The worst match I've ever been involved with...

[intechpc]

...and no, it's not because things got out of hand. In fact quite the opposite. This weekend I was running center for a U18B Premier match. When I arrived at the field 30 minutes to game time, green is out warming up doing drills and such. The orange team on the other hand have only 3 players on their sideline sort of milling around while getting their gear on. Three more orange players showed up along with a coach. The coach tells me it's been like this all season, that they've only played one game with a full squad. While we're talking 2 more players show up, so they've got 8. Coach wants to know if they can play shortened halves. I told him I'd be ok doing that if the green coach agrees and that he'll have to talk to the green coach about it.

Well green coach decides no, we're going to play full 45's and I'm playing all 11 on the field. OK it's his right, I can't fault him for that but now I've got an orange team who are upset both at their teammates who didn't show up but also at the opposing coach for forcing a full 90 minute game. So their attitude toward the whole game stunk from the beginning.

We get the game rolling and early on orange is actually playing pretty stout defense. But then about 15 minutes in, a green attacker dribbles through most of the orange squad and puts a goal in the far upper 90, perfect shot. An orange player looks at me and says, "can you just call the game now". Of course I informed him I could not. 3 minutes later green scores again. Now orange doesn't even care anymore and the whole thing slows to a crawl. Blue starts playing like this is practice, forgoing open shots on the net to instead pass the ball back and setup a regular attack. Orange doesn't care whats going on and is more interested in how much time is left on my watch. Score at half is 5-0. At the start of the second half, I notice orange only has 7 on the field. I see the 8th sitting on the parents sideline and he says "I'll play from here", then gets up and returns to the field while we chuckled. Orange plays hard for about the first 10 minutes of the second half until green scores again. Now they're just ready to go home. Orange actually starts to clear the way to let green take shots on goal. Green shows a complete lack of skill and misses countless open nets and one on one situations. Good thing or the score would have been 20-0. I for my part was trying to get orange to put forth some effort, but as a referee there's not much I could do. Their coach was trying too but the guys just didn't care. The game was reduced to the climate of a friendly pickup game in the park with players joking around, committing obscenely flagrant fouls and all in all (thankfully) keeping good spirits about it.

This was THE slowest match I've ever been involved with. There were times where players at mid-field were standing with the ball at their feet for 10 seconds or better without being challenged. Not even the green team wanted to be out there anymore. I'd have felt like I'd stolen my game fees for this one except that I feel like they owe me and my crew for the pain we experienced having to sit through this disaster. The only justice was that in the second half I could see the green coach getting frustrated that his players were acting goofy on the field and were not being challenged and therefore were learning nothing from the game. Guess those 35 minute halves sounded like a pretty good idea to him at that point.

So out of curiosity, what do you guys do in this situation. There's not really much we can do is there? There's only so much that can be done to motivate the players. We can't end the match early or anything like that. So is there anything to do other than just grin and bear it and try to enjoy it. At least they kept it friendly. The only thing that could have made this worse was if it turned into a card fest.

[IASocFan]

I haven't been referee in this kind of match, but I've been a coach on both sides. When in that situation, we've loaned players to the short side to even up the teams a little. As long as it's kept friendly, it makes for a much better game. It also gives more playing time to the players from the bigger team - a win-win for that coach. You can score it as a forfeit if the wrong team wins. Most of the kids are out there to play soccer and not worry about league standings.

Legal - who cares! It was for the good of the game!

In this case, it might have been a good suggestion to the coaches at half-time. If the coaches aren't for it, they get what they deserve.

[swoot]

If only the orange team had suffered a few (2) incapacitating injuries. With only six players on the field you would have had to abandon the game.:D

[refmedic]

You can always remind the team that doesn't want to be there anymore that there must be 7 playersw per team, or the game is over. I have unfortunately been in this situation a handful of times as a referee, and once as a player (I was a referee at the time). WHen I was a player, I told the referee (who I knew well) that I was "injured" and couldn't continue. That made everyone happy when the match ended early. As a referee, I have only had one team not understand the "hint", and then when I dumbed it down for them, they got it, and shortly thereafter, the 7th player got "injured". It has saved me, my crew, and the players from suffering through 90 seemingly endless minutes.

[intechpc]

If only the orange team had suffered a few (2) incapacitating injuries. With only six players on the field you would have had to abandon the game.:D

Actually we did talk about it a couple times, they just never "took me up on the offer" so to speak.

The idea about the one team loaning players to another was something I had kinda hoped they might do but unfortunately the green coach seemed pretty intent on running it like a normal match. Once he was a stickler about the 45 minute halves, I didn't want to go to him with another suggestion for modifying the match.

