A&H

Misconduct?

ABRef

New Member
Hi Guys,

Just after a little advice on whether this is misconduct and should be reported?

During an U16 game on the weekend home team weren't happy with a couple of my offside decisions and also a few 50/50's they thought should of been given, which is fair enough if I was wrong. I firstly heard the home manager call me a 'dosey pr***' to one of his players as he didn't believe I heard him shout up for a sub. In hindsight, I should of issued him a red card at the time and asked to leave FOP. There was numerous comments during the game about how terrible I was towards the latter stages of the game.

Once the game finished the home manager did shake my hand but accused me of being bias and a cheat, also reminding me I was a terrible ref. As I left the FOP a spectator (assuming, as he wouldn't identify himself), gave me verbal abuse over my decisions along with petty insults and tried his best to intimidate me by squaring up to me and getting in my face. I asked the home manager to control his spectators as they were his responsibility but he chose to not speak to spectator and walk away.

I warned the man his actions would result in a misconduct form being submitted which just angered him more, who gave me more abuse as I left to go home.

This was the first time I've received verbal abuse to this extent over many years of refereeing and been made to feel intimidated. Actions like this is what puts referee's off doing their hobby, which is why I hope something can be done.
 
The Referee Store
You should report the conduct, but the fact is that since you failed to take action during or immediately after the match (in the form of a caution or dismissal), you are unlikely to get much traction. Still, it might be useful to have the misconduct report on the record so that if anything similar should happen again, then the referee who takes action will have your additional report on file with the disciplinary committee.
 
You should report the conduct, but the fact is that since you failed to take action during or immediately after the match (in the form of a caution or dismissal), you are unlikely to get much traction. Still, it might be useful to have the misconduct report on the record so that if anything similar should happen again, then the referee who takes action will have your additional report on file with the disciplinary committee.
Yeah I agree with the comments from the manager, but would anything likely be done in retrospect of their spectators being aggressive and intimidating me? Surely they can't have free reign to act how they want towards referee's? I thought home team would be responsible for them.
 
You can add it into your report, but I'm not sure there is much that can be done without a name.
 
Absolutely report this, it is the clubs responsibility to control its spectators. They didn't despite you making the manager aware of it. They will be punished by the FA.
 
Definitely report this to the County FA. Put it in as an extraordinary misconduct report and state that as well as making comments that you considered misconduct the manager also refused to deal with the spectator when asked to do so. The home team are responsible for the conduct of their spectators. This is a youth game so the team should have a Respect barrier in place to remind spectators of their responsibilities. The home club are responsible for ensuring this is enforced and they should be punished for failing to do so. If the person is a spectator then they don't have to be named, but the club are still responsible for their conduct.

If the manager is making comments along the lines of biased or cheat he really should be sent off. We wouldn't take that from a player so shouldn't from the manager.

Were you appointed by the league, or did the home team arrange for you to attend the match? If the former then you will have a match report to submit to the league which you should also state the facts on. If the latter then there won't be a match report, but you should still send an email to the league Referee's secretary stating what went on. The league may well say that they can't do anything, but it's still up to them to take some action. This may well be to send someone to watch the club to see what they are like, but if you don't report it then this will continue. Also, the team behave as the manager allows them to, so if you have them again then they will probably be worse behaved on the pitch.

Did his team lose by any chance?
 
Sorry to hear you had to go through it mate. It happens to most of us but thankfully they are not frequent.

Absolutely report it. To get the best result I would not put too much stress on what happened during the game as (unfortunately) you did not to do anything about it. Describe what happened after the game in details. You could not take action after the game is ended. There are two incidents there and there should be two two reports (although you may be able to put it into one depending on how things are done other there).
  • The coach's offensive/abusive behaviour after the game.
  • The spectator's abusive and aggressive behaviour and the club/teams failure to protect you against him.
 
