A&H

dylanbailey4444

Well-Known Member
Level 5 Referee
So I had an u16’s game yesterday, the home team my former team (I left at about u11’s, still go to school with some of them and coach one of the coaches sons at u14’s for a different club). It was a league cup plate match (I think, if that makes sense?) and I had a few incidents. The main one being two players were frustrated with each other and one called the other one a di**head. I immediately stopped play and went and spoke to him. I originally told him it was a sin bin then straight away I cut myself off and said that I cant sinbin you as it was towards your own player. I showed him a yellow as I already had showed him a yellow for the sinbin (I was about to touch to the touch line as I was speaking) and then I restarted play with an indirect free kick. The other was two players challenging, the blue team (home) and white (away). They grabbed each other. Neither fell to the floor and then people started shouting so i think the original offence occurred from the white team so a blue fire kick and as they had squared up to each other and the white player had pushed the blue one, I booked the white player. At the end the coaches came over and asked what the bookings were for. They disagreed with both and said that they were both out of distraction and neither should have been cards. I said that the first one was lucky not to have been sent off. I have the captains instructions that I would call them over if I needed too, dissent, Calm a player down, etc and I didn’t. I spoke to them in passing at times when I needed too, just to tell them to watch their player etc. I said this and they just walked off. A few other incidents which I could have handled differently but I wasn’t on it yesterday. I could have definitely had a better breakfast. Anyone got any advice on good pre match meals or breakfast? And any pointers on what I’ve described?
Thank you
 
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Firstly, well done for self-correcting.

I think it is all at referee discretion and I think you have to have been there to ascertain if it was USB adopting an aggressive attitude or not - but the restart seems correct in law to me.

Managers will always moan about cards, if both deserved a card due to their reactions, which by your description, it seems like it was a USB/AA. It also gives time for the situation to de-escalate.

One thing I tend to do, is try and have a quiet word with skippers when the ball is out of play - skipper, your number 6 is getting a little bit wound up. They will usually have a word (sometimes they will not be helpful at all!!!).

Looks like you had a nice competitive match yesterday!

T
 
On your second incident, if players are squaring up to each other, very often it will be a caution for both of them. But as said above it's something you'd have to see.

For the first one, you are right on it's is likely to be a send off. If you felt it wasn't worthy of a send off, then USB is also a good fit.
 
I think maybe square up from both of them was bad wording. The white player, who got booked, shoved the blue player and the blue player stood there saying a few things but never did anything back. I usually do caution both.
 
Firstly, well done for self-correcting.

I think it is all at referee discretion and I think you have to have been there to ascertain if it was USB adopting an aggressive attitude or not - but the restart seems correct in law to me.

Managers will always moan about cards, if both deserved a card due to their reactions, which by your description, it seems like it was a USB/AA. It also gives time for the situation to de-escalate.

One thing I tend to do, is try and have a quiet word with skippers when the ball is out of play - skipper, your number 6 is getting a little bit wound up. They will usually have a word (sometimes they will not be helpful at all!!!).

Looks like you had a nice competitive match yesterday!

T
Thank you! I found it surprising that they were moaning that neither were cards. Usually managers will moan saying it was harsh but a card.
 
Can a 15/16 year old referee an U16 game? You definitely can’t in our local junior league, I’ve read the rules, but I felt like this was standard practice in the UK. Could just be our league.
 
Can a 15/16 year old referee an U16 game? You definitely can’t in our local junior league, I’ve read the rules, but I felt like this was standard practice in the UK. Could just be our league.
At 16 you can referee open age so I am allowed too. It was a last minute favour and I have signed up to officiate in this league anyway!
 
At 16 you can referee open age so I am allowed too. It was a last minute favour and I have signed up to officiate in this league anyway!
Well if you’re 16 that’s fine then. From what I’ve gathered doing a bit more research, only Level 8 refs are restricted in terms of what they can ref age group wise.

But I double checked my league rules, and I was right in terms of my league. They state that a referee cannot referee their age group NOR the age group below them! Insanity. So a 16 year old like yourself would be able to ref open age games but not U15 games!