[Ref Flunkie]

I'd still blow the whistle early once it became clear Orange had no interest in playing the match. Or take refmedic's route and suggest some injuries to occur. There is no need for that game to continue, especially when one team has no desire to be out there.

[IASocFan]

A looooooong water break on a hotttttt day after one of the goals might have been in order!

[jayhonk]

1) Timepiece malfunction (15 minutes into the 2nd half) is also an option I would consider.

2) Question: Do most refs tell the first coach to ask the second coach directly in these situations? I usually act as the intermediary and ask the opposing coach. Usually the requesting coach drifts over to confirm the arrangements.

Last time I recall, one coach asked for a big reduction in time (hot, Sunday, tournament, one or both teams not advancing). I think he asked to go from 35 to 20 minutes, 30 was agreed. Second half was 20 by mutual agreement, which made everyone, parents, players, coaches, refs very happy.

[Rufusabc]

I would consider yourself unbelievably lucky that a riot didnt break out. Having been involved in two matches recently where one team was short of players and both matches ended unhappily. One of the matches was actually won by the short handed team!

[akindc]

Defiantly would have gone with malfunctioning/overly fast stopwatch.

[DWickham]

Blow outs can be difficult to manage. If you have 17 year old boys joking around and playing for fun, you (and they) have done a terrific job dealing with frustration.

When the temperments are different, the referee can avoid the card and fight fest by draining the life out the remainder of the match by calling everything and making every restart from the exact blade of grass, which keeps the ball mostly out of play. (That's a really boring match.)

It helps to know the league rules of competition. Some provide that a match abandoned after one-half of play are considered full play. Some provide that a forfeit requires the payment of a fine. But, sometimes the best reminder to both coaches is that the words "I forfeit" result in a 1-0 score. While the coaches decide, the referee armed with this informatin can help guide their choices.

[FIFARay007]

I had a similar experience a few years back. U14 boys, home team has a full squad. The away team, who drove 1.5 hours to get to the game, only had 8. Coach seemed just as shocked as me that no one else had shown up.

I was pretty friendly with the home coach and we all agreed that shortened halves would be fine, so 30s it was.

About 10 minutes into the game, home team is winning 5-0. In the league there's a rule about scoring more than 6, so all they did was pass the ball around for the remainder of the half. Away team maybe touched the ball twice during that time.

At the half I go up to the away coach, who looks pretty dejected. He asked if there was anything we could do, cuz obviously his players were not having a good time at all. I suggested we could call the game final 5-0, and then the second half, he borrows some players and they play for fun. Both coaches agreed and the kids ended up having a great time, on both sides.

Got a few thank yous from the away team as well as some of the parents. Sometimes I think it's ok to bend or break the rules, especially if it's just a regular league game. I'd much rather see all the kids having a good time, than 1 team passing circles around another.

[Gary V]

... we've loaned players to the short side to even up the teams a little.

Legal - who cares! It was for the good of the game!Maybe, but essentially what you've done is change a league game into a scrimmage. Insurance coverage may have just gone out the window.

I was an AR on a game long ago that the center wondered why one of the teams was there. They didn't want to play, were always too tired, and to top it off the coach and her daughter must have had a major disagreement earlier in the day. Fun, fun. As I recall we simply bore it.

One thing you don't want to do in a game like that is add time to compensate for all the wastage!

Worse than a game where no one cares, is one where only one or two of the players care. They are frustrated by being beat, and mad at their teammates' attitude. Then they start lashing out, and the real fun begins. The best way to deal with that is to talk to the "good" team and ask them to let you deal with it - and then make sure you deal with it sufficiently, maybe even harshly.

[NHRef]

The entire ref team could "pull a hamstring", no refs, abandon the match.

[o5iiawah]

Law18..end it early.

Happened at disney, first match of the day, which got started 10 minutes late (we only had 15 mins between matches so this wasn't good)

Miami was beating some team from PA 7-0 with about 12 mins left and even though it was still 11v11 my CR called it. Both teams relieved..everyone happy.

[meyers]

Law18..end it early.

Happened at disney, first match of the day, which got started 10 minutes late (we only had 15 mins between matches so this wasn't good)

Miami was beating some team from PA 7-0 with about 12 mins left and even though it was still 11v11 my CR called it. Both teams relieved..everyone happy.

Had to (well didn't have to) end a game early once. U12 girls I think it was. The one team was completely outclassed (though did have enough players). Second half the better team had been instructed to not shoot from inside the box. (It was kinda funny, because he had put his defenders up top and when one of them would get excited at the thought of scoring and go driving into the box all the other girls would yell "you can't shoot from there". Didn't understand being subtle about holding the score down)

Anyway the poorer teams players started tiring from the heat and the chasing. About half way into the second half I glanced over at the sidelines and both coaches gave me the "slit throat" sign. I good enough for me, this one is over.

