Open Age What would you do if you were me?

[Brian Hamilton]

Fair enough. I suppose I am more used to refereeing in situations where we do have that kind of protection. Also, those kinds of violent outbreaks are FAR less common in Canada. I've had one instance in my eight years of refereeing.

Ryan, I knew that, which is why my post was trying to explain the situation we face at the lower levels of the game, where 75% of our referees operate

 

[SM]

You guys in canada have ice hockey to get all your aggression out in?

 

[Ryan Owens]

Haha, maybe so. Although most of our competitive players now play footy all year 'round so I would suggest that it is just that we have not (yet) developed a culture of football hooliganism.

 

[SM]

I hope you never develop it. It is the cancer which will kill the game eventually.

Having been on the end of a team losing their collective heads and forcing a match abandonment, the opponents provided me with a human shield. Not sure it was deliberate on their part, but it was certainly deliberate on mine!

Comically the aggression was from a distance of around 10 meters. I was a foot taller than the main culprits (yes they were adults before anyone asks!) and i was thinking "if this goes bad, that mouthy git that started this is having it!" Was a very scary situation and i was sure i was getting at least one of them attacking me, but i was so full of adrenaline that it was only really afterwards that the gravity of what had happened dawned on me. And the come down from full on adrenaline is nasty.

 

[Ryan Owens]

Oof, it is tremendously scary. I've only been on the receiving end of violence once in eight years -- and it was relatively mild by comparison to some of the stories we are hearing now. I sent a player off and he grabbed me hard by the wrist and had his face inches from mine, his teammate tried to drag him off which led to him wrestling with his (much, much bigger, African) teammate and he was eventually removed from the field. I was a bit shaken but not stirred so we finished the match off and everything was fine from then on -- absolutely no problems (I think both teams felt bad for me at that point and were ready to let just about any mistake go).

 

[Ryan]

would be a straight red card for me!

 

[griffref!]

So in the last minutes of the game, I sent off A's forward for violent conduct and spitting on opponent. Then, a team-mate of the sent off ran to me just to protest, and he - a little bit - pushed me after raising the red card. The push, to be honest, was not harmful, yet I showed him a second yellow card. It was adrenaline, and I had second thoughts about this yellow.. Should I had: A) Do nothing and listen to his protest. B) Show a straight red.

Your opinions?

Its violent conduct. Straight red. These incidents must be punished to help put an end to Referee abuse.

 

[griffref!]

The majority of our referees look after games which take place in public places, without any means of proper exclusion, without any security guards, without any form of protection. Once assaulted, the only people who are going to look after them are the other players and/or club officials or the referee themselves. If a player has gone to extreme of assaulting referee, the proper course of action is to abandon that game as it cannot be guaranteed that their mental processes will be as balanced as a referee who has not been assaulted. This may impact on decision making and match control. It is considered better practice to abandon, so the referee is no longer exposed to that situation and that the player is dealt with appropriately by the football authorities.

Also, a home club is responsible for officials safety. Failing to provide a safe enviroment to officiate should be reported to area association.