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Redref34

Active Member
Level 5 Referee
Hi all

I mentored a young referee aged 14 in his first ever game since qualifying. An under 10s game.

Unfortunately, the away team coach decided to enter the pitch at the end of the game and remonstrate with the young official telling him he was ‘shocking’ for allowing one of the goals against his team to stand.

When I stepped in and told him that this is unacceptable behaviour he said that he was ‘allowed to voice his opinion’.

Obviously, completely shocking behaviour. I have contacted the Mentor lead who advised me to get the referee to write a misconduct report.

My question is, is there anything else that I can be doing here? I have advised the referees dad that I strongly recommend that his son submits a misconduct report. I don’t think he is going to do it, personally, as it was his first game. I obviously don’t really want the coach to get away with that sort of behaviour.

Thanks
 
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Redref34 said:
Hi all

I mentored a young referee aged 14 in his first ever game since qualifying. An under 10s game.

Unfortunately, the away team coach decided to enter the pitch at the end of the game and remonstrate with the young official telling him he was ‘shocking’ for allowing one of the goals against his team to stand.

When I stepped in and told him that this is unacceptable behaviour he said that he was ‘allowed to voice his opinion’.

Obviously, completely shocking behaviour. I have contacted the Mentor lead who advised me to get the referee to write a misconduct report.

My question is, is there anything else that I can be doing here? I have advised the referees dad that I strongly recommend that his son submits a misconduct report. I don’t think he is going to do it, personally, as it was his first game. I obviously don’t really want the coach to get away with that sort of behaviour.

Thanks
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Raise a concern with the safeguarding officer at the CFA? Anyone abusing a child is a potential risk and should be flagged
 
Redref34 said:
Hi all

I mentored a young referee aged 14 in his first ever game since qualifying. An under 10s game.

Unfortunately, the away team coach decided to enter the pitch at the end of the game and remonstrate with the young official telling him he was ‘shocking’ for allowing one of the goals against his team to stand.

When I stepped in and told him that this is unacceptable behaviour he said that he was ‘allowed to voice his opinion’.

Obviously, completely shocking behaviour. I have contacted the Mentor lead who advised me to get the referee to write a misconduct report.

My question is, is there anything else that I can be doing here? I have advised the referees dad that I strongly recommend that his son submits a misconduct report. I don’t think he is going to do it, personally, as it was his first game. I obviously don’t really want the coach to get away with that sort of behaviour.

Thanks
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I'd hope you reminded the referee that the coach's actions are a nailed-on red card as per the LOTG(?)
 
It would be difficult for the CFA to act if no action was taken at the time. If it was away from the pitch then they would be able to, but as the law is clear that it should be a red card I suspect their hands will be tied from a disciplinary perspective.

That said, an adult confronting a 14 year old is clearly a child protection issue so they should be taking action on that front.
 
Sorry I should have added that I did advise the referee that the coach had just committed a red card offence.

To be honest I took charge at that point and there was absolutely no way that I was going to say to a 14 year old at his first game that he should go and approach the person who has just abused him and show him a red card.

I told the coach that he has committed a red card offence and that he would be reported to the CFA.
 
Redref34 said:
Sorry I should have added that I did advise the referee that the coach had just committed a red card offence.

To be honest I took charge at that point and there was absolutely no way that I was going to say to a 14 year old at his first game that he should go and approach the person who has just abused him and show him a red card.

I told the coach that he has committed a red card offence and that he would be reported to the CFA.
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You weren't the referee though, you can't issue a red card or even tell the manager that he was being reported. If the referee reported it then you could be a witness, but the fact remains that no action was taken on the day by the referee. Understand about not wanting to risk confrontation, but as a minimum the referee needs to tell someone at the club that a report is being made, even if not the coach himself.

As I said, the child protection angle needs to be pursued. Both because the referee is under 16, but also because an adult in charge of 9 year olds cannot behave like that. If it was me, rather than confronting the coach I think I would have asked who their designated safeguarding officer was and told them what had happened, and that both you and the referee were reporting to to their CFA.
 
RustyRef said:
You weren't the referee though, you can't issue a red card or even tell the manager that he was being reported. If the referee reported it then you could be a witness, but the fact remains that no action was taken on the day by the referee. Understand about not wanting to risk confrontation, but as a minimum the referee needs to tell someone at the club that a report is being made, even if not the coach himself.

