Abandonment

[Brian Hamilton]

To the original poster I would ask why the 6th minute of the second half became the 56th minute of the game?

If two players were fighting violently, you decided to send them off and no one else moaned about the decision, then I think you have taken enough action to be able to get the game back on with everyone ready to play football. Without the additional facts that might us understand why you took this decision, it's going to be difficult to offer advice AND you can't post that information as it may lead to someone being able to identify the game which could result in you getting into trouble with your local FA.

Probably best to personally reflect on your decision, consider if there was anything you could have done differently either in the run up to the incident or in the immediate aftermath and then try to take those changes into your next game.

 

[Ryan Owens]

Why would you abandon for Mass Conf unless you had to send off so many players that you couldn't continue?

 

[DanCohen17]

I'm going to slightly disagree here.
The reason being that last season in my league (not my game I hasten to add), there was a mass conf that resulted in, as far as memory can recall, only 2 RC's. However, the referee (a first year L4) took the decision to abandon the fixture at this point (37 minutes) and was backed by the league and the counties.

Despite only a couple of RC's, all hell broke loose and abandoning probably was the right course of action! The replayed fixture was referee'd by a L1 FL referee to attempt to ensure all went okay.

 

[lincs22]

Hi guys just wanted some advice on this Incident..
Done a First Division local league game on Wednesday this week and it only lasted 56 minutes as the 6th minute in the second half two players ended up grappling with each other then proceeded to punch the living daylights out of each other, both were red carded for VC but due to the nature of the Incident I decided to abandon it!!

Thoughts & opinions.......

To the original poster I would ask why the 6th minute of the second half became the 56th minute of the game?

If two players were fighting violently, you decided to send them off and no one else moaned about the decision, then I think you have taken enough action to be able to get the game back on with everyone ready to play football. Without the additional facts that might us understand why you took this decision, it's going to be difficult to offer advice AND you can't post that information as it may lead to someone being able to identify the game which could result in you getting into trouble with your local FA.

Probably best to personally reflect on your decision, consider if there was anything you could have done differently either in the run up to the incident or in the immediate aftermath and then try to take those changes into your next game.

As Lee was the only one there, he felt (with his experience) that the match could not continue so abandonment would be correct. We should not second guess his decision.

That said, it is unlikely that any action will be taken against the clubs for this - given the limited number of individuals. For Lee's future, take the advice of others as more experienced referees woudl have been able to continue if the 2 idiots had been properly seperated away from the pitch area. More senior football woudl not expect an abandonment for only 2 players.

 

[Ryan Owens]

I'm going to slightly disagree here.
The reason being that last season in my league (not my game I hasten to add), there was a mass conf that resulted in, as far as memory can recall, only 2 RC's. However, the referee (a first year L4) took the decision to abandon the fixture at this point (37 minutes) and was backed by the league and the counties.

Despite only a couple of RC's, all hell broke loose and abandoning probably was the right course of action! The replayed fixture was referee'd by a L1 FL referee to attempt to ensure all went okay.

If all hell broke loose, perhaps there should've been more than 2 red cards.

 

[DanCohen17]

If all hell broke loose, perhaps there should've been more than 2 red cards.

Very possibly! Unfortunately, I didn't see it - merely heard through the refereeing grapevine!

 

[lee_1980_evans]

The matter will be dealt with by the associations and its not for me to decide or deliberate, after speaking with a few other of my referee friends (locally) I am happy with my decicion made on the day to Abandon..... but naturally as I aim to push myself higher I can use this incident as a benchmark.

 

[Padfoot]

Fairly pointless starting the topic then really!

You ask for advice, can't post any details so any advice given can only be very generic advice, which seems to be that abandoning for only 2 players fighting without any other aggravating factors is OTT. Then you come back on to just blow off the advice given by experienced referees.

Sorry if that seems harsh but the whole topic seems rather pointless without any details (and despite what people might want you to believe, its very easy to post details without identifying any of the teams involved) so i guess we will never really know what the reasons behind abandoning were.

Pleased if you have managed to find some positives out of it.

 

[lee_1980_evans]

@Padfoot without prejudice I have not "blown off" of the advice and this discussion has been a good help to me and i appreciate the time that people have taken to respond!