A&H

U13 Abandonment

B

BrumRef

Regular Contributor
Level 7 Referee
Hi all, sorry for the big report coming up, I thought that I would seek advice for this if it happens in the future and what to say in my official report if requested by police/ competition . I have included all the cautions and dismissals. I felt like it built up after a pink player received the caution and sinbin and the manager then received a caution, both for c2

I was neutral assistant referee (junior) for a quarter final u13 match


Shortly before full time green won a throw in next to the managers technical area. The pink No11 held onto the ball facing away from the FOP and the green No7 pushed him in the back to get the ball back but pink No11 turned around and threw a punch missing No7 who retaliated and they started pushing and shoving each other and the referee blew his whistle to attempt to stop the altercation. At this point the green manager attempted to separate the players, (allegedly assaulting the No11) I didn’t have a clear angle of this as I was on the other side of the pitch and was starting to run towards the area of altercation. After this, pink No5 threw a punch at blue manager. There was then a mass confrontation involving players and managers from both teams.

The next thing I saw was the pink No5 running from green players and I intervened after running towards the confrontation by putting myself between pink No5 and green No9. After this I turned to stop a pink player attempting to get to green No9 by blocking his path. By this time parents from both sides entered the FOP and there was more heated threats and insults between teams and individual groups of players still alternating. The referee, myself and the other assistant referee, green chairman, level 3 referee( spectator for this game) and pink chairman managed to remove the parents from the FOP and get both teams to separate sides. The referee in agreement with me and the other assistant referee decided to abandon the game. We asked the chairmans to discuss this with their respective teams. A couple of minutes after this something set off the pink players who started verbally abusing and insulting referee, requiring us to have to speak to pink manager and chairman to stop the abuse. The pink self declared “assistant manager” then called the police in front of this asking us for the address of the game while a lot of pink players and officials accused green manager of assault.

We sent the parents to the car park. We then removed green to their dressing room and then pink. We then let blue go to the car park and leave and then pink seperately.



Green Goalscorers: 9,3,11

No8 – caution – C1 (AA)

No9 – caution – C1(AA)

No7 – Dismissal – S2



Pink goalscorers: 10,4

No6 – caution – C1 (AA)

No3 – caution – C1 (AA)

No7 -caution – C2 (Sinbin)

Manager – caution – C2

No11 – dismissal – S2

No5 – dismissal – S2
 
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The Referee Store
Not sure what to say about the outcome, but I’d be tempted to edit out some details of your post.

I reckon I’ve worked out exactly which game you are talking and I’m not sure having your report in the public domain is helpful.

I understand you desire to off load and discuss the events, but try and anonymise your post. To do that, remove the date, the competition, etc. Without that info, the age range is ok and possibly pertinent.
 
Tasty game.

Report is good. Possibly a bit more detail on your position and distance on some events and some of the actual words that were said.

On the handling of it, once the game is abandoned, I would walk away. It is not the referee's responsibility, for example, the send teams to their change rooms.
 
one said:
Tasty game.

Report is good. Possibly a bit more detail on your position and distance on some events and some of the actual words that were said.

On the handling of it, once the game is abandoned, I would walk away. It is not the referee's responsibility, for example, the send teams to their change rooms.
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Ok, thanks 👍
 
BrumRef said:
Ok, thanks 👍
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What advice are you looking for?

'cos based on what you've said, it doesn't seem like you (the officials) missed anything. If the ref was on the spot, whistling to try to prevent the handbags but everyone piled in, then there are not many options: you get a good position and take numbers, either mental note and/or with the pen.

With a lot of adults/fans/coaches involved what you shouldn't do is put yourself in any danger.

I think that's worth restating. Most important: your own safety. Next: your colleagues' safety. After that, anything else.
 
santa sangria said:
What advice are you looking for?

'cos based on what you've said, it doesn't seem like you (the officials) missed anything. If the ref was on the spot, whistling to try to prevent the handbags but everyone piled in, then there are not many options: you get a good position and take numbers, either mental note and/or with the pen.

With a lot of adults/fans/coaches involved what you shouldn't do is put yourself in any danger.

I think that's worth restating. Most important: your own safety. Next: your colleagues' safety. After that, anything else.
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More than anything report writing and anything to include however @one has given some advice on that
 
Include what happened, what you saw, exactly what was said by who to whom, and where you were to see/hear it. Don’t include guesses or what you *thought* people were doing/saying. Then stick to it and don’t add anything at a later date.

Sounds a sh*tty thing to experience, hope you’re alright.
 
Grayson said:
Include what happened, what you saw, exactly what was said by who to whom, and where you were to see/hear it. Don’t include guesses or what you *thought* people were doing/saying. Then stick to it and don’t add anything at a later date.