As I said, the child protection angle needs to be pursued. Both because the referee is under 16, but also because an adult in charge of 9 year olds cannot behave like that. If it was me, rather than confronting the coach I think I would have asked who their designated safeguarding officer was and told them what had happened, and that both you and the referee were reporting to to their CFA.
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I understand that. Fair point.

Asking him who the DSL is would have been a laugh.

I wouldn’t change the fact that I spoke to the coach. Perhaps this is why we have such a problem with coaches of youth football in particular. We are expecting a child to brandish a red card to a grown man with tattoos everywhere who is being abusive towards him otherwise nothing can be done about it retrospectively. Odd process to me, but fair enough!
 
Redref34 said:
I understand that. Fair point.

Asking him who the DSL is would have been a laugh.

I wouldn’t change the fact that I spoke to the coach. Perhaps this is why we have such a problem with coaches of youth football in particular. We are expecting a child to brandish a red card to a grown man with tattoos everywhere who is being abusive towards him otherwise nothing can be done about it retrospectively. Odd process to me, but fair enough!
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I wasn't suggesting the referee asked the abusive coach who the DSO was, rather ask someone else. Every club must have at least two responsible adults, so there would have been someone else to ask.

The bottom line is that, if he has behaved as you have described, this individual should not be involved in youth football. Getting a charge for misconduct will see him get a fine and possible ban, but it needs to be reported as a child protection issue.
 
RustyRef said:
I wasn't suggesting the referee asked the abusive coach who the DSO was, rather ask someone else. Every club must have at least two responsible adults, so there would have been someone else to ask.

The bottom line is that, if he has behaved as you have described, this individual should not be involved in youth football. Getting a charge for misconduct will see him get a fine and possible ban, but it needs to be reported as a child protection issue.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have now done this 👍
 
Redref34 said:
I understand that. Fair point.

Asking him who the DSL is would have been a laugh.

I wouldn’t change the fact that I spoke to the coach. Perhaps this is why we have such a problem with coaches of youth football in particular. We are expecting a child to brandish a red card to a grown man with tattoos everywhere who is being abusive towards him otherwise nothing can be done about it retrospectively. Odd process to me, but fair enough!
Click to expand...
Make sure, please, that the referee contacts the League Referee Appointments Secretary or the League Secretary by phone or e-mail for advice, and to report the club.
The league should then send someone to observe the behaviour of the coach at first hand, and then deal with it.
Thank you for acting as a mentor. It would be great if everyone on here were to give a couple of hours to doing so just once a month - PLEASE!
 
ChasObserverRefDeveloper said:
Make sure, please, that the referee contacts the League Referee Appointments Secretary or the League Secretary by phone or e-mail for advice, and to report the club.
The league should then send someone to observe the behaviour of the coach at first hand, and then deal with it.
Thank you for acting as a mentor. It would be great if everyone on here were to give a couple of hours to doing so just once a month - PLEASE!
Click to expand...

I really enjoy it. It was such a shame today that that coach had to ruin it at the end because the lad had such a good first game (it was his first game EVER).

I said to him at the end as long as you’re coming back to do your second game that’s all I’m here for! At least you have experienced early, first hand how idiotic some people in football can be.
 
Very sad that a new young referee had to endure this abuse and nonsense. Precisely why we have such trouble attracting and retaining young referees. When I was a junior (not that many years ago) I used to dread that march from the coach across the field at half or full time to bemoan something… here we go again. Hopefully your support means this new referee will have the confidence and resilience to show up next week.
 
I was told in the past that if I was appointed to a match by the CFA, as either an observer or mentor, and there is a clear misconduct case; then I could make a disciplinary report to the CFA as I was there as an official of the FA.

I don't know if that still holds true, but as other have said a report needs to be made to Safeguarding officer of the CFA as a matter of course. Remember, the CAF brings the charges and if they don't know, they can't act. Your report may be the fourth or fifth they have about that coach or the first - but information is power for the CFA.
 
lincs22 said:
I was told in the past that if I was appointed to a match by the CFA, as either an observer or mentor, and there is a clear misconduct case; then I could make a disciplinary report to the CFA as I was there as an official of the FA.

I don't know if that still holds true, but as other have said a report needs to be made to Safeguarding officer of the CFA as a matter of course. Remember, the CAF brings the charges and if they don't know, they can't act. Your report may be the fourth or fifth they have about that coach or the first - but information is power for the CFA.
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You can, but as a backup to the referee's report, or if you see something that the referee wasn't involved in. I've done it when I was observing and there was an incident when the match officials were all in the changing room.
 
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