Congratulating Players

As referees, is it ok for us to praise players if they do something good? As some teams may think it is biased?

Approach with caution. If you misuse this you can get accused of bias or lose credibility. If it’s out context it also will present badly. If once in the middle of a match you tell the striker you loved his goal - no.

But…

“Good save” this is one way to sell a corner from a nick. You will look stupid if there wasn’t a touch though!

“Good tackle” similar. With problem players, a will timed “nice pass” or “good stuff” might help make you more human or less of an enemy.

But in all this if it feels uncomfortable for you, it’s probably double so for the players.

Just like every action/signal you take, every word you say can be and will be used against you in a difficult match. So, be careful. But also be natural (hard on the field).

In youth football, I do this quite a lot. "Good save", "nice tackle", stuff like that where appropriate, and not minutes after. In OA, I'd be vary wary of doing so.

I don't so much praise the players, but if it's a good tempered game and the striker has made a terrible choice when through on goal, I'll usually say "what the f*** has he done there" to the closest teammate and that usually gets a chuckle.

Pick the players carefully tho some will not see the funny side.

I make a point of thanking and praising good sportsmanship in a way everyone can see. Most common example is when they voluntarily admit the ball touched them last before going out.

Similarly, I’ve occasionally got troublesome players on side with some well timed banter.

A striker who always causes me grief caused me zero problems at all the other week after his goal on 7 minutes took a small deflection. After the celebrations died down I quietly said to him ‘big deflection there, reckon that’ll have to go down as an OG’ and winked. He laughed and never moaned at me again for the rest of the game.