Definitely report this to the County FA. Put it in as an extraordinary misconduct report and state that as well as making comments that you considered misconduct the manager also refused to deal with the spectator when asked to do so. The home team are responsible for the conduct of their spectators. This is a youth game so the team should have a Respect barrier in place to remind spectators of their responsibilities. The home club are responsible for ensuring this is enforced and they should be punished for failing to do so. If the person is a spectator then they don't have to be named, but the club are still responsible for their conduct.

If the manager is making comments along the lines of biased or cheat he really should be sent off. We wouldn't take that from a player so shouldn't from the manager.

Were you appointed by the league, or did the home team arrange for you to attend the match? If the former then you will have a match report to submit to the league which you should also state the facts on. If the latter then there won't be a match report, but you should still send an email to the league Referee's secretary stating what went on. The league may well say that they can't do anything, but it's still up to them to take some action. This may well be to send someone to watch the club to see what they are like, but if you don't report it then this will continue. Also, the team behave as the manager allows them to, so if you have them again then they will probably be worse behaved on the pitch.

Did his team lose by any chance?

I have reported via wholegame and also emailed the league secretary.

Thanks for the responses guys.
 
Key learning here is not to be down-heartened by this incident. Despite stories of referee abuse up and down the country, I find there are now more games without abuse than there is with it. You've identified yourself that you should've pulled him up when he said those words to a player and maybe next time you will do that either with a word or a card. You'll also take action if the abuse continues. The first time I sent a manager off, I did so with so much confidence, not because I have an old head (I do by the way) but mainly because of the advice on this forum and the many topics about match incidents and how people have handled them and how they could of handled them better.

In my instance, it was an U16 game, home team were getting battered 8 2. As the 8th goal went in, the home manager who was stood near the corner flag of the home goal so miles away, started shouting his disgust at me because one of his players got pushed during the build up to the goal. He continued his verbal abuse as the players were setting up to kick off. I instructed the players to delay the kick off, walked over to the manager asking him to keep his comments to himself. I turned to return to the middle of the pitch and he continued to vent his anger towards me. I turned back and said very clearly and firmly, you need to stop this now or I will have to ask you to leave. This did wind him up and he told me in no uncertain terms that I couldn't do that and that he was going no where whilst still carrying on the abuse. Okay sir, I need you to leave please. No he said I'm going no where. Sir you've got 2 minutes to leave or I will abandon the game, I then just stared at my watch. It took him about 30 seconds, he threw his club ID on the floor and stormed off in a real Kevin style tantrum. The parents then applauded, including his own teams parents and the game continued without any issues.

You will handle it better next time and will feel good by doing so. Best of luck
 
100% report it. Yes you could and probably should have dealt with the manager using cards, but that doesn't mean he still can't be charged. Likewise not having the spectator's name absolutely does not mean that you can report him, the club will just get charged as an entity. Indeed, I would never advocate trying to get a spectator's name as unless he is formally connected to the club in some kind of role he won't be personally charged, the club will.
 
Just one final question on this; do refs ever hear of the outcome of misconduct reports i.e. if any punishment, or are they just dealt with without further notice?
 
You may hear the outcome, but to be honest I wouldn't worry about it. Some CFAs will notify the Referee, others won't, but it's really not our concern. All we can do is to report the facts and let them worry about it.

In the past I have taken a player getting off a sending off personally because he lied about how he assaulted an opponent. I heard his manager telling him what to say and the player literally said "seriously? that'll never work!" I smiled as I heard him lie through his teeth and rubbished what he said when the commission asked their questions. The commission said it could have been true, even if highly unlikely, so they were dismissing the charge on this occasion. All it did was to make sure that I never got too c0cky in future. All reports I write contain all the facts, but only the facts. Don't give anything extra, because that gives something to question, and if you state that something is an opinion rather than a fact then other things could be as well, which means there could be grounds for him to get off the charge. On this occasion the commission believed his lies, even though there was no reason for them to do so. C'est la vie. I got him the next time, and the time after that! In all I had almost twenty hearings against the team involved, and that was the only one where the player got away with it.

All you can do is to report the facts as you saw them and then let it go. If you worry about what happens afterwards then you will take it personally if he gets away with it. Trust me, that's not good.
 
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