Any tips for refereeing academy games
- Thread starter Rob123
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one
RefChat Addict
Now that you have refereed a few, what have you found challenging? Happy to give you tips on those.
Do you think you should be doing anything different because they are academy games?
Don't sweat the small stuff. IE the expectation at academy level is to let them play. So don't be over precise on where a throw in should be taken or a free kick 30 yards in their own half etc. That would be the biggest issue I've seen with young refs when they start doing academy games (I did quite alot at one particular club over the last 2 years). Apart from that I didn't find them any different at u15 level and below. 16s/18s had NAR's so obviously there's plenty of differences there.
Richard smith
Well-Known Member
I have found with Academy Games, I talk more to lessen the need for the whistle
Talking to prevent offences is a big thing for me
I Also find the younger the player the more talking I Do
Its almost like being an educator as well as a law enforcer
Talking to prevent offences is a big thing for me
I Also find the younger the player the more talking I Do
Its almost like being an educator as well as a law enforcer
PinnerPaul
RefChat Addict
I did quite a few U16/U18s lines and as you say, the coaches especially, don't want to see the referee. The good ones will actually actively discourage any dissent or 'afters' in the games as well, as these are meant to be about developing the players rather than the actual result, or perhaps more accurately (In any match the aim is to win), getting promoted or relegated.
Coaches are putting the players at a disadvantage imo
Without afters and verbals, players will generally fade into the background. The best players are invariably difficult to referee
PinnerPaul
RefChat Addict
Which is why so many U23s at Championship clubs end up going out on loan to League 1 and below.
At those levels, win bonuses mean something to the players and the games, whilst maybe not as 'technically' good as U23s games, do provide a real football education and a completely different experience to the rather 'tame' U 23 matches at the top levels.
Lots of players have said that, U23 games and reserve games are not at all competitive and young players aren't going to develop in them. Ollie Watkins discussed it most recently, he was playing reserve football for Exeter and not improving and then went on loan to Weston Super Mare. Whilst it was lower level football he learnt more from that than he was doing at Exeter and he credits that loan to making him into the player he currently now is.
Most referees will tell you that refereeing U18 and U23 games at the elite level is much easier than refereeing competitive football.
Mourinho and Pep are very clear about how u23 football doesnt prepare players for adult professional football in any way. Hence Peps insistence on the need for reserve teams in the football league like in Spain.
From watching City u23 games a few years ago when I lived near the ground, the games felt sanitised. Almost non contact
Jtpetherick1
Well-Known Member
It's a really fair point - whatever you think of the quality of L1/L2 football it is football, PL2 is very safe and insular rather than 'real world'.
Justylove
RefChat Addict
My experience of pro teams U18 academy games is that it's all very "nice" and there isn't that real grit and determination you get in more competitive games. It's very rare to get something that has a bit of spite and needle in it.
Skill levels are good and they can be a bit quicker than you might normally see, but in general they are quite easy to handle.
Skill levels are good and they can be a bit quicker than you might normally see, but in general they are quite easy to handle.
I've done around 30 games at one PL clubs academy. I've given one red in an u18 derby for SFP and a handful of yellows. Their is often a league observer their for the league matches and the coaches employment depends on the behaviour of the players/spectators and they keep themselves and their team in check. Onw of them once said to me that its a learning curve for officials as well as players at academy's. Dont get me wrong, if they disagree with a kmi they'll have a conversation and tell you that they think you're wrong but never in an aggressive tone etc. Thats my experience anyway
I have to say, I've kind of found the opposite. By the time you get to U18's, these are players who are playing for a pro contract - a good performance here or a bad performance there could be the difference between them getting to have a career as a professional footballer or not. The managers are more professional and well behaved, sure. But the players sometimes can really care, more than in the vast majority of grassroots matches.
PinnerPaul
RefChat Addict
'My' Isthmian U18 game last night was certainly competitive - 7 yellow cards, 2 of those were 'orange' and 2 of the others were for the same player! Good game though, away team scored 2 good goals in the final 5 minutes to win 2-1.
From my perspective (As AR) had a penalty shout (not given) referee wasn't sure about and a ball over the line for a possible goal, that I didn't give as wasn't 100% in line - came from a header from a free kick on the 'offside line' so impossible for me to get to the goalline in the .7 of a second the ball took to get there!
After that I must just repeat a classic from a spectator 30 yards BEHIND me. 'Can't give that if you can't see it, can you lino, you weren't in line'
Maybe I shouldn't have, but had to reply "Nor are you!" Back he came "But I'm not being paid to give it am I? That was also a pen btw"
End of conversation!
From my perspective (As AR) had a penalty shout (not given) referee wasn't sure about and a ball over the line for a possible goal, that I didn't give as wasn't 100% in line - came from a header from a free kick on the 'offside line' so impossible for me to get to the goalline in the .7 of a second the ball took to get there!
After that I must just repeat a classic from a spectator 30 yards BEHIND me. 'Can't give that if you can't see it, can you lino, you weren't in line'
Maybe I shouldn't have, but had to reply "Nor are you!" Back he came "But I'm not being paid to give it am I? That was also a pen btw"
End of conversation!
The Northern Premier League u18 academy games i used to do were a mixed bag. Some excellent coaches who saw it purely as development for the players and the officials (often had young ARs just starting out). There were a few teams who were less well behaved but on the whole it was a better environment and less aggro than adult grassroots football I do at weekends. One team did have a coach who sat in the dugout and screamed negative nonsense to his own team for 90 mins whilst the manager didn't have the balls to shut him up. The players hated him. He had a few words for us officials but after a warning he quietened down.
I did a couple of Yorkshire & Humberside academy games just before I moved down South and they were very well behaved. Coaches never said a single word to me other than positive stuff and general chit chat (no ARs). Gane ended 2-1 with 2 late goals too