Month: January 2011

Communicating decisions to those off the pitch

'This way, lads...'

“Ref, what was that for?!”

That’s a not uncommon cry from the sidelines when giving free kicks or getting the cards out. There a few things you can do to lessen it.

  • ESCALATION: If a caution is deserved for ongoing dissent or for repeatedly infringing the Laws of the game, it shouldn’t be a total surprise. It should have been clear to anyone watching (and especially the player!). A gentle word, a more public rebuke, stopping play to have a stronger word… all should have featured. In the sense of something more serious then naturally some of these can be skipped. In such cases it will be obvious to the sidelines anyway!
  • POINT: This is especially useful for Repeated Infringement. Point to the different areas of the pitch where the other infringements were. Count them! That way everyone is getting the idea. This stops the interpretation that you had let the other fouls go but are now seemingly penalising a ‘soft’ one.
  • COMING BACK FROM ADVANTAGE: There may be a caution-worthy challenge but advantage is played. Clearly you do need to sort the caution out afterwards but it could be around a minute before that happens. At the time of the foul, naturally call advantage but how about a, “I’m coming back to you, number six!” and point? It won’t be a surprise when you go back for a chat.

    • I’d welcome any of your own advice on how to make your thinking process clear to those that are standing some distance away…

Some county youth cup action

I was happy to be appointed to referee a Round 4 match of the Surrey FA U16s Youth Cup.

In the early rounds of county cups there can be some big skill mismatches between teams. I spotted a Round 2 game with a 23 – 0 result, for example. On paper, this match looked like one as well: AFC Wimbledon were against a side who were quite a few divisions lower down.

The match certainly did not start as expected: The ‘lower’ side scored in the first minute of the game. By the end of the first half it had ended up a 1-1 draw but hardly the one-sided affair that may have been predicted.

This changed in the second half. AFC Wimbledon truly came alive and the skill, speed and fitness of their players was obvious. It ended up 7-1 to them.

However, what impressed me was the attitude of both teams. It was a competitive game with everyone there just to get on with it. Only one caution for a blatant pull on the shirt. AFC Wimbledon’s opponents were outright winners in their own league yet they maintained their discipline during their ‘learning experience’ on the day.

The management teams were top notch as well. Leading by example. It is rare for a manager to come up to me and apologise for one of his players needing to be cautioned, but nice when it happens!

I had a good game. Main development point for myself was that I missed an offside flag which led up to a goal. The goal was correctly disallowed but naturally the attacking side were annoyed about the delay. Completely my fault and I kept a sharper eye out for the rest of the game!

Some other good youth news: I’ve been appointed to referee the U16s final of the NE Hants Youth League. Yay!

When a game goes right

I had an excellent game yesterday. It was one of those where everything just goes right.

It looked like a promising game from the beginning. The home side is one of the oldest football clubs in Surrey and so has a lot of tradition and is entrenched in the community. They also won the Sportsmanship and Assistant Referee trophies the previous season.

The club has a great setup and the pavilion bar was packed from the off. The vibe was right from the beginning. I was welcomed and in my changing room everything was ready (balls, flags…). Most of the time I have to chase these things which is an unwelcome distraction.

It also became apparent early on that many of the club officials were active or ex-referees! This was nerve wracking. However, it just made me more focused. Some games you are more aware of the eyes on you, such as the cup finals I did last year.

The game was excellent. Both sides there to play football and despite the 0-3 scoreline it was a very competitive game. It could easily have been 3-3. I had a good rapport with the players and managers and any dodgy tackles just needed words with the players to get them to calm down. It worked. One caution was needed for a deliberate pull back on the shirt (which was as blatant as these can possibly be) and it was accepted in good grace. Admittedly, the away side did try the “It’s his first one, ref!” trick but deep down they knew it was a mandatory caution. This was handy as in one of my games last week a player who did the same thing just didn’t understand why I could not let him get away with it!

The mood changed when I gave a penalty against the home side. It was a clear ‘freight train’ barge after the ball had gone. Yes, the away player made a meal of it but there was no way he was staying on his feet. The protests resulted in a dismissal for OFFINABUS (“You f*cking cheat”). Very surprising to see such a switch considering the tone of the game so far, so naturally I got to thinking, “Hmm, did I get that one wrong?”.

Thankfully, after the game the watching officials agreed that it was a definite penalty, and that their own player deserved to be dismissed! This was so refreshing. I’d have been more than happy to accept a difference of opinion but they agreed with me. This was a real boost to my confidence, as naturally in many games penalties are disputed until the end of time.

It just goes to show how clubs such as the home side stand out. Great facilities, people and attitude. An absolute credit to the game. I should point out that the sportsmanship of the away side was exemplary as well.

It’s a shame that this game was not assessed. However, the club marks should be high which is going to help.

A challenging weekend

It has been great to have a weekend with a decent amount of refereeing in it. So many of the games that I have been appointed to have been postponed in recent weeks. The latest weather reports do not make me very hopeful about this coming weekend either.

