My way or our way?

[whitehound]

Your opinion, gents:

Should you

A)Call a consistant but unwaivering game from the 1st to the 90th minute allowing the players a set guidance of what is a foul so that they can adjust to your style of officiating.

OR

B) Adjust your style to the players and taylor your game to them.

When is each style acceptable(if ever)

[Claymore]

Yes. You referee the game in front of you, as it is played. You maintain consistency in your calls.

It really depends on the age level. You could literally blow your whistle every two minutes in a U-17 boys match, but you can go an entire forty minutes of a girls U-14 match without ever having to think about it. You have to balance the LOTG against the necessity of "letting them play". It's more art than science.

[Caesar]

I find the best method for me is Ten Minute Refereeing. (http://www.carosi.freeserve.co.uk/corshamreferee/conflict.htm#10%20Minute%20Refereeing:) It's brilliant for keeping tense matches under control. Some people might see it as inconsistency, but I think the below quote is a good answer to that charge.

"Referees have to adjust the way they control the game in response to the way that the game is being played by the players. As the players 'heat up' during periods of the game, the Referee will need to amend or 'fine tune' the way they officiate accordingly. This is not being inconsistent... but merely changing the level of control in tandem with the players. The consistency is in the way that the Referee always manages to keep control, by bending with the flow of the game. Perhaps if the players played 'consistently' for 90 minutes and didn't 'rev it up' during periods of the game, Referees wouldn’t have to adjust their game!"

[HoldenMan]

B for me

[Gary V]

You must react to what is going on in the game. When a team comes from behind to tie it up with 5 minutes left, you need to realize that it will get intense, and you may have to call things a little tighter to keep everyone calm. There's many other such situations.

The style you adopt at the beginning of the game might not be the way the teams want to play. If you hear a lot of, "C'mon, let us play!", you know that your foul meter is set too low that day. If you're seeing a lot of dirty looks following things that you think are borderline, maybe you need to move the border.

[ref47]

consistency is the hobgobblin of little minds - particularly in soccer reffing.
i full agree that we modify calls as needed and also adjust to what is tolerated/expected by the players.

[dadman]

consistency is the hobgobblin of little minds - particularly in soccer reffing.
i full agree that we modify calls as needed and also adjust to what is tolerated/expected by the players.I would suggest that the above is what is meant by "good game management." I have a keen appreciation of a well-called game and fully expect the referee team to adjust to the flow of the game as much as the players do.

Keep up he good work, everybody. I'll go back to lurking now... :)

[ussoccr]

It all depends on your definition of consistency.

To me, consistency in refereeing is not calling the same foul a foul in the first minute, the thirty-third minute, or the 87th minute, regardless the circumstances. Consistency is treating each foul which occurs under the same (or similar) set of circumstances equally.

[Attacking Mid]

I think you need to adjust to the match, but it can be difficult to simply decide, "I'm going to start calling it tigher (or looser)" without seeming inconsistent.

Recently, I was centering a low/mid level (as far as competive travel soccer goes) U15B match in which play was (as typical of this gender & level) aggressive and fast-paced with a lot of borderline "stuff" generally attibutable to slightly lesser skill levels overall.

After discussing the first half with my AR's at halftime, I decided I needed to "tighten up" in the interest of avoiding an escalation of aggressive play. With the players awaiting my whistle for the 2nd half kickoff, I advised both teams of my intentions along with a request to play in control. It seemed to be well received, and the second half was better, IMHO.

That's probably not an orthodox method, but it worked well for me in that scenario. I felt it was fairer and more appropriate than had I simply started calling fouls in the second half on stuff I was letting go in the first.

Thoughts?

AM.

[Wa-Soc-Ref]

A)Call a consistant but unwaivering game from the 1st to the 90th minute allowing the players a set guidance of what is a foul so that they can adjust to your style of officiating.


B) Adjust your style to the players and taylor your game to them.

When is each style acceptable(if ever)

(a)
It goes without saying that you must adjust to type and level of play. Where I focus alot of my attention in the area of consistency is a specific act being a foul on both ends of the field. The negative banter I hear from players centers around the CR not establishing where the line is on hard agressive play. Consistency covers many areas, don't get me started on conditioning in the 90th minute compared to the 1st.

(b)
Last week I had probably the top player in the state at 17yo in a HS game. Because I had watched him from the line a few weeks earlier I knew there would be adjustments around HIS game. I made allowances for him to play through rough play, he seemed to feed off of it. It took verbal instruction and a few minutes for the other players to find the acceptable playing limits. This was widely accepted on the field. I had proper preparation for this player and how I was going to handle his expectations, coupled with thorough instruction for my AR's it was a very enjoyable game.

I don't think you can completely seperate the "types" of mastery you would impose on the game as described above. Each game requires different levels of application and interjection on our part. Your mastery is knowing when to apply each.

[BC_Ref]

Sounds like one game I was ARing at - higher level than I normally see (Cup game - middle rounds - U18. ) One team was one of the best in the "top" local division, while the other was a "travel" team - so definitely a mismatch. Very strong game - hard tackles, forceful challenges for headers and a significant amount of stuff I would typically call at the levels/age I handle. But these teams soaked it up (even more surprising given that the local team was basically happy even while losing, while the travel team was pretty damn surly - very different attitudes). Two yellows given out in a well controlled game.