Futsal Tips

Just done my futsal referee course which included refereeing U14 futsal tournament matches and loved it.
Couple of questions for futsal Refs.
Assuming you’re doing a match with one or two officials (so no one else is recording fouls) how are you recording the number of fouls? Are you doing it in your head? or writing it down? Seems a bit cumbersome getting a pad out in a fast paced environment,
I use REFSIX for all normal matches and I hope they will develop some functionality to do the above but their development can be quite slow.

M

Dicky Herts said:

Just done my futsal referee course which included refereeing U14 futsal tournament matches and loved it.
Couple of questions for futsal Refs.
Assuming you’re doing a match with one or two officials (so no one else is recording fouls) how are you recording the number of fouls? Are you doing it in your head? or writing it down? Seems a bit cumbersome getting a pad out in a fast paced environment,
I use REFSIX for all normal matches and I hope they will develop some functionality to do the above but their development can be quite slow.

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Marker pen on my hand has proved a helpful compromise. Also use this as AR for cautions in football, to ensure I always have these front of mind and 'close at hand' (sorry, couldn't resist!!).

Sharpie and blank postcard?

Same card and pen I use for cards and goals - xxxx etc. no problem. I have always kept in front shorts pocket for speed and ease of access.

Even in bigger matches, if there is team-provided timekeeper with the paperwork, and no scoreboard with fouls, we have learnt the hard way to always keep a record of the cumulative fouls (often both refs do it).

The only times I don’t keep my own record of cumulative fouls is if there is an FA-appointed ref on the desk, or a scoreboard with foul count I can see.

(A futsal post! Amazing! I got a futsal promotion yesterday! Here’s me last week with our womens prem on the telly, watched by twelve people and two cats…)

@Dicky Herts from the other thread. You are right, better to count in the direction of play. We get advised to count in the most obvious way. Whatever is most easily seen and heard. We are not there to catch people out but to speed things up.

Poor from me in the clip. And I always have a mental block with the advantage foul signal direction. Nightmares!