Cards at U7 and U8 level
- Thread starter newref1097
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SpecsSaver66
Active Member
Please tell this to the people at the game when none of them will do it. Even 'supervise' as has been said. I am not sure you realise the complete lack of willingness to ref,supervise,facilitate or whatever you want to call it with small kids in many areas.
santa sangria
RefChat Addict
We have a system of āgame supervisorsā - the top two divisions of U17s, so 15-17 year olds, supply players who put on the magic green vest and quasi-referee U7 and U8 5-a-side matches. From U9 some leagues are 9-a-side and get young referees (and are in the match pool for all refs).
Correct. I ran a kids team with another chap for 6 years and despite having some great parents who caused none of the traditional problems with parents at football matches, they just did not help with anything. Occasionally one of them would help with the nets but it was rare, they'd stay in their cars until kick off. None of them would ever dream of volunteering to referee a game! They paid there Ā£35 a year in fees for their kid to play and left it all to us!
As they got older getting the parents to drive them to games became difficult. I used to have one mother ask us to pick her son up from hers in the morning and after the game drop him of at his dad's which was 10 miles away! She had a car but she thought we were a taxi and babysitting service
If I had a choice between U6 and U16 it would be a no brainer, Iād choose U16 all day long.
Story time, 4 years ago. The club I played for was hosting a tournament and needed refs, so I volunteered. Being 15 and not qualified at the time, I was given U6ās, the easiest age group.
And for the most part it was the easiest age group. Very few decisions for me to make. But the constant moaning from all the coaches was incredible. As was the snarky talk from parents. Not just a disagreement but saying very loudly to the other parents āthat seems like an unfair decisionā
Keeping in mind it was 8 5-minute games at U6, I didnāt have a lot of decisions to make but still the competitive spirit was non stop. Not from the players, it was essentially just every player within 1m of the ball, they were just having fun. The parents and coaches were the ones treating it like the World Cup final, players were just happy to be playing in what was probably their first ever tournament.
I was chased by the coach after the match. In the final, his team lost 4-3 to a pen. Incredibly, it was the coach of the home team, the team hosting the tournament, my club. It was a clear pen, opposition took a corner quickly, player punches it clear.
Coach was annoyed after the match that Id given it, saying a draw wouldāve been the most rewarding result for the tournament and that it was unfair to give a handball as a pen. Whilst this match was the āfinalā as it was first and second in the group playing each other, the match wasnāt even officially called a final, and there was no trophy just medals, so the coach was the only person who gave two ****s about it.
Luckily he did all this in view of the tournament organiser who had been watching the game. Luckily for me the tournament organiser is a big guy as well. He came over to deal with the coach. The coach moaned about the corner taken quickly (this was a year before Liverpool did it the 6 year old was a visionary) and how unfair it was, his player couldnāt react. The organiser told him to stop being so pathetic, remember itās an U6 game, and to get the **** out of here now. He left the club not long after.
Call it a bad experience. A few parents came up to me after the match to talk about how good they thought I did. Including a ref, who praised my performance and advised me to take the course, which I did. Good things came out of it and overall it was easy to ref. But U16 where you have to deal with a few arsey 15, 16 year olds is preferable to me than dealing with U6s with a bunch of parents who think their child is gonna be the next Messi and coaches who think theyāre the next Mourinho for doing something with U6s.
Sorry for the long analogy and going off track, just wanted to give my story of U6s
Story time, 4 years ago. The club I played for was hosting a tournament and needed refs, so I volunteered. Being 15 and not qualified at the time, I was given U6ās, the easiest age group.
And for the most part it was the easiest age group. Very few decisions for me to make. But the constant moaning from all the coaches was incredible. As was the snarky talk from parents. Not just a disagreement but saying very loudly to the other parents āthat seems like an unfair decisionā
Keeping in mind it was 8 5-minute games at U6, I didnāt have a lot of decisions to make but still the competitive spirit was non stop. Not from the players, it was essentially just every player within 1m of the ball, they were just having fun. The parents and coaches were the ones treating it like the World Cup final, players were just happy to be playing in what was probably their first ever tournament.
I was chased by the coach after the match. In the final, his team lost 4-3 to a pen. Incredibly, it was the coach of the home team, the team hosting the tournament, my club. It was a clear pen, opposition took a corner quickly, player punches it clear.
Coach was annoyed after the match that Id given it, saying a draw wouldāve been the most rewarding result for the tournament and that it was unfair to give a handball as a pen. Whilst this match was the āfinalā as it was first and second in the group playing each other, the match wasnāt even officially called a final, and there was no trophy just medals, so the coach was the only person who gave two ****s about it.
Luckily he did all this in view of the tournament organiser who had been watching the game. Luckily for me the tournament organiser is a big guy as well. He came over to deal with the coach. The coach moaned about the corner taken quickly (this was a year before Liverpool did it the 6 year old was a visionary) and how unfair it was, his player couldnāt react. The organiser told him to stop being so pathetic, remember itās an U6 game, and to get the **** out of here now. He left the club not long after.