I can’t find it in any other handbooks so I’ll presume this is just my league, anyone else have these rules? Can’t see why they’re in place tbh
 
Well if you’re 16 that’s fine then. From what I’ve gathered doing a bit more research, only Level 8 refs are restricted in terms of what they can ref age group wise.

But I double checked my league rules, and I was right in terms of my league. They state that a referee cannot referee their age group NOR the age group below them! Insanity. So a 16 year old like yourself would be able to ref open age games but not U15 games!

I can’t find it in any other handbooks so I’ll presume this is just my league, anyone else have these rules? Can’t see why they’re in place tbh
I don’t see why either. My area with all the leagues seem to be the same in terms of when you get to 16, you can referee any age group. No other restrictions, as far as I’m aware.
 
I don’t see why either. My area with all the leagues seem to be the same in terms of when you get to 16, you can referee any age group. No other restrictions, as far as I’m aware.
Every other league in my area is the same, including the other junior league. No idea why this is the case for mine.

Oh well, I’m 18 so it doesn’t affect me but still odd
 
What did you caution the first one for, exactly? If it wasn't OFFINABUS, I'm struggling to see what the misconduct was. It would be harsh to send someone off for that, sure; but I don't see what other offense it was.
 
What did you caution the first one for, exactly? If it wasn't OFFINABUS, I'm struggling to see what the misconduct was. It would be harsh to send someone off for that, sure; but I don't see what other offense it was.
I put it down as dissent. He called his own player a di**head and I was going to sinbin him but I corrected myself as I can’t- it was towards his own team mate, not me. Was I wrong to put it down as dissent? Like you said, it seems harsh to red card him for that. They ended up loosing 7-0 and at that time I think it was 6-0 so they were pretty fed up already!😂
 
I put it down as dissent. He called his own player a di**head and I was going to sinbin him but I corrected myself as I can’t- it was towards his own team mate, not me. Was I wrong to put it down as dissent? Like you said, it seems harsh to red card him for that. They ended up loosing 7-0 and at that time I think it was 6-0 so they were pretty fed up already!😂
Dissent can only be committed against a match official.
 
Should I have red carded him? Is a yellow card the wrong thing completely?
No. Not necessarily. A yellow card for dissent is incorrect.
It could be AA. It could be unsporting. It could be nothing. Or it could be red. Context is everything.
Some will say hard and fast red card. You'd never finish a game if so. Some will say nothing. All you need to do is work oit what law you are applying and why. In this case, Dissent it cannot be.
 
No. Not necessarily. A yellow card for dissent is incorrect.
It could be AA. It could be unsporting. It could be nothing. Or it could be red. Context is everything.
Some will say hard and fast red card. You'd never finish a game if so. Some will say nothing. All you need to do is work oit what law you are applying and why. In this case, Dissent it cannot be.
Thank you- that’s really useful to know. I was never taught it on the course- or not that situation anyway so I always presumed it was still dissent.
 
Hi Dylan, if you haven’t done so already, I’d strongly recommend you join your local referee group. If you can’t find one, it might be useful to put your area on here, I’m sure someone will point you in the right direction. A good group will have regular meetings and will offer advice and training
 
Yeah, as others have now already mentioned, dissent can only be towards a match official. I don't think that calling someone a d*ckhead is an aggressive posture, you could consider it unsporting behaviour, I suppose, but I would sooner see you pretend you didn't hear it. That's especially true if the player he called a d*ickhead just goes on with his game and nothing more comes of it. If it is misconduct, in my opinion, it has to be OFFINABUS which has to be a red card. As I said, for something like this, unless it was loud enough for the players on the field over to hear it, I would pretend I heard nothing and give nothing.
 
As others have said, there's no way it can be dissent. I'd be looking towards the reaction of the opponent, if he did nothing I probably wouldn't even stop play. If he does react badly you could look at a C1 caution for adopting an aggressive attitude, personally I don't think that word in isolation would merit a red card.
 
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