A&H

Players insulting Players

Dicky Herts

Dicky Herts

New Member
Hi. Reffing for a year. Open age and older youth. I am happy with the principles and sanctions of dissent and OFFINABUS if aimed at officials.
I’m also happy with serious language from one player to another e.g. racist comments.

But what advice is there to deal with players who use more generic words and phrases against other players - do you ignore it or talk to them or caution them or send them off. I’m talking about phrases such as these, all of which I’ve heard in the last year:

U16s match “yesss you f*****g ginger t**t” offenders team had just scored a late winner, offender screamed this at player about 1m away from his face. I gave YC for unsporting.

U18s: “you f*****g fat b*****d”. I gave YC for UB.

Adult men’s match “come on then you f*****g faggot”. YC for adopting aggressive and a warning for future language.

Also any advice on what to say when a player complains that he’s been verbally insulted but you haven’t heard it. I tend to say within earshot of the alleged offender “I didn’t hear it player but I’ll listen out for it now”
 
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Dicky Herts said:
Hi. Reffing for a year. Open age and older youth. I am happy with the principles and sanctions of dissent and OFFINABUS if aimed at officials.
I’m also happy with serious language from one player to another e.g. racist comments.

But what advice is there to deal with players who use more generic words and phrases against other players - do you ignore it or talk to them or caution them or send them off. I’m talking about phrases such as these, all of which I’ve heard in the last year:

U16s match “yesss you f*****g ginger t**t” offenders team had just scored a late winner, offender screamed this at player about 1m away from his face. I gave YC for unsporting.

U18s: “you f*****g fat b*****d”. I gave YC for UB.

Adult men’s match “come on then you f*****g faggot”. YC for adopting aggressive and a warning for future language.

Also any advice on what to say when a player complains that he’s been verbally insulted but you haven’t heard it. I tend to say within earshot of the alleged offender “I didn’t hear it player but I’ll listen out for it now”
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I'll be honest and say they all feel like red cards to me if clearly heard.
The first two take personal characteristics, which should move us into offensive and insulting and the profanity around it increases the weight of abusiveness.
The third one, absolutely, has to be a red card and has to have an additional extraordinary report attached as it is aggravated and discriminatory (homophobic) language.

General F*** off you p**** etc I'm probably trying to manage before getting up to a yellow.

You're managing the didn't hears in the right way. You can't deal with what you don't hear.
However be mindful of what is being alleged. For example, racism, sexism, homophobia etc. all have to be reported whether you hear it or not. You cant take any action there and then but you should confirm the allegation being made and make a note of it. Inform managers that you will require them or their club sec/ rep and the players involved (the reporter and the accused) post game.
Confirm again in the presence of manager / club sec the allegation being made.
Then the same with the accused confirm what has been alleged. Important to note that these should be 2 separate conversations, you don't want all parties together at the same time as that could present problems.
Confirming that you will hand the report to the FA to investigate.
It is vitally important that you take notes of who said what and when.
Please read the FAs guide to dealing with discriminatory abuse as it outlines the actions you should take. And so long as you follow the principles in that you will be absolutely fine.
 
The first two I would argue you're within your rights to go red. Yellow will be OK in some situations and contexts, but even for those I'd be starting from a red card and seeing if there is any reason to downgrade rather than the other way round.

The third is mandatory red and extraordinary report due to the homophobic language. No wiggle room on this IMO, to the extent that if it's happened this season, I'd genuinely consider following up with your county's discipline department to record that you've under-reported.

In terms of complaints over something you didn't hear - if it's just run of the mill OFFINABUS, all you can do is promise to listen out more clearly for it, you can't take disciplinary action based on something you didn't hear.

If it includes references to protected characteristics then you still can't take any immediate action (red/yellow cards), but you are still obliged to get statements from the offending/targeted player and report the allegations as an extraordinary report after the game.
 
There's a bit of wiggle room on the first two, but absolutely none on the third. If the CFA ask you and you confirm you gave a caution for that word as a minimum you'll be getting some education, there's every chance you would be charged yourself or not dealing with it correctly. Any discriminatory language, and there's zero doubt this falls in that category, must result in a sending off and an extraordinary incident report.
 
GraemeS said:
The first two I would argue you're within your rights to go red. Yellow will be OK in some situations and contexts, but even for those I'd be starting from a red card and seeing if there is any reason to downgrade rather than the other way round.

The third is mandatory red and extraordinary report due to the homophobic language. No wiggle room on this IMO, to the extent that if it's happened this season, I'd genuinely consider following up with your county's discipline department to record that you've under-reported.

In terms of complaints over something you didn't hear - if it's just run of the mill OFFINABUS, all you can do is promise to listen out more clearly for it, you can't take disciplinary action based on something you didn't hear.

If it includes references to protected characteristics then you still can't take any immediate action (red/yellow cards), but you are still obliged to get statements from the offending/targeted player and report the allegations as an extraordinary report after the game.
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Thanks for your advice. Much appreciated.
 
RustyRef said:
There's a bit of wiggle room on the first two, but absolutely none on the third. If the CFA ask you and you confirm you gave a caution for that word as a minimum you'll be getting some education, there's every chance you would be charged yourself or not dealing with it correctly. Any discriminatory language, and there's zero doubt this falls in that category, must result in a sending off and an extraordinary incident report.
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Thx for your feedback much appreciated.
 
GraemeS said:
The first two I would argue you're within your rights to go red. Yellow will be OK in some situations and contexts, but even for those I'd be starting from a red card and seeing if there is any reason to downgrade rather than the other way round.

The third is mandatory red and extraordinary report due to the homophobic language. No wiggle room on this IMO, to the extent that if it's happened this season, I'd genuinely consider following up with your county's discipline department to record that you've under-reported.

In terms of complaints over something you didn't hear - if it's just run of the mill OFFINABUS, all you can do is promise to listen out more clearly for it, you can't take disciplinary action based on something you didn't hear.

If it includes references to protected characteristics then you still can't take any immediate action (red/yellow cards), but you are still obliged to get statements from the offending/targeted player and report the allegations as an extraordinary report after the game.
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Thx. Grateful for your advice.
 
GraemeS said:
The first two I would argue you're within your rights to go red. Yellow will be OK in some situations and contexts, but even for those I'd be starting from a red card and seeing if there is any reason to downgrade rather than the other way round.

The third is mandatory red and extraordinary report due to the homophobic language. No wiggle room on this IMO, to the extent that if it's happened this season, I'd genuinely consider following up with your county's discipline department to record that you've under-reported.

In terms of complaints over something you didn't hear - if it's just run of the mill OFFINABUS, all you can do is promise to listen out more clearly for it, you can't take disciplinary action based on something you didn't hear.

If it includes references to protected characteristics then you still can't take any immediate action (red/yellow cards), but you are still obliged to get statements from the offending/targeted player and report the allegations as an extraordinary report after the game.
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Thank you. Great help.
 
Definitely RC for the last one. In fact, for all of them (IMO). But regardless of opinion, 3rd has to be RC + extraordinary, no doubt.
 
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