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Ben448844

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Level 4 Referee
Strange request from a mate of mine that still plays. There was no referee assigned to his game today due to the league being short of refs. A former referee (no longer registered. I won't go into detail why for obvious reasons but he has a criminal record and no league would touch him). During the game, my mate has asked why he didn't show any card for what was apparently a SFP incident, and the ref replied that he cant "send cards in", as he isn't registered.

Now, despite the obvious questions as to why this person is officiating, is it right that if a non qualified referee does a game that they can't send cards in? Is there no onus on the club's to report cards in games refereed by volunteers or parents etc?
 
The Ref Stop
Ben448844 said:
Strange request from a mate of mine that still plays. There was no referee assigned to his game today due to the league being short of refs. A former referee (no longer registered. I won't go into detail why for obvious reasons but he has a criminal record and no league would touch him). During the game, my mate has asked why he didn't show any card for what was apparently a SFP incident, and the ref replied that he cant "send cards in", as he isn't registered.

Now, despite the obvious questions as to why this person is officiating, is it right that if a non qualified referee does a game that they can't send cards in? Is there no onus on the club's to report cards in games refereed by volunteers or parents etc?
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I'm my county any games that are officiated by non qualified are not allowed to have cards within the game... it leads to some games getting out of control
 
Any person refereeing a game of football has (must have) the same powers and duties given to him/her by the laws of the game regardless of qualification or being officially appointed or not.

I have no doubt being unable to send players off or caution them has far worse control consequences than cautioning or sending off. Especially to someone with little game/player management experience.
 
When I was growing up we always had the impression that unofficial refs couldn't card....and I think a lot of them thought that too! But it's completely false. Nothing in the LOTG talks about how 'official' a ref is. If you have the whistle in the middle, then you're a ref. What you're wearing, whether you've done an exam, none of that is discussed anywhere.

So you can still caution and send off players even if you don't have the physical card.

JoeMaloney5 said:
I'm my county any games that are officiated by non qualified are not allowed to have cards within the game... it leads to some games getting out of control
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That's incredibly stupid...and dangerous. One can imagine that this gross deviation from the LOTG would provide a great deal of fun for a lawyer should somebody be seriously injured as a result of the policy.
 
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Any person refereeing a game of football has (must have) the same powers and duties given to him/her by the laws of the game regardless of qualification or being officially appointed or not.

I have no doubt being unable to send players off or caution them has far worse control consequences than cautioning or sending off. Especially to someone with little game/player management experience.
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That was my impression too. How do you go about the practicalities of reporting the cards though? Is it up to the club's to report them? Who would put them on WGS (if anyone)?
 
CapnBloodbeard said:
When I was growing up we always had the impression that unofficial refs couldn't card....and I think a lot of them thought that too! But it's completely false. Nothing in the LOTG talks about how 'official' a ref is. If you have the whistle in the middle, then you're a ref. What you're wearing, whether you've done an exam, none of that is discussed anywhere.

So you can still caution and send off players even if you don't have the physical card.


That's incredibly stupid...and dangerous. One can imagine that this gross deviation from the LOTG would provide a great deal of fun for a lawyer should somebody be seriously injured as a result of the policy.
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I'm not sure that's the case. Law 5 states that the referee cannot be held liable for any loss to individual or club doesn't it? More importantly from a legal perspective, a referee has no contract with a club or individual. Tort of negligence becomes impossible.
 
Ben448844 said:
That was my impression too. How do you go about the practicalities of reporting the cards though? Is it up to the club's to report them? Who would put them on WGS (if anyone)?
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It's up to the league to ensure every sanction in every game is reported and provide the means to do it.

In my association all appointed referees report directly to referee association online. The person in charge of reports then passed them on to the relevant football body. Any unofficial referee has access to forms on the league website which they can fill in and submit online. They can also send an email to the advertised contact person on the league. The main thing is that it is reported and the correct authorities receive it. Reporting incidents is the responsibility of the referee (official or unofficial). They were the ones in-charge of the games and with first hand information.
 
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Ben448844 said:
I'm not sure that's the case. Law 5 states that the referee cannot be held liable for any loss to individual or club doesn't it? More importantly from a legal perspective, a referee has no contract with a club or individual. Tort of negligence becomes impossible.
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The issue would more be with the FA than the referee I'd imagine. Meh, I'm not a lawyer, I'm spitballing. It could be interesting....when the FA is basically requiring that the games are played with zero protection for the safety of the players.
 
This is covered by the standard code of rules (SCoR) that applies to all adult leagues in England below step 7. Rule 13(B) states ...

In the event of the non-appearance of the appointed Referee the appointed senior Assistant Referee shall take charge and a substitute Assistant Referee appointed by the competing Teams. In cases where there are no officially appointed Assistant Referees, the Clubs shall agree upon a Referee. An individual thus agreed upon shall, for that game, have the full powers, status and authority of a registered Referee. Individuals under the age of 16 must not participate either as a Referee or Assistant Referee in any open age competition

Whilst there was no appointed referee here, the premise remains the same in that the clubs must agree on a replacement, and that person inherits the full powers of a qualified referee. This includes using cards, but the issue then comes with reporting them as they obviously can't do it on Whole Game. They'd probably contact the league who should then put them in contact with the CFA's discipline department.
 
CapnBloodbeard said:
When I was growing up we always had the impression that unofficial refs couldn't card....and I think a lot of them thought that too! But it's completely false. Nothing in the LOTG talks about how 'official' a ref is. If you have the whistle in the middle, then you're a ref. What you're wearing, whether you've done an exam, none of that is discussed anywhere.

So you can still caution and send off players even if you don't have the physical card.


That's incredibly stupid...and dangerous. One can imagine that this gross deviation from the LOTG would provide a great deal of fun for a lawyer should somebody be seriously injured as a result of the policy.
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Yes it is stupid players get away with all sorts
 
Thanks for the detail. Interestingly, in the same league, a game was abandoned yesterday as the ref had a back spasm and couldn't continue just before half time. It's just an amateur league so you'd have thought that if players/managers new the law then they'd have got someone to ref the 2nd half rather than play it again. Or there was no volunteers!
 
RustyRef said:
Suspect they will learn quickly, as both clubs will now likely be charged with failing to fulfil the fixture.
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I hadn't considered that. It does seem ridiculous that at least 22 people have travlled and arranged their day around a football match and not one of them will referee the final 50 minutes of the game
 
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