The Ref Stop

Shouting/Appealing

M

marshr02

Member
Morning all. 8th game as ref yesterday. One sin bin in last quarter, and one penalty awarded.

My question is one team appealed for everything right from the start. One example being foul throws; yet despite playing close attention to the thrower concerned, I couldn't see any infringement. Another example where being proactive I called out 'keep your hands down' at a corner, the captain of the other team demanded why I hadn't blown for an infringement instead 'as I'd clearly seen something'. I had a heated conversation with the captain during an injury time-out, where he said they were going to appeal for everything and I should be able to handle it. Later on I missed a penalty shout (to them), three questionable PA tackles in quick succession, the last one with hindsight I would have called a penalty for if I wasn't distracted by the sheer insistency of appealing.

My question to the experienced refs is how is this best dealt with? I was itching for an 'appeal' to question my authority, but that only happened at the end.

Cheers
 
The Ref Stop
Nowhere near as experienced as others on here (in my second season now), but I used to struggle with this. You just have to tune it out as white noise and referee what you see and what you think.

I had a PSF this summer and I was questioning my foul tolerance. The manager of the team is ref secretary and he got some of the senior players over. I asked about the constant appeals. Their response was "that's just what players do. We don't even believe it ourselves most of the time".

Remember - you are the only neutral party on the pitch.
 
Difficult, due to of course there being no actual offence in appealing, as annoying as it can be for us when refereeing.

Through no fault of your own, merely inexperience, you can feel on a hiding to nothing.

my thoughts would be short sharp clear communication, i,e on the foul throw shouts, " guys am happy with that one and if the next throw looks like that i be happy with it too" Closed statement, no question, not inviting a reply.

The proactive shouts are good and to be encouraged. A simple " if i do see it, i will give it" should get the message through. If the player comes back for another go, maybe think outside the box ( again only experience will help here) " captain the last corner it was your no9 i nearly penalised". Might sink in,

its also really aboit setting your stall out early doors, this game has gone now but if you feel similar occuring in the future, bat out the small flames quickly, before they become a fire. " thats clearly your foul, i dont really need your help tp call that"
" captain, thats fiive min in, i get you want to win but am never going to change my mind based on your shouts"
" guys, bit mouthy over nothing here, settle down please"

get in good positions earky, make clear confident calls, strong signals, sharp whistle if needed, get the players early on buying into you, you want them to trust you to make the right call, idea being if they startt to do that, they hopefully moderate their appeals and focus on playing


that said, its difficult, Ferguson had Utd, and before them Aberdeen doing the exact same, one player would have a go, next time another, next time another, annoying, by time you cotton onto the tactic, its Dennis Irwin having a go and you go, right, hes not that type of player, i wait for the next one
 
If it's getting to the stage where it's affecting your concentration or match control, then when play is stopped I would call the captain over and give him fair warning that any further appealing may result in me picking on the most vociferous appellant and cautioning them for USB. Then when it happens, back those words up with action!
 
Best advice I can give is just ignore the appeals. It will come with experience. Let them bang on and waste their breath and time. Some of the best refs I've been AR to are the ones who don't say a lot, I did 2 finals in consecutive years with one of those refs, it can depend on the level you're at as well, if it's Sunday league level, ignore them when needed is what I do, if it's Saturday afternoon 3pm then keep talking through the game where required and maybe a stern word to the captain at some point about the constant appeals.
 
ARF said:
If it's getting to the stage where it's affecting your concentration or match control, then when play is stopped I would call the captain over and give him fair warning that any further appealing may result in me picking on the most vociferous appellant and cautioning them for USB. Then when it happens, back those words up with action!
Click to expand...
And how would you justify a caution for USB in law?
 
ARF said:
Showing a lack of respect for the game.
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Really? That’s a pretty low bar you’re setting. Hope you deal with the guy who appeals for the throw in every time in the same way. Or the player who shouts across asking for the GK to release the ball in 6 seconds? Or the defender who is always appealing and adamant the attacker is offside?
Dissent, maybe but you have to sell it and in England there’s the sin bin to consider. But USB isn’t credible IMO.
 
