April 2011 – extricate.org

Spectator abuse

Offensive language in football is back in the news again, following Wayne Rooney facing a charge for it.

Following advice from assessors, I have tightened up on my ‘policing’ of this when refereeing. It doesn’t take much at ‘park level’. Telling the players prior to the game starting and pointing out it is a public park, with young children around, makes it an easy sell. With the game in progress, a sharp word as appropriate keeps it sorted, and the players will generally tell each other to cut it out!

Sometimes, I feel a team is relieved if it helps cut out the barracking they are receiving from their own goal-keeper!

The above helps assert the authority of the referee and also a sense of discipline, partly self-policed, from the players. Plus it makes it a much better environment for all.

What about spectators? I recently had cause to threaten my first ever match abandonment. Comments from the sidelines will always be there but certainly at ‘park level’ I am not tolerating personal abuse towards me or the players. A referee has no power to actually make a spectator leave but they can certainly abandon the game if they do not, and the corresponding club will be facing a charge as a result.

Like with dissent and language on the field of play, it is important to manage this sort of thing early, lest it become a free for all. In my case, the manager was excellent and resolved the situation immediately and the players understood why play was halted. Perhaps I should point out this was an under 16s game so a strong reason why action had to be taken!

Remember this?

Promotion Season: One month in…

I am going for a refereeing promotion this season. It is the first time I have been eligible (length of service requirements) and I am currently a level 7, with my eye fixed on a minimum of level 6 as my target.

Being promoted will allow me to officiate at a higher level of game, so the quality of football will increase as well as the refereeing challenges.

The promotion season runs from March 2011 until the end of February 2012, so we are currently one month in. I am racking up the games (A certain number must be refereed) so that won’t be a problem. I have also had two assessments which are a key factor in whether a candidate gets promoted or not.

The first assessment identified quite a few things that I needed to tighten up and I have been working solidly on these. By the time the second assessment came along I had really taken the previous advice on board and did much better and I received some very strong compliments! Naturally, advice for further improvement also featured so now I am working on those items.

Only a relatively small number of my games will be assessed so the marks from club officials also come into play. So I need to be please the teams I am refereeing to keep a trend of high marks.

There is a long way to go but the suggestions from assessments plus the advice from my colleagues and mentors is going a long way.

Assessors’ Handbook.

See you on the other side…

O Captain! My Captain!

The Respect campaign, courtesy of The FA, has been running for a while now. Most recently it has spawned Respect FC to continue buy-in from the public.

One of the edicts of the campaign is for Captains to be a focal point of their team in terms of interacting with the Referee. A key aspect here is that the Captain has no formal responsibilities in the Laws Of The Game but by working together it can really help with control of the match.

However, this really does depend on the just how good the Captain is. In general, I have found that there are two types:

Will lead by example. Will work with the referee to calm down members of their team as required. Will assist with communicating the referee’s preferences to the team.
Will have been nominated due to being the loudest member of the team. Most likely to criticise decisions they don’t agree with (loudly). Will be leading by example but the wrong sort of example! Leading the charge for the first caution of the game.

A strong captain is worth their weight in gold. If both teams are blessed in this way then a game will pretty much run itself!

Here is some general advice in handling captains in the best interests of the game:

Make contact before the coin toss. This doesn’t have to be much. Perhaps just ask who they are during the equipment inspection?
Get them involved when briefing the Club Assistant Referees. They can raise any queries plus it will help there be no surprises with the way you work with the Assistants.
Brief the teams on any expected behaviour during the equipment inspection. Explaining it just to the captains prior to the coin toss is okay but… When does the captain have the subsequent chance to tell their team? If everyone knows from the beginning what your views are then the captain will find it easier… and so will you!
Get the captain involved when disciplining as much as possible. They will be more likely to be able to calm down team-mates than you. Remember the stepped approach: This doesn’t just have to be when showing the cards!
Keep in touch with the captain during the game even when there is no misconduct. Are they doing a good job? Tell them! Thank them!
Captain not helping? Stop trying to get them involved. There’s only so much you can do.

I hope you find this useful and please do post any of your own advice with working with Captains in the best interest of having a great game!