A&H

Refereeing has turned me into a monster

E

ELP

Everyone's Favourite Member
Late post but I've been thinking about this all week and I felt the need to post it now.

Saturday U21s I had a nice fair game, nothing really doing, easy to control, a fun game to referee.
Sunday U15s I had a horror. It was a team I'd refereed before, blues, and I'd had a bad time with them before. However, going into each game I throw away any pre-conceptions and referee as I would any other game.

Within 25 minutes I had two 14 year old kids in the book for dissent and could feel a storm brewing. End of the first half I should have binned a blue for violent conduct, he kicked out at a player after a fair tackle, but for some reason I told myself I'd caution for adopting an aggressive attitude, I created a false doubt about the players intentions. I know he had every intention to kick the guy.

Luckily for me there were no reactions from yellows, and they were very well behaved all game. 83rd minute comes (I was playing 7 additional due to a fairly nasty injury to yellows keeper) and I find myself cautioning another blues for dissent after I gave yellows an attacking free kick. Then the blues goalkeeper decides to get involved and this is where things turn ugly. He starts getting in my face pretty much screaming at me. So, I proceed to caution him aswell... "what's your name fella"?

"Jimmy Saville"
"No seriously, what's your name fella?"
"Jimmy..."
"Jimmy what?"
"Jimmy Saville"
"Last chance goalkeeper, what's your name?"

At this point player decides to take a step forward, right into my face, toe to toe with me pretty much and says "or what?". Now, I'm a big guy. Only 17, but I'm 6ft 1" and weigh upwards of 18 stone. But to avoid confrontation, I take a big step back from the guy, at which point he says, "yeah, **** off you melt". Cue red card for OFFINABUS and he leaves the FOP, still having not given me his name.

Now, I realize my mistake here. I should of taken "Jimmy Saville", wrote it down and reported it. Shouldn't of questioned it... yes I understand that. If it had come back that by some strange coincidence his name was Jimmy Saville I would've put myself in hot water. I knew it wasn't because him saying the words brought on uncontrollable childish laughter from his teammates, but still.

So after I've sent the GK off, the blues manager steps onto the FOP and orders her players to come off, ranting about me being a cheat, ruining the game, etc etc. Now here is the part where I think refereeing has turned me into a monster. At this point, lots of thoughts were flowing through my head as to what to do.

The main idea I had, and the one which I was all but ready to go with was to caution every player for leaving the FOP without my permission. This would've led to five sendings off for two cautions, totalling six dismissals and thus meaning the game would be abandoned. Now, for a few moments I seriously considered this. I was walking towards the touchline where the players had gathered, ready to do it, when I found myself blowing the whistle.

In the back of my mind I'd decided to abandon the game due to them refusing to continue and that's what I went with in the end, although, I think, by law, I would've been well within my rights to caution all of them for leaving the FOP without referees permission...?

Now you see what type of monster I am :D
 
The Referee Store
Did you consider talking with the blues manager after she'd done this to explain what her actions would mean, I.e. that you would have to abandon the game and report her for misconduct to the county fa if she didn't immediately reconsider her actions and get her boys back on the pitch to finish the game.

The cautions all around is a nice idea.....and could have even been used as part of your this is what will happen if you don't restart the game......not sure what your county would have made of that.

If you think that talking to the manager would have made things worse or you had any concerns for your safety then perhaps it wouldn't have been the right approach.

Explaining the situation to the yellow team manager....perhaps he or she would offer to have a word.....in short, anything to try and resolve the issue without having to abandon the game.

Remember stop / suspend / abandon - we are encouraged to apply a stepped approach to many situations on the f.o.p. and here you have the full backing of the lotg for doing so in this or similar situations
 
Of course. As the blues manager approached me on the pitch, her and parents of the team were calling me a cheat, saying I'd ruined the game etc... it really wasn't appropriate to enter into a conversation although I did point out that I would have to abandon and report it if they refused to finish the final four minutes, to which she replied something along the lines of "do it, it won't matter anyway".

By the way, she's also "appealing" the five yellow cards I gave to her team. Good luck to her! :D
 
Thats sound like a nightmare to me Evan , and under the circumstances , I would probably have done the same .......hopefully the team and the manager get hammered for it .

that why I dont do kids football very often , as you have that boys trying to be men mentallity 15s to 18s who dont like to be told off also lots of parents trying to fulfil their lost dreams through thier children........ thats probably the worst bit .

go to open age football , you only have to deal with players ,subs and and the old fella walking his dog
 
Beezer said:
Thats sound like a nightmare to me Evan , and under the circumstances , I would probably have done the same .......hopefully the team and the manager get hammered for it .

that why I dont do kids football very often , as you have that boys trying to be men mentallity 15s to 18s who dont like to be told off also lots of parents trying to fulfil their lost dreams through thier children........ thats probably the worst bit .

go to open age football , you only have to deal with players ,subs and and the old fella walking his dog
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I do open age Saturdays, youth league Sundays. Only ever had one incident at open age where I felt I didn't do well/could've done better, at youth level it's been a few times but some not my fault at all! Done a few lines on a senior county league this year which I've loved, I try to grab them when I can :D
 
Can you even appeal yellows? For Liverpool CFA you cant appeal yellows, theyre making it so you cant appeal reds too
 
Steve C said:
Can you even appeal yellows? For Liverpool CFA you cant appeal yellows, theyre making it so you cant appeal reds too
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No county offers the ability to appeal yellows. Only chance you can ever appeal them is for mistaken identity and they won't entertain it unless there's video evidence.


Beezer said:
KENT FA , You cant appeal reds either ......
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Reds can be appealed on grounds of mistaken identity with video evidence. I think also adult reds can be appealed here without video evidence although realistically they are never successful... although youth football reds aren't.
 
F.....kin hell Evan what games have you been reffin with a film crew present ?? :D
 
Beezer said:
F.....kin hell Evan what games have you been reffin with a film crew present ?? :D
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Closest I've got is getting in front of the camera for about 2 seconds as a steward at a Football Conference club I work at on a live TV game. ;)
 
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