I am privileged to have been appointed as referee in the main cup final for the Sunday league in which I officiate. It looks to be a challenging game by all accounts: The finalists ended up #1 and #2 in the top division. Thankfully I am to be provided with neutral assistants.
In addition, I am acting as Assistant in another league’s U17 cup final and that in conjunction with my recent county cup quarter an semi appointments means I must be doing SOMETHING right!
By some coincidence, I had two games today: One Sunday league, one U17s. Clear blue skies and the sun beating down meant it was going to be a challenging one from a stamina perspective as well.
The Sunday league game was a little niggly. I’ve had the home side quite a few times this season (“Doesn’t this league have any other refs nowadays?”) and the game ended 2-3 with the deciding goal coming in the final play of the game.
This brings us to the title of this blog entry. Sometimes with this level the players REALLY don’t expect any cautions to be issued and you can get comments like that one along with, “It’s just Sunday morning football”. This is something I don’t ascribe too. The problem is, if you start ‘bending’ (Or let’s be honest here: Blatantly disregarding) Law in this way you are being inconsistent from the very start. I do strongly believe in man management to handle problems but these are more for cutting off dissent and flashpoints between teams.
As an example there was a clear deliberate handball by a defender in the area. No-one disputed the penalty. This was also an absolutely clear caution for me. However, because of the players’ expectations as described above this did damage my match control a little. No such argument with a caution for some ‘afters’ following a challenge later in the game, however. In retrospect I still feel I was in the right for both of those: Players can’t pick and choose which Laws apply and neither should the referee!
Amusingly, I had the comment “This isn’t Sunday football” during the U17s game so let’s talk about that one now…
At this point the sun was at its peak and I was feeling it. I had already grabbed my emergency water from the car and the home team also provided me with some but I was having to dig very deep. It is great how you see a friendly face wherever you go though: One of the players was a fellow assistant referee on a supply league game recently. Great guy with a great attitude. He was also very honest and stated how his team had one of the worst disciplinary records in the league, complete with a recent game being abandoned! Hey, I love a challenge.
The game itself was excellent and reminded me why I love refereeing this age group: The skill level and attitude is typically very good indeed. There were three cautions in this one (Two for tackles, one for aggressive behaviour when retaliating) but all were accepted in good grace. I felt it demonstrated my tolerance level early on with the first two cautions as they came at the same time (tackle then retaliation)… I was thinking at the time, “Yeaaaah, nailed-on match control!”. I’m a little sad like that.
You see, the players at this level accept that the Laws have to be applied so there is no arguing with a card when they know a tackle is dodgy, or if they have just shoved an opponent (I still don’t understand the “This isn’t Sunday league” comment). This is normally when the managers and supporters (parents, girlfriends!) are encouraging a good spirit and you typically do not get that same support network with Sunday league adults.
I am learning to be ‘firm yet fair’ with cautions. The players may need a little educating in some leagues to fully accept them but I must keep up the self-confidence to issue them rather than back down in order to appear to be a nice guy. The youth games really help me realise when my approach is ultimately the right one: It’s a great training ground for open age.