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When Saturday Comes? Are you refereeing or in the terraces

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The Referee Store
My league has been delayed to start in September. Something to do with the council refusing to allow the pitches to be used due to the extreme weather over the winter ruining the grounds.

We were supposed to start on the 18th August I think.

So, I've nothing to do. Haven't had any calls to do any matches in pre-season. I went to one the other day, ended 3-3, referee lost control of the match very early on. Was a learning experience for me just watching and identifying what issues were arising - I thought he got most decisions more or less correct, it was his game-management that let him down.

I was going to watch a match today but it's chucking down, so I'm staying indoors with a packet of crisps and a coffee and I'll take a rest day until tomorrow. :p
 
First line of the season today. Bit of cramp 70 minutes in but soldiered on
 
First game out. Supply league middle. Great game. 2 teams who wanted to play football. 22+ handshakes at the end.
 
7th friendly middle new teams to me as they are Sunday OA not Saturdays OA. My game this afternoon has been called off. First competitive one next Saturday. Also had 4 lines as well.
 
2nd tier U20 line. All good until, at a free kick, one of the wall put their arm over their face and blocked the ball. Seen by everyone, big shouts, waved away by the ref who then had a running argument with a couple of players - that went on a while, involved a coach and carried on after the game. Ref dug himself a big hole by saying protecting your face is allowed in law, while one player said repeatedly that it isn't. Torture to watch. All could have been avoided if the ref had given the wall - any wall - instructions in this game. I've learnt to tell adults and over 16s: hands over your families or chest is OK, over your face is not. This game was nearly a disaster for omitting that.
 
Ouch, well at least there's something to learn from watching games when other referees lose control at some point. Never a nice thing to see, but a learning experience all the same.

Did he acknowledge the issue in the changing room post-match?
 
My league has been delayed to start in September. Something to do with the council refusing to allow the pitches to be used due to the extreme weather over the winter ruining the grounds.

We were supposed to start on the 18th August I think.

So, I've nothing to do. Haven't had any calls to do any matches in pre-season. I went to one the other day, ended 3-3, referee lost control of the match very early on. Was a learning experience for me just watching and identifying what issues were arising - I thought he got most decisions more or less correct, it was his game-management that let him down.

I was going to watch a match today but it's chucking down, so I'm staying indoors with a packet of crisps and a coffee and I'll take a rest day until tomorrow. :p
If he got the decisions right what was wrong with match control?
 
If he got the decisions right what was wrong with match control?

Most decisions...

His match management failed in my opinion because of several factors:

1. Inappropiate use of the whistle - he was often blowing twice for fouls and misused it enough that by half time players were starting to ignore his use of the whistle, which caused some issues when he needed to slow things down to talk to someone.

2. Wanted to explain every single decision, even the trivial ones like a goal kick. He would point at the player who the ball came off last and explain how that was why it was a goal kick. This ended up costing him control as his explanations started leading to the player(s) challenging him and excessive and visible dissent which he never clamped down on. - This eventually culminated in one player refusing to even go to him for a warning chat, the referee didn't follow it up but just got on with the game. @_@ (These two set the tone early on, but things ramped up as the game moved along)

3. Misjudged the mood of the match via the above issues with some of the more 50/50 decisions. At around 50 minutes in tempers were flaring and players were stepping up the roughness of the challenge. When he did make calls he was approaching the players with a smile on his face and was very wishy washy in his signals. This was, in my opinion, adding fuel to the fire as he needed to clamp down on tempers kicking off by being more sterner. I felt the players were taking from his expressions that he wasn't taking the game seriously.

An example of what eventually happened:

Blue went in for a very strong challenge against red, match was at tipping point here and my instinct was to blow the whistle and deal with the incident immediately. Referee made no call, red and blue ended up having a shoving match followed up by the rest of the teams joining in and separating the players.

The ref whistled twice. Walked over to the two players, pointed at them and asked them to follow him. He then blew the whistle again. Walked about five or six yards to an undisclosed location, his back was turned to the players, when he reached the spot that he had decided to 'meet' the players, he blew the whistle again and then promptly turned around to talk to the players, who had predictably not followed him and were up for a bit more fisticuffs.

In the process, because of the constant whistling, blue attempted a quick freekick (I have no idea why they got the freekick on this), so he had to blow to stop the freekick, blow again to get the players to him and then he explained at length his decision-making whilst cautioning them causing them both to basically unite in demonstrating dissent at the referee.

At that point he had lost all credibility and control of the match and dissent went through the roof, both on and off the pitch, and challenges escalated even more which wasn't helped by a disinclination to punish them with cautions. It was getting to the point that he would spot a foul, give it, and both teams would surround and walk with him whilst dishing out dissent. That was very unusual to see.

I supposed I should have said, his foul detection and in/out decisions was more or less okay, but his use of whistle, body language and everything else cost him control of the game. It made for a fiery game, but it was uncomfortable to watch for the referee if that makes sense?
 
I'm watching a kung-fu film not a game. Although I love watching games to hone my skills, I also love some martial arts and horror films. Have a great time everyone, whatever it is your doing.
 
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