A&H

Player injury and leaving the field

Dazzykerr

Member
Level 6 Referee
soo I was thinking

So a player who gets treatment must leave the field what sort of age do you enforce it. I was watching a under 11 game this evening and the referee told player to leave. I never do in kids football. What’s your take?
 
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soo I was thinking

So a player who gets treatment must leave the field what sort of age do you enforce it. I was watching a under 11 game this evening and the referee told player to leave. I never do in kids football. What’s your take?

This is a good question.

my own take is, as and when I feel its apt. Of course I am fully aware this is not the correct answer!

One thing that does seal the deal though is when the opposing coach shouts, he has to go off ref.

Here, u13 is 11a side full laws. Rough guess, 75% of kids football am not putting them off, pub adults, prob 50 50.

Semi pro, pro, they tend to go off off their own accord, Am 99% putting them off anyway

Depends also on the injury, I might try get the player off if i feel its best for the player, ( might).

depends where on pitch too, if its next to the sideline, off you go please, two steps to the right, i will put you straight back on


The lotg say the player goes off ( subject to not carding the opponent etc)

my take, as i see fit!
 
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Yeh kids football has to be about protection first and foremost. Often managers will come on for the tiniest treatments. U13 and U14 may be 11v11 but it’s still the same, U15 and U16 to an extent.

When a player goes down at these levels I tend to stop play early on, unless there’s a good counter attack on, regardless of serious injury. I tend to hear little complaints, in fact last time I played on at U14, opposition manager was asking me to stop play because one of opposition players were down.

The point of this is at the majority of these age levels, managers care about the protection of the kids. I’ve seen a few times as a spectator, a manager run onto the pitch when ref hasn’t stopped play. Unless a manager is arsed about a player not coming off, Im not doing it I’ll be honest.
 
So a player who gets treatment must leave the field what sort of age do you enforce it.
Just bear in mind though, that whatever the age, there are several exceptions to this.

In fact, in recent years there seems to be a trend of adding a new exception every couple of years or so.

For quite a long time IIRC, there were only a couple of exceptions to this but we're now up to six.

They are when:

- a goalkeeper is injured

- a goalkeeper and an outfield player have collided and need attention

- players from the same team have collided and need attention

- a severe injury has occurred

- a player is injured as the result of a physical offence for which the opponent is cautioned or sent off (e.g. reckless or serious foul challenge), if the assessment/treatment is completed quickly

- a penalty kick has been awarded and the injured player will be the kicker

For instance, that most recent one for an injury to the penalty kick taker was introduced in 2019/20.
 
U14 game a few months back, I sent the one player to the side line after a short treatment time and waved him back on pretty quickly. Coach was a little confused as to what I was doing. Had a mentor watching and he said not really to bother at youth football.

Another game, similar age group, clash of heads for a header and one of the players said he was a little dizzy. Asked the coach to sub him and not let him back on.
 
I only really do youth football and to be honest it was a while before I remembered about this. A lot of the time coaches start to come on when you go to check the player so I'm not too fussed then. However I did an u16 academy game recently and did enforce it then as I explained to the player that they were potentially only a couple of years of first team football and it would be enforced there so it felt right to let them get used to it.
 
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