A&H

Junior/Youth What do I do??

J

Jack M

Active Member
Level 6 Referee
Hi guys,

In my U15s game this morning, it was 11-0 at HT.

The manager comes up to me and says his team don't want to play anymore and that they are going home. This caused the match to be abandoned.
The six players from that team that wanted to play mixed with the other team to make two teams of about 8 and we played a little 30 minute friendly.

How do I report this to Essex FA??
 
The Referee Store
Was it a county game?
If not then this would be reported to the competition (league) the game was being played in. Best person to ask would be the league secretary.
Unless there is a specific match report form then a phone call and written email would suffice I imagine.
 
In that case then do an extraordinary incident report via wholegame. Like doing a caution/dismissal except pick the extraordinary incident bit
 
The FA have a 'Mercy Rule' in their Youth Competitions Guidance Notes'. The game should stop when one team attains a ten goal lead
 

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Last season I ref-ed quite a few U15 & U16 League Games. The tops of both leagues were close between two or three teams, but the gulf between the top teams and the bottom teams was large.

The secretary of one (top) team was very much advocated that only points should be used to differentiate league position, and that goal difference or goals scored should be ignored. There were too many games in the league with big score differences whilst keen boys, but not the best players, would sit on the sidelines as teams knew the final league outcome may rest on goal difference

With goal difference not a factor, once a team were clearly on top they could give more game to their “lesser” players making for a much better contest for all. With rolling subs at that age range, they could then always bring on their “stars” if the result was in doubt.

I must say I am in agreement with that club secretary
 
You'd like to think all Counties would be the same. In Youth Football, safeguarding is more important than the laws. I will always 'help' a team facing a battering, both in terms of decisions and encouragement
 
'Help' being on a sliding scale from young to old. Nothing obvious, but the 50 50s can make a difference
 
Leagues cannot act on abandoned games until the CFA have, so the league secretary is correct that it needs to go to county. As has been said, you will need to do it as an extraordinary incident on WGS.
 
Off topic but when I was about 13 we played a posh private school at Rugby Union, It was 60-0 at half time, we were planning for 100 plus and many more but they called it off and went home. There are probably some 50 plus posh blokes out there who’s childhoods would have been scarred by that! :devil: Always good to be on the good end but not so good to be royally rodgered !
 
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Big Cat said:
The FA have a 'Mercy Rule' in their Youth Competitions Guidance Notes'. The game should stop when one team attains a ten goal lead
Click to expand...

What FA Regulation is that covered under?

Totally understand it at u8-u11, but anything above that is totally ridiculous.
 
I did a u11 game this season yellows 8-0 up reds lose there goalkeeper through injury lad that came on never played in goals before look frightened to death at this point there was 5 minutes left , I blew dead on time the yellows marked me low as they said they wanted to get there goal difference up after the game the league secretary phoned me as to why I didn’t play injury time I explained the situation he gave me a subtle telling off and said next time apply the laws of the game and add the injury time
 
Chrisp72 said:
I did a u11 game this season yellows 8-0 up reds lose there goalkeeper through injury lad that came on never played in goals before look frightened to death at this point there was 5 minutes left , I blew dead on time the yellows marked me low as they said they wanted to get there goal difference up after the game the league secretary phoned me as to why I didn’t play injury time I explained the situation he gave me a subtle telling off and said next time apply the laws of the game and add the injury time
Click to expand...
Sorry U12 game and the time they wanted me to add on was for the replacement goalkeeper getting his jersey and gloves on .
 
Padfoot said:
What FA Regulation is that covered under?

Totally understand it at u8-u11, but anything above that is totally ridiculous.
Click to expand...
FA Regulation? Ridiculous? Have a day off. Safeguarding is number 1, not some assessor's sheet
 
Big Cat said:
FA Regulation? Ridiculous? Have a day off. Safeguarding is number 1, not some assessor's sheet
Click to expand...

Wow...nice mature response.

I'm guessing you don't know the answer? Perhaps because it isn't actually part of the FA regulations.....and the link you provided appears to be a local league guidance document.......

The reason I ask is because I have never heard of this "mercy rule" before......and was therefore trying to see if there was a knowledge gap that I needed to close.
I coach an U16s, soon to be u18's, team and if our league suggested that we would stop a game if one team gained a 10 goal advantage they would lose all credibility at that age group.

Players need to understand that they will face better teams, they will sometimes lose heavily simply because their opponents are better than them.....an important leasson to learn.
Learning how to lose is as important as learning how to win.

But as I said earlier, i totally support the idea for the little ones, but once you start to hit 11v11 then reality needs to be allowed to set in.
 
Padfoot said:
Wow...nice mature response.

I'm guessing you don't know the answer? Perhaps because it isn't actually part of the FA regulations.....and the link you provided appears to be a local league guidance document.......

The reason I ask is because I have never heard of this "mercy rule" before......and was therefore trying to see if there was a knowledge gap that I needed to close.
I coach an U16s, soon to be u18's, team and if our league suggested that we would stop a game if one team gained a 10 goal advantage they would lose all credibility at that age group.

Players need to understand that they will face better teams, they will sometimes lose heavily simply because their opponents are better than them.....an important leasson to learn.
Learning how to lose is as important as learning how to win.

But as I said earlier, i totally support the idea for the little ones, but once you start to hit 11v11 then reality needs to be allowed to set in.
Click to expand...
Sport must be competitive at any age/ability level, otherwise nobody benefits. This is more important when children are involved. I didn't write the Herts FA guidelines, but i admire whoever did. The boys/girls need to learn and develop gradually, they don't need to be humiliated. It just strikes me generally that i would have safeguarding higher on my priority list than thee
 
Chrisp72 said:
I did a u11 game this season yellows 8-0 up reds lose there goalkeeper through injury lad that came on never played in goals before look frightened to death at this point there was 5 minutes left , I blew dead on time the yellows marked me low as they said they wanted to get there goal difference up after the game the league secretary phoned me as to why I didn’t play injury time I explained the situation he gave me a subtle telling off and said next time apply the laws of the game and add the injury time
Click to expand...

What? I would most certainly have told the league secretary to wind his neck in. You did apply the laws of the game as the referee is the sole timekeeper.
 
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