Yampy said:
Really? That’s a pretty low bar you’re setting. Hope you deal with the guy who appeals for the throw in every time in the same way. Or the player who shouts across asking for the GK to release the ball in 6 seconds? Or the defender who is always appealing and adamant the attacker is offside?
Dissent, maybe but you have to sell it and in England there’s the sin bin to consider. But USB isn’t credible IMO.
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If it was enough to be cautioning for dissent, I think it would be a reasonable assumption that the OP would have so.
 
Yeah, an initial appeal is unfortunately part of the game.

You're entitled to sin bin for dissent as soon as they start disputing you turning down an appeal though, so if you are getting sick of it, the trick is to jump on the first time they come back at your reply (because they will!). Get the captain in, tell him that if they asking the question, they need to accept the answer and make sure he understands the consequences of overdoing the requests.
 
Thanks. I especially agree with the comments; my bar for dissent was too high, the demanding/heated captain should have bin sin binned for dissent early on, also the comment ' not accepting the answer' should be a sin bin..

Cheers people.
 
Anubis said:
Difficult, due to of course there being no actual offence in appealing, as annoying as it can be for us when refereeing.

Through no fault of your own, merely inexperience, you can feel on a hiding to nothing.

my thoughts would be short sharp clear communication, i,e on the foul throw shouts, " guys am happy with that one and if the next throw looks like that i be happy with it too" Closed statement, no question, not inviting a reply.

The proactive shouts are good and to be encouraged. A simple " if i do see it, i will give it" should get the message through. If the player comes back for another go, maybe think outside the box ( again only experience will help here) " captain the last corner it was your no9 i nearly penalised". Might sink in,

its also really aboit setting your stall out early doors, this game has gone now but if you feel similar occuring in the future, bat out the small flames quickly, before they become a fire. " thats clearly your foul, i dont really need your help tp call that"
" captain, thats fiive min in, i get you want to win but am never going to change my mind based on your shouts"
" guys, bit mouthy over nothing here, settle down please"

get in good positions earky, make clear confident calls, strong signals, sharp whistle if needed, get the players early on buying into you, you want them to trust you to make the right call, idea being if they startt to do that, they hopefully moderate their appeals and focus on playing


that said, its difficult, Ferguson had Utd, and before them Aberdeen doing the exact same, one player would have a go, next time another, next time another, annoying, by time you cotton onto the tactic, its Dennis Irwin having a go and you go, right, hes not that type of player, i wait for the next one
Click to expand...
Excellent stuff - and of course, for the op, you can always stop the game or wait for a natural break and call the captain over for a public one to one.

Everyone has seen that, so if you want to call the next "appeal" dissent, no one can say they weren't warned.

Do NOT look at the TV to see how its done, appeals after almost every decision and dissent too, but, as we've said a 1,000,000 times on here, that's a different game!

Edit - Captain - As Graeme said, sorry, didn't read whole thread before replying!:oops:
 
When i get fed up of needless and stupid appeals i get the captain in.

I say "the more your team appeals stupidly the less i am hearing. I'm the refree today, not them. Got it?"
 
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For foul throw appeals just reply with something like "a bit messy but OK", or "just about OK that one", they'll give up in the end when they know you aren't going to give it, whereas if you say nothing they will keep on at you.

For general appealing I don't think there is a lot you can do to stop it, but explaining why you are / aren't giving the decision can help. As I got more experienced I became more aware of players saying things like "got to try ref" or "can't blame me for trying", then you can have a laugh with them and build up rapport. They are probably seizing on the fact you are new and perhaps lacking confidence, and when that happens the captain will be telling all of his players to appeal everything (and I say that as a former captain that did exactly that). As you get more experienced and confident they will be a lot less likely to appeal everything as they will have more confidence in you to get it right. That's just human nature, think of it like trying to get served at the bar. If you know the bar staff are good and know who is next you will just let them get on with it, it they keep saying "who's next" and serve people who clearly turned up after you then you will start trying to get their attention (the same as a player appealing for something).
 
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