game off but pitch is fine!

[Kent Ref]

I got a call 25 minutes from the home team telling me the pitch was unplayable and dangerous so the game was off. I had travelled 10 miles to get there.

I was at the pitch so i had a good look. No standing water anywhere and a slightly soft goalmouth but perfectly playable. This was a youth game.

Would you report this to the league? I was not officially appointed as this league only appoints to under 16s/18s. I was approached to ref it by the club.

 

[Brian Hamilton]

I got a call 25 minutes from the home team telling me the pitch was unplayable and dangerous so the game was off. I had travelled 10 miles to get there.

I was at the pitch so i had a good look. No standing water anywhere and a slightly soft goalmouth but perfectly playable. This was a youth game.

Would you report this to the league? I was not officially appointed as this league only appoints to under 16s/18s. I was approached to ref it by the club.

*crawls out of the dark*

1) What's your league's procedure for postponement?

2) Has it been followed?

3) Does it differentiate between the roles and responsibilities of match officials in relation to postponement, whether they are league appointed or club sourced?

If the answer to 1) is, there isn't one in place, forget it and go enjoy your morning/afternoon off. You've already wasted 20 miles of travel and your time checking on something you didn't need to.

If the answer to 2) is no, then reporting to the league will depend on the answer to 3). If the league procedure states that only league appointed match officials can call off a game, then you don't fall into that category. So do nothing.

If the league procedures state that only a match official can call off a game, then it is possible that a report might be in order.

Drop the Fixture Sec a line if you're that bothered. They will be the one who has the most work to do to get that game re-arranged. If you're looking for compensation for your wasted journey, then then it's unlikely you'll get paid. If you do, then that club is less likely to give you a call in the future.

Yes, it sucks, but that's is the lot of a referee in junior football. It's for the benefit of the kids.

*crawls back to obscurity and lesson planning for 7C3 for Tuesday*

 

[RustyRef]

At grass roots level if the groundsman or the ground owner says the game is off then it is off. If you were at the ground when it was called off you should be entitled to half fee.

 

[RobOda]

Would you report this to the league?

Yes.

I've done this unofficially for games I haven't been assigned to. I was at a ground earlier this season doing the juniors in the FA Cup, and we had a seniors game on the pitch further up.

The Juniors was on, the seniors was called off. Ridiculous call off, both pitches were playable. If anything, the seniors pitch was in better condition than the juniors.

I knew the referee for that game, so I informed her of the call off being a daft one. But, the league will want to know as it just causes unnecessary fixture pile ups later on in the season. They will deal with it eventually - last season before COVID, one team called off one too many times, and I was summoned to do a pitch inspection to check their next call off was legitimate. The pitch was fine, the club got a fine.

 

[PinnerPaul]

At grass roots level if the groundsman or the ground owner says the game is off then it is off. If you were at the ground when it was called off you should be entitled to half fee.

Depends on the specific league surely?

Only appointed referees can call off a game on the main local youth league in my area.

The only exception to this is if the club doesn't own the ground, then local authority/council etc can deem their own ground unplayable.

 

[PinnerPaul]

Completely different reason but matches the thread title....had my Isthmian U18s line called off yesterday because of positive covid tests by home team

 

[RustyRef]

Depends on the specific league surely?

Only appointed referees can call off a game on the main local youth league in my area.

The only exception to this is if the club doesn't own the ground, then local authority/council etc can deem their own ground unplayable.

I was sure it used to be in SCoR, but I can't find it so either I have imagined it or it has been changed. Certainly on the leagues I referee on the club can ask a local referee to do the inspection, to avoid both the appointed referee and away club making unnecessary travel. Certainly at step 6 and above that is the case, I used to to all of the inspections for my local club but I rarely refereed there.

In my experience at grass roots the decision is rarely the referee's as if there is any doubt the groundsman or ground owner will have already made the decision.

 

[PinnerPaul]

I was sure it used to be in SCoR, but I can't find it so either I have imagined it or it has been changed. Certainly on the leagues I referee on the club can ask a local referee to do the inspection, to avoid both the appointed referee and away club making unnecessary travel. Certainly at step 6 and above that is the case, I used to to all of the inspections for my local club but I rarely refereed there.

In my experience at grass roots the decision is rarely the referee's as if there is any doubt the groundsman or ground owner will have already made the decision.

I personally think its a ridiculous rule for a youth league, but apparently they used to get a lot of 'tactical' postponements - barely believable for a youth league, but there you go!

I stopped doing youth middles, apart from the odd county cup, a few years ago now, but I did once go to a ground - absolutely hammering it down and when I arrived about an hour before ko, the pitch was already a lake - totally pointless me & everyone else travelling, it wasn't round the corner either!

 

[Joshref]

I personally think its a ridiculous rule for a youth league, but apparently they used to get a lot of 'tactical' postponements - barely believable for a youth league, but there you go!

I stopped doing youth middles, apart from the odd county cup, a few years ago now, but I did once go to a ground - absolutely hammering it down and when I arrived about an hour before ko, the pitch was already a lake - totally pointless me & everyone else travelling, it wasn't round the corner either!

Our youth league when I was playing had this. One team became notorious for not playing all their home games in a season until the very end, and then winning all 9/9 to win the league. Dk how it worked, but they squeezed them all in at the end of the season and it seemed to work. Also probably helped they were a Div 1 team in another local league, moved to our league and got put in bottom division (Div 5) Local newspaper had pictures of their “title winning game” complete with the manager and players celebrating with champagne

They tried it again when they got promoted, and we were in their league this time, but news had spread (they’d beaten our local rivals to title year before and they weren’t happy) and a lot of managers had heard about it so everyone knew what their game was. Once again, every home game was called off. We played them penultimate game of their season, and they’d won 7/7 of their late home games, with 2 more to play and a title to win if they took 2 points or more from final games. They had the local newspaper there again to watch them and take photos, and we got a draw against them. Week later, a team beat them ending their title hopes!

They tried it again year after and once again it failed. They played us 3 games in and we beat them, and after that it was impossible for them to win league. They forfeited every remaining game and quit the league. Why did they do what they did? I mean, they were too good for the league but they still lost away games in the Winter so they weren’t great. Maybe the manager believed in having a run of momentum? Maybe he believed they’d be fitter than everyone else if they were playing matches when everyone finished? Maybe he believed it was easier to motivate a team who knew how many points they needed definitely to win a title? From what I heard though the official reason is a number of the clubs best players couldn’t play in Winter, but **** knows why. Another sport perhaps? Either way, they were a different side completely a few months apart.

But our league never sent a ref to check them out (appointed refs were extremely rare to get.) It sounded weird to hear a youth league had to have the appointed ref check the game but when I thought of that story it makes some sense

 

[Kent Ref]

Thanks for your replies.

The league said if a team says it's unfit it's unfit.

On that day i caught them out but there's nothing to stop them. A waste of my time.