On Saturday, due to a glut of referees, I was seconded to a different open age league. It is the second time that has happened this season but also the second time with the league that I’ve had the pleasure of two teams there to play football!

There was really only one incident of note. Two players stumbled together as the ball went out for a throw-in. Some pretty minor handbags arose as a result so I told both of them to calm down. Unfortunately, one of them wanted to appear to be the ‘bigger man’ so as soon as the ball went to his opponent he deliberately clattered him. A no-nonsense caution right in front of his own technical area (who had no argument!).

Sunday proved to be more challenging, starting with Veterans in the morning. Within one minute I had not given a penalty that the away side were seeking (in my opinion, the attacker ran into the defender and was looking for it). Cue the complaints. In particular there was one player who would constantly moan when things went against his side, but amusingly would completely over-compliment me when he ‘won’ a free kick. In retrospect, I really should have cautioned for Dissent to cut this out early… the opposition commented, “Ignore him ref, he always does this!”.

Next up, I was following play when I head an altercation behind me, and turned to see a home player on the ground with an opponent standing over him. My instinct cried out that he had been struck. However, I can only give what I have seen! I explained the situation to both sides. The home side were happy enough (Several of them had no idea what had happened either).

One caution did come out of the game. Two players came together and were stumbling down but one lashed out a bit towards the other. Considering the earlier alleged strike it had to be cut out. That said, this being veterans Sunday football, nobody was happy that I was cautioning! “You don’t want to put the paperwork in, ref” was a typical comment. This is typical even of the most ‘nailed on’ caution at this level and perhaps exactly why I have been advised from senior referees to stop doing Sunday morning football if I am serious about promotion.

A clear penalty in the dying minutes nearly forced the game to be a draw… but the goalkeeper saved it.

On to my Sunday afternoon game. Under 18s. Most games that I have done at this age have been good with it being about the football. Sadly, although there was certainly skill evident, so was a certain amount of immaturity.

First caution was for a blatant pulling on the shirt to break up an attack. “It was my first one” was the expected reply. This was followed by cautions for: Not respecting the distance (Standing on the ball stopping the quick free kick), dissent, and delaying the restart (running off with the ball). Oh, and a studs high challenge. There would have been one for a Maradona-style handball into the goal but although I definitely saw an attacker do it, they were all in a mob so I couldn’t be sure which one!

There could have been a dismissal for abusing one of the club assistants but sadly the club assistant was aggravating the players. It would not have been fair to bin the player under those circumstances. A stern warning sufficed and of course I also spoke to the assistant to tell him to cut it out! The players were happy that I had been fair on that one.

It turned into a 4-0 result and as a result the winning side starting messing about and the defending side just couldn’t be bothered any more.

A challenging yet energetic weekend! It is all good practice for when the promotion aspects kick in come March…

Back in action

With the recent weather I have not been engaged in much refereeing action for about a month! The charity match for CHASE was good fun but either side many of my appointed games were called off due to frozen pitches.

As a result, it was good to actually have a game today!

I had no worries about fitness. Despite indulging over the holiday period I had got back into fitness training and was feeling good. No injuries kicking about either. This held up during the game as well including some opportunities to sprint when there was a sudden break by one of the teams.

However, this game was not a great one for me. Perhaps a key question is, “Would I have wanted to be assessed on this game?”. I don’t think so. This is an important question as I’ve applied for promotion and that process kicks off in March.

  • “PUSH IN THE BACK!” – It’s awkward to referee when one team is continuously complaining about this but the other team just wants to get on with it. It’s hard to keep the flow. It’s worse when a team can’t see the difference between charging for the ball when it is in playing distance and when it is still floating twenty feet in the air. This calmed down eventually though once I had put my stake in the ground.
  • WRONG PENALTY DECISION – I gave a penalty and it was wrong. Thankfully, a flagged offside had precedent which got me out of it. I know the penalty would have been wrong from the reaction of the attacking side when it was declined… they weren’t bothered!
  • DISTRACTED – Got distracted by which ball was going to be used to restart play after it had gone sailing out. Missed the restart then thought the team was restarting with a free kick instead of a throw-in, rather than the fact that throw-in had been taken and just gone to a player! Complete screw-up. Resolved but should never have happened.
  • HANDBAGS – Few confrontations sparked during this match. Nothing too serious but enough for me to stop play and have a word. No cautions required and in fact none were needed for anything else. A few sailed close to the wind for Dissent but a strong word sorted it. I should take this as a strong positive: No-one ended up smacked in the face nor was there a mass confrontation.

Perhaps I am being a little harsh on myself. Playing Advantage led to one of the goals and there were no errors which led to a change in the game. Home were 1-0 up until the last two minutes when Away banged in two goals to win. Nothing contentious!

It is also a good sign when players from both teams want to shake your hand… especially after one of those teams losing it within the last two minutes.

Plenty to learn from, especially with the promotion season approaching…