Here it's the parents, having coached select/travel teams. In Holland, it's the 15-16 year old players. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...235b82-3d72-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html
The moms are a whole different level of threat in parking lots. I always waited until all of the vans had cleared before walking to my car.
My wife and I were coaching a varsity girls high school team a few years ago and one of the linesman/persons didn't show up. We waited. And waited. It was a fairly important game, teams were close in the standings, about 2/3 through the season and we were going for the girls team's first playoff spot in memory. Nobody could get him on the phone. They tried to get an alternate and none was available. After 30 minutes the opposing coach and ref came over and said that the father of one of the girls on the other team (their top scorer/best player) was accredited/licensed/etc and did boys games in the higher conference all the time and he was willing to step in to get the game started and step out if the other guy showed up. Because of the relationship to the girl on the other team (any girl for that matter), we refused. While we honestly didn't think there would be any nefarious decisions, we just didn't want anyone to be able to question it later. We felt that parents of our girls, or even girls on our team, would question our decision if there had been a crucial call during the game, and we thought it was better for them, better for him, and just better for everyone if he didn't do it. After about 45-50 minutes, somebody finally showed up and we got the game in. We tied 1-1, I think. And we did end up making the playoffs. We were criticized for making it out to be a World Cup game rather than a girls soccer game, but we felt that even the appearance of impropriety is not desirable.
I think you made the right call there - In a very different situation in a Rec League game, I decided it was OK to have the father of an opposing player Ref our game - This game had already been rescheduled, and it was late, and cold and windy, and everyone just wanted to play - AND he was accredited - I probably wouldn't have said OK if he wasn't because liability with injuries - But this was a Rec League game PS: Had you considered going with a Two Ref system? - I could see this for a regular season game, but maybe not a game with Playoff implications
Nobody suggested it. I have no idea if in that league all the officials have the same accreditation or if some can only be in the center, who knows. But to be honest, we had some really really horrible refs at some games, and handicapping them even more wouldn't have sounded good to me either. I'm very mild mannered and reserved, but I nearly got tossed from 2 games because of some of the bad calls. I wasn't being abusive or anything, but I was definitely speaking up forcibly. I remember one guy called a deliberate handball that was 3 yards into the box as a free kick outside the box. I lost it. There also was no warning or anything. My wife was amused because she almost never sees me that animated. We lodged like 6 official complaints one year.
While this example is extreme it is an example of how combative the Dutch are. I've spent some time there and my son's team has travelled there twice. It's routine for youth players to argue with their coaches during training. This past year we were using a Dutch keeper. He and the Dutch coach got in a shouting match over something pretty innocuous. the kid ended up walking out of training and never coming back after throwing a water bottle (I think it was) toward the coach. This kid was good too - recruited by Ajax but his parents were unable to get him to Amsterdam for training. Also look at the infighting at Ajax after they brought Cruijff back and the National team in the last world cup.