Being called a cheat is OFFINABUS. No need for an extraordinary report as nothing really requires a further investigation/sanctions, such as discriminatory behaviour etc...

Most that could happen is the team might get really annoyed with whatever FA fines them and the FA might phone you.

Extremely brief in my experience: "Did you put a red card through on X date for X fixture, for OFFINABUS"
 
Yeah I have, accused of bias by manager of an U18 team who lost a game I reffed because I used to coach U16 team who played them a few times ... Ridiculous 🤣
 
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