I'm sorry to hear about your incident. Unfortunately my experience with CFAs at hearings is that they are pretty hopeless.
My first hearing was for a player I dismissed for an attempted head butt. At the hearing the club manager told the player to state that he was trying to kiss the player rather than hurt him! The player looked shocked at this but agreed. I heard this and laughed. In the hearing the player said what he had been told and embellished it by saying that the player had said to him "go on, just give us a kiss and get on with the game!" so he did. What actually happened was that the opponent squared up to him and swore when the head went in but said nothing else. The manager claimed that the opponent wanted to be at the hearing to support the statement but couldn't get time off work. The case was found not proven because it was so ridiculous it could have been true!
In another incident a colleague was knocked out and then stamped on by a player he had dismissed. The home manager took the Referee to hospital and stayed to drive him home after treatment - he is also a Referee and they qualified at the same time. He was not called as a witness and the player was found not guilty by the same panel. At that point I lost any respect for them that I had after the first episode.
My experience of hearings is that the Referee is on trial, not the player. I have actually had players apologise for putting me through that!
The advice I was given was to not take it personally. It's not you who has a problem. If you need to then take time out but if you do decide to stop then do it because you want to, rather than because you feel let down by idiots. The idiots will still be there. Otherwise you may regret it later. There are plenty of people with useful advice to help you through this. It may be useful to speak to your RDO and see if he knows anything.
Some CFAs tell the Referee why the case was not proven, but others don't. That's obviously not much help if you want to make sure you don't lose next time.
Don't think of it as losing. It's not you on trial - you're a witness, nothing more, although it feels very personal at the time.
If you have a similar incident again (Heaven forbid) then try to get a senior colleague to read your report before you submit it. Then hopefully the player won't get off in the future. But if they do then don't worry. You've done your job on the day and you can't help it if the panel are stupid.
My first hearing was for a player I dismissed for an attempted head butt. At the hearing the club manager told the player to state that he was trying to kiss the player rather than hurt him! The player looked shocked at this but agreed. I heard this and laughed. In the hearing the player said what he had been told and embellished it by saying that the player had said to him "go on, just give us a kiss and get on with the game!" so he did. What actually happened was that the opponent squared up to him and swore when the head went in but said nothing else. The manager claimed that the opponent wanted to be at the hearing to support the statement but couldn't get time off work. The case was found not proven because it was so ridiculous it could have been true!
In another incident a colleague was knocked out and then stamped on by a player he had dismissed. The home manager took the Referee to hospital and stayed to drive him home after treatment - he is also a Referee and they qualified at the same time. He was not called as a witness and the player was found not guilty by the same panel. At that point I lost any respect for them that I had after the first episode.
My experience of hearings is that the Referee is on trial, not the player. I have actually had players apologise for putting me through that!
The advice I was given was to not take it personally. It's not you who has a problem. If you need to then take time out but if you do decide to stop then do it because you want to, rather than because you feel let down by idiots. The idiots will still be there. Otherwise you may regret it later. There are plenty of people with useful advice to help you through this. It may be useful to speak to your RDO and see if he knows anything.
Some CFAs tell the Referee why the case was not proven, but others don't. That's obviously not much help if you want to make sure you don't lose next time.
Don't think of it as losing. It's not you on trial - you're a witness, nothing more, although it feels very personal at the time.
If you have a similar incident again (Heaven forbid) then try to get a senior colleague to read your report before you submit it. Then hopefully the player won't get off in the future. But if they do then don't worry. You've done your job on the day and you can't help it if the panel are stupid.
