The Ref Stop

A U18 girls' player kicked me!

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pingvino

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For once I did a U18 girls' game yesterday. Easiest game by far this season, no major incidents up to 5 minutes from full time. A player lands on her back during an aerial challenge, I don't give a free kick, perhaps I should have, the ball is kicked out and I run across to the player who is lying on her back crying. I ask whether she's OK, get no reply so I call for medical assistance. Just as I turn my back I see her carting out her leg and the next thing I feel is her studs hitting my leg. Not forceful, but enough to cause me some pain.

I immediately pulled myself away, shocked and in disbelief - did this girl just kick me? I could see the coach tending to her tell her to calm down and "don't kick the ref, he's done you nothing!". Some minutes go by and I don't know what to do, surely she kicked me, but I can't send her off, she's only perhaps 17 and badly hurt and didn't mean it. Finally they lead her off the pitch and put her down on some sort of blanket next to the bench. I pull out my notebook and I tell the coach I am obliged to send her off as she kicked me, no matter how unintentional it might be, before showing the red card.

The coach said the decision was fine, but that I should be nice with my report as it most likely was entirely unintentional.

My first experience with violence came in the game I least expected it to happen in...
 
The Ref Stop
Well done. It is great that you handled it calmly and communicated well with the coach. And then went through with a difficult decision. Good work.
 
You give too much allowance to the sex or age of the players. Makes no difference. Always be aware and expect anything to happen.

I understand you may not have expected it and it came as a shock, but try to deal with these things as they arise. If she's on the ground receiving treatment for some time and you show a red card after 4 or 5 minutes that is going to confuse everybody.

A tough situation though, well done for dealing with it.
 
Well done on the dismissal but what is all this unintentional nonsense?
Did she spasm? Was she streching her leg?
No, She kicked you. Don't make excuses for her.
I disagree with regal ref. I'm not showing a red card to a player that might be on the deck for 3 minutes so I can listen to their team protest for 3 mins. I'm showing the red card as the injured person leaves the pitch so I can quickly restart.
For future reference you should have abandoned.
 
What a weird situation.
What reasoning do you have to say it was accidental? sounds like you're adopting a 'a 17 year old girl wouldn't do anything wrong, sure?' sort of prejudice.
I can't see how it could possibly have been anything other than deliberate unless you were physically in the way and she just bumped into you- and the coach's comment of 'don't kick the referee' certainly implies that he saw a deliberate, violent action!!

Don't underestimate what she did because of her age. You can state that you felt but didn't see the kick, but don't make assumptions of it being accidental.
The coach's statement of 'don't kick the referee' is definitely worth including in the report as well.
 
abandon the match? really?

what next - abandon if a player sneezes in your breathing area?

the manager as straight away had a pop at her - nothing as kicked off at all, shes beens ent off (doubt shed have come back on by sounds of it) and everything was dealt with? I can see why people are saying abandon but I don't know if I would have tbh
 
A lot of areas have a standing recommendation of abandonment. The reason is that a judiciary, in their typical incompetent, biased and unethical fashion, will say something along the lines of 'well, you can't have thought it was that serious, clearly, if you kept playing'. I'm sure I'm not the only person on this forum who has seen a player get off for assault for this reason.
This translates into any assault - even a chest bump, ripping cards out of your hand, anything like that.
It's a response driven by judiciaries who are working hard to kill this game, moreso than common sense.
 
Charlie Jones said:
abandon the match? really?

what next - abandon if a player sneezes in your breathing area?

the manager as straight away had a pop at her - nothing as kicked off at all, shes beens ent off (doubt shed have come back on by sounds of it) and everything was dealt with? I can see why people are saying abandon but I don't know if I would have tbh
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An assault on a referee is an assault on a referee. As heinous a crime as can be committed during a game of football. It is wholly unacceptable and inexcusable otherwise it sends the message, it's okay to behave like this.

Next game the same petulant 17 year old girl punches a referee in the face breaking his/her nose?

May never happen, but as we all know players who behave like this will continue to behave like this (or escalate) unless they feel consequences for their behaviour - sadly that means teams who allow them to play also feeling the consequences.

Always abandon.
 
Well done Pingvino, a good job well done.

As for abandoning matches, this looks as if no further threat of violence towards you existed from this player or any other person, so perhaps your decision to continue paid off, for this fixture and this petulant and unacceptable lashing out in temper offence at least.

However, in the vast majority of Games where match officials are deliberately and maliciously assaulted, or indeed obviously threatened with behaviour likely to afford a clear, immediate and present danger to a match officials personal physical safety, abandonment is by far the recommended way of dealing with the issue at the time.

There are occasions where our power to 'suspend' play can prove to be a very useful tool in our collective armoury, but abandonment is of course the ultimate sanction, hence the additional charge of causing a game to be abandoned when so reported.
 
HoofItYouDonkey said:
Interesting.
So should we abandon, say, for cards getting ripped out of our hand?
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mmmmm grey area. Needs a bit of context. Ripped implies "done with aggression", so if it comes with aggression or threatening behaviour towards the referee... game over. Like I said though, needs context.
 
SM said:
mmmmm grey area. Needs a bit of context. Ripped implies "done with aggression", so if it comes with aggression or threatening behaviour towards the referee... game over. Like I said though, needs context.
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I've only had cards knocked out/grabbed from me twice. Both times they were cleanly knocked out of my hands without contact with me. Certainly didn't cause me any pain like the OP
 
deusex said:
I've only had cards knocked out/grabbed from me twice. Both times they were cleanly knocked out of my hands without contact with me. Certainly didn't cause me any pain like the OP
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yet you didn't abandon for this?
 
Interesting thread this. :)
I must confess, it would never normally occur to me to abandon a match for something of this nature. Sure, if I'd been physically assaulted and felt afraid for my safety or shaken emotionally I'd have no hesitation in doing just that but not a for a petulant kick-out by a tearful girl with obvious anger-management issues! :D
Is there anywhere that this "rule of thumb" (ie the match has to be abandoned immediately) is actually laid down or even recommended or is this just yet another "accepted" piece of protocol that has evolved over time?
I really am not trying to be flippant here, I just genuinely want to do the correct thing if it were to ever happen to me. :)
 
Utterly OTT to abandon for this unless you are either unable to continue or feel your safety would be further at risk.

Not buying this idea that we have to abandon otherwise the CFA won't take it seriously......that's a separate issue which could easily be dealt with by publicity and referees withdrawing their services until CFAs start supporting them properly.

Of course one might hope that the RA would be championing our cause but unfortunately they're not interested in doing anything other than being a compliant lapdog of the FA etc.
 
Padfoot said:
Utterly OTT to abandon for this unless you are either unable to continue or feel your safety would be further at risk.

Not buying this idea that we have to abandon otherwise the CFA won't take it seriously......that's a separate issue which could easily be dealt with by publicity and referees withdrawing their services until CFAs start supporting them properly.

Of course one might hope that the RA would be championing our cause but unfortunately they're not interested in doing anything other than being a compliant lapdog of the FA etc.
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The problem is that the punishments which can be handed our by the County FA are prescribed in the FA's Disciplinary handbook. If a player threatens a referee, assaults a referee, verbally abuses a referee, then the disciplinary measures are less than if the action by the player also causes abandonment. Don't blame the County FA's their hands are tied by the handbook from the big house.
 
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