The Ref Stop

Surely OFFINABUS + more

J

Joshref

RefChat Addict
I was playing in a uni game yesterday, when we won a corner, but the ref awarded it as a goal kick to the opposite. I couldn’t tell, I thought it was our ball but I was much further away than the ref, and we’d had a lot of 50-50 stuff go against us. However, it doesn’t excuse what our striker did next, when he screamed at the top of his lungs “you’re a ****ing retard ref.”

Alarm bells ring in my head, we’re 1-0 up after 40 mins and suddenly we’re going to be down to 10 men. And the ref does…absolutely nothing. Not even a card, a sin bin, even a chat. I could hear it from the halfway line at LB loud and clear, so I have a hard time believing the ref did not hear it from the edge of the 18 yard box.

Soon it occurred to me, I’m 99% sure I’m the only one on that pitch who even thought of a red card in that moment. None of the opposition said owt about it, nor did our team, and I personally am gobsmacked.

This is surely textbook OFFINABUS. If this happened to me, I’m giving a red and I wouldn’t even have a second thought. We went on to win 6-2, so this was a crucial moment. Thoughts on this?
 
The Ref Stop
Joshref said:
I was playing in a uni game yesterday, when we won a corner, but the ref awarded it as a goal kick to the opposite. I couldn’t tell, I thought it was our ball but I was much further away than the ref, and we’d had a lot of 50-50 stuff go against us. However, it doesn’t excuse what our striker did next, when he screamed at the top of his lungs “you’re a ****ing retard ref.”

Alarm bells ring in my head, we’re 1-0 up after 40 mins and suddenly we’re going to be down to 10 men. And the ref does…absolutely nothing. Not even a card, a sin bin, even a chat. I could hear it from the halfway line at LB loud and clear, so I have a hard time believing the ref did not hear it from the edge of the 18 yard box.

Soon it occurred to me, I’m 99% sure I’m the only one on that pitch who even thought of a red card in that moment. None of the opposition said owt about it, nor did our team, and I personally am gobsmacked.

This is surely textbook OFFINABUS. If this happened to me, I’m giving a red and I wouldn’t even have a second thought. We went on to win 6-2, so this was a crucial moment. Thoughts on this?
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One of the most common things I hear as a referee is: "are you going to let him talk to him like that"

I always feel spineless or weak when I reply, "I genuinely didn't hear it".

But the truth is I mostly don't hear it. I just have to juggle so many things: What is the restart; who had the ball last; what players are on what number of fouls; manager instructions being yelled; random spectator noises; so on and so forth.

It is so easy to just miss something, especially a noise when there is so many conversations and self induced noise. Plus players giving each other pelters every second.

I get players saying: "just ignore me then ref" when I whistle for the resumption of play, and I am just sat there thinking, did not hear a word whatever they are on about.

I genuinely believe very few refs, and I mean very few would take "you're a f***ing r***** ref".

Your boy got saved by divine intervention I am sure.
 
Joshref said:
I was playing in a uni game yesterday, when we won a corner, but the ref awarded it as a goal kick to the opposite. I couldn’t tell, I thought it was our ball but I was much further away than the ref, and we’d had a lot of 50-50 stuff go against us. However, it doesn’t excuse what our striker did next, when he screamed at the top of his lungs “you’re a ****ing retard ref.”

Alarm bells ring in my head, we’re 1-0 up after 40 mins and suddenly we’re going to be down to 10 men. And the ref does…absolutely nothing. Not even a card, a sin bin, even a chat. I could hear it from the halfway line at LB loud and clear, so I have a hard time believing the ref did not hear it from the edge of the 18 yard box.

Soon it occurred to me, I’m 99% sure I’m the only one on that pitch who even thought of a red card in that moment. None of the opposition said owt about it, nor did our team, and I personally am gobsmacked.

This is surely textbook OFFINABUS. If this happened to me, I’m giving a red and I wouldn’t even have a second thought. We went on to win 6-2, so this was a crucial moment. Thoughts on this?
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It’s not just OFFINABUS, it’s discriminatory language and the ref isn’t alone in being disgracefully inadequate in identifying and reporting (and punishing where appropriate!) ableist language.

I became a ref in part because a referee failed to report when I flagged that I had been called a spastic. A huge part of grassroots football do not care or understand the issue of ableist language and it’s absolutely endemic. If it was something like homophobic language it would be national news, instead it’s just normal.

Absolutely woeful and as you can probably tell it’s incredibly upsetting to hear something so obvious goes unpunished
 
I have to agree with everything said so far. I’m with others that sometimes we just genuinely cannot hear it, but if someone used ableist language like that, after I’d dismissed them I’d be taking the players from the field whilst I talked to the managers about what was going to happen next.
 
I genuinely often don't hear OFFINABUS, because I'm focused on other things, as has been mentioned already.

Case in point earlier this season, low mark from a team, partly on the basis that I sin binned their player (obvious, public, had just been challenged for the ball, no foul imo and screamed at me from the floor VERY loudly as I was looking at him). Observer backed me.

I didn't deal with an opponent later on though for telling me to 'sod off', but I genuinely hadn't heard it.

Wasn't mentioned by the observer either.

To be fair, a potential red would've been lovely to go with my 7 cautions and 3 missed cautions (yes, it was a lively close step 6 game on a rubbish pitch).
 
It isn't just whether you heard it or not, you also need to know who said it and that can be a lot harder to work out. I've heard comments over the years that have had me twitching, but if you don't know who said it there isn't a huge amount you can do about it. Where it is discriminatory comments you'd need to report it and just say that you heard it but couldn't identify who said it.
 
RustyRef said:
It isn't just whether you heard it or not, you also need to know who said it and that can be a lot harder to work out. I've heard comments over the years that have had me twitching, but if you don't know who said it there isn't a huge amount you can do about it. Where it is discriminatory comments you'd need to report it and just say that you heard it but couldn't identify who said it.
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Defenders love a throw away comment when they are walking away, and when you turn to see who said it, 3 blokes have their back to you.

Not much you can do there.
 
I’m not sure he missed it, but I’ll sympathise with my fellow official and hope he did. Of course, there is also the possibility I misheard 😂

For those of you into gossip, the player in question is actually the son of a famous celebrity chef. Not naming names, don’t want The Sun to get hold of such a big story!
 
Slightly playing devils advocate here but if he's taking no disciplinary is this almost better than cautioning or warning? It's undoubtedly OFFINABUS but if he's not heard it he can't do anything - whereas cautioning or talking to the player shows that you heard it but somehow don't deem it OFFINABUS.
 
LothianRef said:
Slightly playing devils advocate here but if he's taking no disciplinary is this almost better than cautioning or warning? It's undoubtedly OFFINABUS but if he's not heard it he can't do anything - whereas cautioning or talking to the player shows that you heard it but somehow don't deem it OFFINABUS.
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If you haven’t heard what has been said you cannot take action via a caution or dismissal. However if it is discriminatory you should delay the restart of play and speak to the player that has reported it and get them to tell you what has been said, you then report this to your CFA in a extraordinary misconduct report via wholegame but whatever is said by the player in question, if you haven’t heard it you can’t book them for it only report it but I would recommend speaking to the captains and possibly manager and discuss that if you hear it next time how you will deal with it
 
RustyRef said:
It isn't just whether you heard it or not, you also need to know who said it and that can be a lot harder to work out. I've heard comments over the years that have had me twitching, but if you don't know who said it there isn't a huge amount you can do about it. Where it is discriminatory comments you'd need to report it and just say that you heard it but couldn't identify who said it.
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My guess is that's exactly what happened. ;)
 
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