The Ref Stop

"we pay your wages"

Denver 70

New Member
a comment that i have heard twice this season

first time when a player who thought he could do every thing to avoid talking to me then when i do caution him for dissent mutters "is this what we pay for" - let it go and see how it develops
after the game cue more comments from him well you cant show me a card now !! - I cant but i can report you for misconduct - some players have no Idea !!! - eventually get a forced apology but other comments that you get paid so should expect it from spectators.

this saturday gone - captains told before game please control your players as its better you do to save them a fime etc.
home captain moans all game about every little thing.

last incident for him - opponent runs past him and he claims handball but neither I nor the home player next to me could see the handball play on - goes on to score the 5th of a 5- 1 defeat, cue the captain beratting the handball decision and i havent given anything etc. decide to caution him for dissent - when the line of "We pay your wages and this is what we get" comes from his mouth, notebook away, straight to back pocket - off

felt at the time I was being harsh but felt he had no repect for me so a bit of sharp retribution - since been told he is pain in every game and even when he is out so deserves a few weeks off to give other referees a bit of piece and quiet
 
The Ref Stop
after the game cue more comments from him well you cant show me a card now !! - I cant but i can report you for misconduct - some players have no Idea !!!

Just to clarify, I'm assuming that you're talking 'after the game' in the clubhouse having a drink / in the car park as you're about to head off after showering and changing kind of thing since, as per interpretation of law 5, a player can be sent off after the match has ended. I've done it myself, to a 13 year old, a good 5 to 10 minutes after the game. (He got a two match suspension if memory serves me well)
 
As haywain says, the match remains under the jurisdiction of the referee until he steps off the field of play. Cards can still be shown at this time.

I have never come across that phrase, the "we pay your wages" one. Interesting. If you feel a player has crossed the line into OFFINABUS, then quite correctly off he goes.

Welcome to the forum @Denver 70.
 
I thought I was tough on mouthy players! I'm sorry but that is very very harsh and really not warranted.
Once you've decided to caution for dissent, anything that is said like that, which is very mild on the scale of dissent, is better met with a stern warning that the card can easily change colour if they carry on talking, then if they do keep on gobbing off, they can't say they weren't warned. They do tend to shut up 99% of the time.

Once, in my early days of refereeing, I sent someone for 'Christ, how much are they paying you ref?'.
To this day, it's the only red card that I regret. Much better ways of handling that, and ridiculously harsh.
 
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@haywain It's under fouls and misconduct ;)

The referee has the power to take disciplinary sanctions from the moment he enters the field of play until he leaves the field of play at the final whistle.
 
:rolleyes:

Oh, feck! I kind of knew it was there somewhere and I even flicked through law 12 before writing my post

What was that I said about referees who don't know the laws :confused:

Funnily enough, when I red carded the 13 year old, I got him on a kind of technicality because the coach, who I reported for misconduct in the same match, (6 week suspension I think - remember thinking that he probably only missed one, perhaps two games cos of the poor weather last winter) decided to do his post match get together in the penalty area
 
I think I'm with @Padfoot thinking that's a fairly harsh red. Plus it sets a fairly low precedent for players gobbing off. But like all these things it depends how it was said in many ways.
 
I think I'm with @Padfoot thinking that's a fairly harsh red. Plus it sets a fairly low precedent for players gobbing off. But like all these things it depends how it was said in many ways.

sent off after the fifth goal of a 5-1 defeat. likelihood is that it was fairly late in the game, in which case, low threshold for 'gobbing off' (the richness of the English language, hey :)), was probably not an issue. 5-1 after 22 minutes and you're right, it could be a long game
 
5-1 after 22 minutes and you're right, it could be a long game

5-1 after 22 minutes in some of the games I've refereed wouldn't be impossible!

Although by that point they've normally given up being lippy when they are getting beaten by that many!
 
I'm with the OP on this. Many would find that comment both offensive and insulting.

If you can manage to turn that comment into OFFINABUS, then i would just love to see the outrage on your face at some real OFFINABUS!

I'm well known for having a spectacularly low tolerance to dissent and even less of one for OFFINABUS.....but i am struggling to turn that one comment into anything near OFFINABUS....even if it was shouted at a loud volume, it's still only dissent.....and as he's already being cautioned for C2 a sharp warning to shut up before it gets worse for him, would've sufficed. Even if he had carried on with the same comment, it's only worthy of a 2nd yellow, not a straight red for S6.

I can virtually guarantee that the CFA's discipline dept will see that as a very soft red, and i think the OP is fortunate that there is no appeal process for standard red card offences.
 
Shhhhhh - don't tell anyone - but - I 100% agree with @Padfoot :)

If (and I don't think from the OP there is any inference to this) the player was suggesting he has paid you to be bias in the game - then maybe fair enough ... but I'm yellow / stern word for the OP
 
:rolleyes:

even Denver said that he felt a bit harsh at the time, Padders.

offensive, insulting and abusive language or actions are all very subjective so whilst it is easy to say what we, ourselves, might have done, we should perhaps accept that others may have different levels of tolerance, and that those levels of tolerance can even vary for minute to minute during a match. to me, that doesn't make them wrong just different

i tend to agree with you that it should, perhaps, have merited a second caution rather than a straight red but, hey...
 
"levels of tolerance can even vary for minute to minute during a match" ... good shout Haywain ...
 
"levels of tolerance can even vary for minute to minute during a match" ... good shout Haywain ...

Levels of intensity and concentration can vary minute to minute but tolerance should remain reasonably even.....otherwise you have no consistency, which is vital to match control especially when dealing with dissent or OFFINABUS.

Once you bring the lemon, or cherry, out for these offences you are drawing your line in the sand, illustrating to players that this is the point at which acceptability ends. If you then change that line 10 minutes later, your match control is going to go south faster than a Scottish bank.

Same for challenges, you set the benchmark when you caution for the first challenge that crosses your line of acceptability.......you can't keep moving that line.
 
Levels of intensity and concentration can vary minute to minute but tolerance should remain reasonably even.....otherwise you have no consistency, which is vital to match control especially when dealing with dissent or OFFINABUS.

Once you bring the lemon, or cherry, out for these offences you are drawing your line in the sand, illustrating to players that this is the point at which acceptability ends. If you then change that line 10 minutes later, your match control is going to go south faster than a Scottish bank.

Same for challenges, you set the benchmark when you caution for the first challenge that crosses your line of acceptability.......you can't keep moving that line.

So obvious. But if i can condense this down it'll be a mantra i say to myself before every game.
 
Personally, I just made a note of the things that my assessor said that I found useful and I scan through those points briefly at some stage during my match preparation.

For the rest, I just blag it ;)
 
This sounds like a customer complaining about a service they've paid for not OFFINABUS.

I'd have said something like if you think I'm bad this week, you should have seen me last week and run off to put distance between me and him trying to formulate a response.

His comment was laughable as should be your response.
 
I agree Brian - the only time I've ever heard something like this my response was that I don't do it for the money - if I did I'd be demanding a lot more given all the grief!
 
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