[Jasonma]

Had to (well didn't have to) end a game early once. U12 girls I think it was. The one team was completely outclassed (though did have enough players). Second half the better team had been instructed to not shoot from inside the box. (It was kinda funny, because he had put his defenders up top and when one of them would get excited at the thought of scoring and go driving into the box all the other girls would yell "you can't shoot from there". Didn't understand being subtle about holding the score down)


Reminds me of my sister's JV team. She played for one of the best high schools in the state so their JV team was significantly better than everyone in their league. They had "Reds" and "Golds" (school colors). When the coach felt like any more scoring would just be pouring it on he would call Reds which meant that the players could only shoot with their off foot. If that got out of hand he'd call Golds which meant only scoring off of headers. At one point a player got so excited she had a shot at her first goal and scored incorrectly, so by his own rules he subbed her immediately out of the game. The fans all knew what had happened and the girl felt bad, so after a few minutes on the bench the coach put her back in.

[intechpc]

To answer some things brought up in this thread. Regarding having the coach talk to the other coach. I don't see any reason why I should play intermediary. I mean I guess worst case scenario the two might have gotten in an argument over it and maybe a punch or two gets thrown, but that's a pretty extreme case (and besides I could then abandon the match right here :rolleyes: ). Seriously though I figured it was better for the coach to plead his case with the other coach than for me to try.

As far as calling the match early, no way. I have plans to upgrade to a state referee in the next year or two (depending on clinic availability). I remember a story about a local ref getting in pretty hot water with the league (and in turn the State referee committee) over ending a second half early a year or two ago. So that coupled with the fact that the coach had demanded his full 90, I didn't want to run the risk. Besides it was fun watching him squirm the second half with him knowing full well it was all his fault we were still there. Even his players were PO'ed with him.

Gary V, that is a good point about the insurance. I'm not sure what the situation would be. Technically if you've agreed on a final score, you've abandoned the match and anything that happens after that is not match related and therefore not covered.

Rufusabc, believe me the potential for this thing to get ugly was at the foremost of my mind. We even talked about it at half time as a crew that we had to be on the watch. Luckily for us, both teams were very good about the situation. There were one or two cases where the orange team got a little annoyed with green's tactics but I was very easily able to control that. Definitely the credit goes to the two teams for being good about trying to still have some fun out there.

[o5iiawah]

To answer some things brought up in this thread. Regarding having the coach talk to the other coach. I don't see any reason why I should play intermediary. I mean I guess worst case scenario the two might have gotten in an argument over it and maybe a punch or two gets thrown, but that's a pretty extreme case (and besides I could then abandon the match right here :rolleyes: ). Seriously though I figured it was better for the coach to plead his case with the other coach than for me to try.

As far as calling the match early, no way. I have plans to upgrade to a state referee in the next year or two (depending on clinic availability). I remember a story about a local ref getting in pretty hot water with the league (and in turn the State referee committee) over ending a second half early a year or two ago. So that coupled with the fact that the coach had demanded his full 90, I didn't want to run the risk. Besides it was fun watching him squirm the second half with him knowing full well it was all his fault we were still there. Even his players were PO'ed with him.

Gary V, that is a good point about the insurance. I'm not sure what the situation would be. Technically if you've agreed on a final score, you've abandoned the match and anything that happens after that is not match related and therefore not covered.

Rufusabc, believe me the potential for this thing to get ugly was at the foremost of my mind. We even talked about it at half time as a crew that we had to be on the watch. Luckily for us, both teams were very good about the situation. There were one or two cases where the orange team got a little annoyed with green's tactics but I was very easily able to control that. Definitely the credit goes to the two teams for being good about trying to still have some fun out there.


Remember though, as refs, we have to uphold the integrity of the game. If one team is toying with another or treating a team like a bunch of training ground dummies then i think the referee has every right to end the match. If nothing else, you could "suggest' to a coach during a water break that his players come up injured and unable to play.

Also bear in mind that a lot of leagues which use goal difference only count a maximum of +4 differential per game..so a coach has no advantage by playing the full 90 if he's already up 8-0 or something silly like that. If he really wants the full 90, suggest a friendly kickabout afterwards but I want no part of a game that is an absolute joke

[gildarkevin]

I have a saying along the lines of "nothing good ever happens after 2 am" that applies to reffing: "Nothing good ever happens after 3-0".

Once you get to a 4 goal lead, at best you're likely to get two teams running out the clock in an otherwise uneventful 2nd half. At worst, you get the bad tackles, misconduct and problems that aren't going to change the game for the better anyway.