A&H

Calling Games off

Chris Crowe

Chris Crowe

New Member
Hi All, well today was a bit of a waste, went to an Under 11 Game arrived an hour earlier than the due KO time as it was a frosty morning the ground was rock hard, but the sun was out and it was getting warmer agreed with the 2 managers that we would delay kick-off until 11.30am to give the pitch a chance to defrost.
we even tried moving to another pitch but inevitably at 11.20am as there were area's of he pitch still hard and I called the game off.

There was a lot of pressure for and against for the game going ahead from parents/ players and coaches and as you may guess they all couldn't be happy at the outcome.

I did call them all over and explained my decision and that it was in the interest off the kids safety.

In hindsight probably should have called the game off when I arrived but I was trying to give the game every opportunity to go ahead.

Anyone have any views/ similar situations?
 
The Referee Store
Where possible it is better to postpone as early as possible to hopefully avoid teams making unnecessary journeys (especially where home teams have to pay travelling expenses to travelling away teams if a match is postponed and they have travelled). Did you still get your half match fee plus travel expenses? Comes down to leagues rules I suppose.

which team wanted the game to go ahead (home or away)?
 
Agreed next time I will cancel earlier, howver both Teams were eager to play the game rather than have a back log of fixtures,likewise the players were up for playing , understandably the parents were a little less for it going ahead.
 
A little off topic, but I once had a team ask if the goal keeper could wear a t shirt with comedy print on the front (escapes me now what it said) instead of his goalie top. I asked why and they told me he wasn't the usual goalie and was a big lad, whereas the usual keeper was a lot smaller. To prove his point the keeper put the tiny top on as best he could and could barely move his arms or breath!

I let him wear the t shirt :D
 
Well this one was strange after saying a game was on we gone I. To get changed and the fog 10 mins later brought temp down and that was this morning
 
Always do your best to get the game on, but at the end of the day safety comes first. Players and coaches usually want the match to go ahead or they would've called it off before you arrived; ignore them, the decision is yours and yours alone.

Had a similar one last winter (waterlogged not frozen). Got a text from the home manager saying the pitch was perfect so was surprised to arrive to a very flooded centre circle. Coaches and players desperate to play. They were sweeping the waterlogged areas so I let them know that in its current state, the pitch was unplayable. They insisted they could get it sorted so I gave them fifteen minutes to get it playable, which they were unable to do. I called the match off, they weren't happy, but that pitch wasn't safe.

Always do what you think is right, not what the managers/players etc want.
 
Today my pitch had very faded lines making things more difficult but i played the game as i felt they were visible enough within about 8 yards.

How visible do lines need to be for you to play?
 
I had to call nice off today.Really wanted it to be on but just couldn't justify it to myself, it was just too dangerous.

Plus the real heavy frost meant the whole pitch was white and you couldn't see the lines!
 
Two CAR's yes.

To be honest it was a minor point in the end, the rest of the pitch was in no fit state whatsoever.

The pitch inspection was really funny though, some of the crap the players and managers were saying.
 
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