Call it a bad experience. A few parents came up to me after the match to talk about how good they thought I did. Including a ref, who praised my performance and advised me to take the course, which I did. Good things came out of it and overall it was easy to ref. But U16 where you have to deal with a few arsey 15, 16 year olds is preferable to me than dealing with U6s with a bunch of parents who think their child is gonna be the next Messi and coaches who think theyāre the next Mourinho for doing something with U6s.
Sorry for the long analogy and going off track, just wanted to give my story of U6s
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
I think dealing with younger kids becomes easier when you've been a parent,grandparent too and its the older kids,the teenagers who tend to pee you off more. I get more joy out of seeing the younger kids learn the game but you are correct in inferring that the biggest idiots tend to be involved with the youngsters. I understand too that older kids games are more like 'real' football but this depends more on the standard of the teams. I bet that Academy games are more enjoyable even if they are quite hard work physically.
The kids are easy to deal with at almost any age group. The higher up you go, the more they tend to whine though. Nearly every issue Iāve had in close to 50 games at youth football is to do with adults. Every tough game, normally is elevated by a coach or parent. And in 11 years of playing youth football I can say from my experience as a player this is true as well.
Once you get to U17+ parents stop caring for the most part, and tbf you could extend that to U16 as well, I have never heard a parent whilst reffing U16. But once they get older theyāre more independent, so theyāre able to think for themselves and heat up a game by themselves. Still, the teams with a more aggressive coach tend to be more aggressive on the pitch and I refuse to accept thatās coincidence.
But anything U6-U15, nearly all issues are elevated by parents and coaches. For example, my last yellow was in an U12 game. This was my best ever reffing performance, Iāve talked it on here before. Parent moaning about everything elevated things in second half. Temperature was high, and him moaning about a decision led me to having to warn a player to zip it or else heād be getting sin binned. As for the card, last minute of game, he snaps a player late. I couldāve probably booked him then but it was borderline. I warn player that itās last minute and he doesnāt want to be getting a yellow, and as soon as I finish the parents start shouting at him to get stuck in. Needless to say, next time he did get stuck in, I was showing a yellow with 20 seconds to go.
When I think of other hard games Iāve had, I think of when I was sworn at and abused by an away CAR, and dealing with an aggressive coach. Not a single hard game thanks to the players. Even my first U17 game, not a great performance by me in terms of decisions, but I found the match relatively easy to control. Whether Iāve got lucky or not, itās possible. But parents and coaches for me are easily the only truly difficult part of reffing junior football. Kids are fine and easy to manage
Kes
I'll Decide ...
Correct. I ran a kids team with another chap for 6 years and despite having some great parents who caused none of the traditional problems with parents at football matches, they just did not help with anything. Occasionally one of them would help with the nets but it was rare, they'd stay in their cars until kick off. None of them would ever dream of volunteering to referee a game! They paid there Ā£35 a year in fees for their kid to play and left it all to us!
As they got older getting the parents to drive them to games became difficult. I used to have one mother ask us to pick her son up from hers in the morning and after the game drop him of at his dad's which was 10 miles away! She had a car but she thought we were a taxi and babysitting service
That's coaching though. We're talking about supervising/monitoring a game of football being played by 6 and 7 year olds.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
ChasObserverRefDeveloper
Regular Contributor
I repeat my view that we are training referees for open age, youth football, and mini soccer, but 7-year-old's do not need a referee as much as the older age groups. They need someone to start and stop the game where needed, and to help the young players develop.
Unfortunately some Appointments Secretaries appoint to Under-8's and leave the newer young referees at that level rather than nurture and develop them.
Kes
I'll Decide ...
I don't have any "apathy". I'm simply stating what is a fact (IMO).
You clearly don't get it. No matter.
Agreed.
Gamespoiler
Well-Known Member
Having coached for an eternity and then turning to the dark side to referee, I will add that the 7 and 8 year olds are over the moon when they get an official referee with a proper whistle, cards, note book and a smart referees attire. It can ground a referee and remind us sometimes what grass roots football is all about. I cover open age mainly and the occasional U16-U18 game when there is a challenging match and no referee available but at least once a year, I will cover 2 or 3 U7-U9 games just to find that enjoyment and passion again for the game. It is more than refereeing, it is coaching too and although that isn't the role of the referee, I would say it is a must at those age groups. Not so much throw ins, the coaches should be working on that in training, you won't fix that in a 40 minute match. But you can help them with positioning, who to pass to, tackle technique, etc. I've found that when you arrive at those games and treat it like a proper game, the players, parents and coaches appreciate it and buy into what you're trying to do. I tell the players beforehand goals don't count unless they do a goal celebration after and if it is a while team celebration it'll count as 2 goals. Any swear words will result in the Easter bunny and Christmas being cancelled. It's great building up a rapport with the young players and I'd recommend anyone to do the odd game as not only will the players get something out of it, you will as a person too.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
The apathy I referred to was not yours but directed towards the parents who wont referee. The same apathy that makes them not bothered taking their kids to football and expecting others to instead.I don't have any "apathy". I'm simply stating what is a fact (IMO).
You clearly don't get it. No matter.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
I totally agree with this Chas but the reality is often different.
Kes
I'll Decide ...
I get that but it's irrelevant in the context of this thread's direction.
If you think that a bunch of 6 or 7 year olds playing a small-sided game of football need a properly qualified referee then there's nowt else to say fella ...