Sounds a sh*tty thing to experience, hope you’re alright.
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I’m fine, do I include what the ref saw and what I could see happening generally as I was too far to 100% say what happened with 1 part of the incident but what I thought I could see?
 
BrumRef said:
I’m fine, do I include what the ref saw and what I could see happening generally as I was too far to 100% say what happened with 1 part of the incident but what I thought I could see?
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No, I would only include what you saw. They’ll get what the referee saw from his own report.

Sorry you had to go through that mate. Seems like a comprehensive report and you worked well as a team to stay on top of it!
 
alexgr said:
No, I would only include what you saw. They’ll get what the referee saw from his own report.

Sorry you had to go through that mate. Seems like a comprehensive report and you worked well as a team to stay on top of it!
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Thanks and thanks everyone for the advice
 
@BrumRef

Sounds horrible and well done on getting the information down. Unless, the match was at a neutral ground, it is better to refer to the Home and Away teams rather than team colours. Also, your report as Assistant should only be factual. It is doubtful that the police will request a copy, and the CFA would normally just require the referees report.

The one unclear point -
BrumRef said:
The referee in agreement with me and the other assistant referee decided to abandon the game. We asked the chairmans to discuss this with their respective teams. A couple of minutes after this something set off the pink players who started verbally abusing and insulting referee, requiring us to have to speak to pink manager and chairman to stop the abuse. The pink self declared “assistant manager” then called the police in front of this asking us for the address of the game while a lot of pink players and officials accused green manager of assault.
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Why would the referee be discussing the abandonment with the clubs after he has made his decision? Once the referee decides to abandon, then it is a statement of fact and you tell the clubs. Discussing the outcome could have allowed the next incident to occur.

Did the police actually attend?
 
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lincs22 said:
@BrumRef

Sounds horrible and well done on getting the information down. Unless, the match was at a neutral ground, it is better to refer to the Home and Away teams rather than team colours. Also, your report as Assistant should only be factual. It is doubtful that the police will request a copy, and the CFA would normally just require the referees report.

The one unclear point -

Why would the referee be discussing the abandonment with the clubs after he has made his decision? Once the referee decides to abandon, then it is a statement of fact and you tell the clubs. Discussing the outcome could have allowed the next incident to occur.

Did the police actually attend?
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Thanks, the police were there within 10 minutes
 
BrumRef said:
Thanks, the police were there within 10 minutes
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Was there anything, with your view of hindsight, that the referee could've done to avert this mess? Merely considering potential learning points, for those of us who were safely miles away
 
Big Cat said:
Was there anything, with your view of hindsight, that the referee could've done to avert this mess? Merely considering potential learning points, for those of us who were safely miles away
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Personally I don’t think he could do anything more than he did which was to blow his whistle loudly to try and take control however this was ignored by everyone and he cannot get in between the two players in case of anything said against him. I think things has bubbled up over the duration of the game to which he had dealt with little incidents between players like little bits of pushy shovey type of things by cautioning for C1 AA. Overall I think that there is nothing that could be done once the parents ran on and the allegations were made with police coming other than to abandon the game. During the incident we (match officials) took notes of what happened and observed. As I said, it’s really important that we don’t make physical contact in my opinion unless we think that someone is in severe danger. We had no means of keeping parents off the pitch or breaking up the fight other than blocking paths of players and letting managers try and pull their own players away.

If anyone has advice for the future for anyone please do reply but I couldn’t see anything we could’ve done to avoid this once it started
 
One thing that I’d never have done is put myself between players in a mass confrontation as you could then become involved and end up getting injured
 
Rowanmano said:
One thing that I’d never have done is put myself between players in a mass confrontation as you could then become involved and end up getting injured
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You’re right, I think it’s just a natural instinct to stop young players getting hurt however for my safety as I start to go up age groups I need to not do this
 
Rowanmano said:
One thing that I’d never have done is put myself between players in a mass confrontation as you could then become involved and end up getting injured
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Or end up being assaulted, in error. My instructions are always no physicality. Watch, be vocal, use presence to diffuse where possible, but never get involved.
 
You have to protect yourself. You block someone, stand between people even if that's your first instinct, or if you go near the trouble to physically split it up, you are putting yourself at a huge risk. Not just from injury but from allegations against you. You've assaulted a parent, a coach or a child. You touched them inappropriately during the brawl. It's about being aware of what is going in but also not putting yourself in a position that you don't need to be in. You saw how people there blamed the referee after. It's human nature to look for blame.
 
I got in the middle of a mass conf in a senior cup game, copped an unfortunate elbow in the schnoz as a result and went down with a bloodied nose. On the plus side once everyone realised that I was down it very quickly broke up the confrontation as they were all wondering who had delivered the knock out blow ... :). 4th official took over.
 
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