I was doing a pretty high level HS match last spring. The game was already on the edge. There was a probable red card incident that happened early in the match that, between bad angles and bad lighting, both my partner and I had missed (two man ). That's probably what set the whole thing off. I had already given several cards when home team is awarded a free kick at about twenty-five out. It was a one point game, and we were in the closing few minutes. An away player walks past the ball, stops about five yards away, and starts directing traffic in front of the goal. I was trail, but I saw it coming. The yellow card jumped out of my pocket. I actually had a player comment, "thanks for doing your job tonight." And he was sincere.
I got my D level coaching license before becoming a referee. We were taught to have our kids do that stuff as being good coaching. Don't feel bad about giving a caution to a U-12 for doing it, because his/her coach is the one who put them up to it.
You are correct, but, if the referee was too clueless to recognize what was going on, he's also unlikely to know the correct reason for a caution.
No, watching the pros get away with it is enough. There are still guys doing it, with success, in my 40+ coed league.
At the coin toss before a U16 Girls game. Team is in white and one of the keepers(they have two) is in grey and they have two captains. Me-"do you mind asking your keeper to change out of grey if she has another jersey? It's just too similar." Captain 1 "which one?" "ummm....the one in grey?" Captain 2 (to her teammate) "hahaha, wow you're dumb"
GU12 game, the striker makes no fewer than four attempts to kick the ball away from the keeper who is on the ground trying to get her hands on it. The keeper all but had the ball covered with her body, and it looks like she even got her hands on it, but the striker's relentless kicks keep causing her to fumble. It's pretty brutal—there's no way the striker didn't get in a hit or two on the keeper at this point. After I blow the whistle and am reaching for my yellow card, the striker looks at me and says “It was a loose ball!” This all happened way outside the goal area and right next to the goal line, so I'm not even sure what the striker was hoping to accomplish. Even if she'd succeeded in kicking the ball free, it would have just gone out for… a goal kick.
Two from this weekend. One. AR on a U-17 boys game on the parents side. I give a penalty. It's pretty clear, the guy being fouled pretty much gets choked - he's being pushed to the ground and held from behind and eventually just grabbed by the neck. Anyway, that's close to the opposite corner of where the coach is - other side of the field, close to me, with their backs to the benches. Coach has seen absolutely nothing. He goes ballistic. So mad about this call. Starts screaming: "This isn't rec league soccer go back there" and then "this isn't U-10 soccer let them play" After the game this same coach comes to argue and as he's arguing and the referee tells him to just quit it, a parent walking by to the other side of the field says "he has a right to discussion.. he's a college coach so he knows what he's doing." I was so close to coming up with a cheeky remark to the effect of "maybe he should take classes in the laws of the game at that college then" but I bit my tongue and said nothing. Smart decision most likely too. Another one - the same game - a parent going ballistic about not calling offside when a player was in an offside position and not active. It's a long ball to the player who is offside but it's too far and goes untouched to the goalkeeper, neither he nor his striking partner who is also offside move to the ball and all of a sudden I hear "C'MON THEY WERE BOTH OFFSIDE THE BALL SHOULD BE WAY UP HERE ON THE LINE FOR A FREE KICK JESUS HOW DO YOU NOT SEE AN OFFSIDE LIKE THIS"