Dealing with a melee

[HeadHunter]

I generally don't like to post stories on here, but for the first time in my career (7+ years) I was forced to abandon a match because of player behavior. I thought it might be worthwhile to retell the story on here and ask for feedback 1) as to whether there was anything I could have done to avoid the event and 2) On my actions once the melee began.

Background:

I have just moved over to London and had my certifactions transfer. I have begun working as an AR on supply league matches and Sunday adult matches where you work as a solo center. This past weekend was my first set of matches over here. Sunday, I refereed yellow v. red as a solo center.

First Half: There a some issues, but nothing severe. Red is outplaying yellow and takes a 2-0 lead into halftime. There have been many shouts for offside which I have only given the few times I was certain of the call and one hard foul by a yellow player where I considered a YC but settled for a word with the player involved. Also, there was an odd incident where a yellow spectator started jawing with a red player- which I broke up.

Second Half: Starts as the first half, but 10 minutes into the half I have my first incident. Yellow and red are challenging side by side in the center circle for a ball. The bang with each other, but not enough to call a foul and red wins possession. As red begins to carry the ball upfield, yellow lashes out and kicks red accross the back of the legs. Once red is down, yellow yellow (over my whistle) " you f*ing c**t". There is the standard scrum that you would be expect and after calming it down, I send the yellow player off for VC. Ten minutes later I have my second odd incident. Yellow has a clear shot on goal after a corner and a red player punches the ball out as it is clearly heading into the goal. I send him off for DOGSO-H, award the penalty and have no complaints from anyone.

The Melee: Two minutes before the end of the match, red plays a long ball into the area. Yellow keeper comes sliding out and manages to pull the ball into his arms. A red player gets there late (late enough that he could/should have pulled up) and kicks the keeper across his face. I'm maybe 8 -12 yards behind the play and I come running in hammering my whistle for all its worth. I manage to seperate the red player from a yellow defender who is yelling at him and bring him a little way from the scene. I then have to turn and deal with a couple of red and yellow players who are shoving and posturing. I turn back to the red player to show red for SFP and as my hand is in my pocket, the yellow player who I had sent off for VC has come running from the far sideline and punches the red player in the face.

This reignites a volatile situation. I try for several seconds to calm things down by blowing on my whistle and using my presence (I was already stuck in the middle anyway) but have no effect. I was then partially hit by a punch aimed at someone else whereupon I chose to retreat several paces from the scene. I then tried to write down as many numbers of players that I could while blowing on my whistle in vain.

When the energy had died off and those players (from both teams) who had been trying to seperate their teammates had been successful I announced that the game was abandoned. Even had I not abandoned the match I had enough numbers to whom I could have shown a redcard that the game would have ended anyway.

I reported the facts immediately to the league assignor and I will as soon as I work out the exact paperwork needed send it off to the county association (I have intructions on how to do this, just haven't had a chance to do so)

In looking over what I did, I see three things I could have done differently.

1) Made the player I ejected go much further away from the field. Had I been in the states, I would have done so. However, I was uncertain as to what the accepted protocol was hear and I chose to not force the issue when I was uncertain that I was in the right.

2) I could have been much faster with my red card. Had I shown it sooner rather than trying to seperate players and bring the offending red player to one side it might have been seen as sufficient punishment such that the yellow player would not have thrown the punch.

3) Once the melee escalated I ought to have gotten out sooner. (Not really sure if this was practical, but ideally I should have not even tried to stop things when they were at that level).

My apologies for the long post, but I would appreciate your thoughts on all this.

[Doug the Ref]

HH, sorry to hear about your melee. Having been involved in these a few times in my career, (games as a player, referee for indoor match, ref & AR for men's and woman's college) I have a sense of your frustration. I beat myself up repeatedly for what I could have done to prevent this from hapening. I found, as you did, some relatively minor things. I am convinced, however, that sometimes, shit happens. It may or may not have anything to do with our officiating, but rather usually the burden falls almost entirely on the players. We as referees still try to learn from it and prevent it from happening again, then out of the blue, it all blows up and we question ourselves all over again. Good luck to you in your reports and continued self evaluation.

[DWickham]

Your three lessons learned (unfortunately) are a good self-analysis. You lived the reason that FIFA (not just the US) calls for the sent off player to leave sight and sound of the playing field. The person has already demonstrated an inability for self-control.

The red card can do more than inform a player that he or she has been sent off. If you have it out early and visible, it tells players that you WILL be sending someone off. It is also provides a thought for those about to do something: "Is it worth getting sent off?" Some players will choose wisely.

[njref]

"Freezing the benches" is taught as a referee technique for another sport that I referee.

One reason to have the senior AR on the team side is that the AR can really help you by "freezing" the benches. In other words, the AR has to get right out on the field and stop anyone from entering the field from the bench. As bad as things can get with 22 players out there, they will be much worse if the benches empty. A good AR can hopefully "freeze" the benches by getting in front of the benches and commanding them to stay where they are. In a dual system, one referee should freeze the benches first thing.

Bench players are more likely to start fights, and bench players entering the field is a major escalation on par with deploying nuclear weapons.

[NHRef]

Hindsight being perfect and all, you hit the high points, the biggie was the red carded player still being around, he should have been gone.

One other thing, when I do adult games alone, I tend to call them tighter than normal and often times a bit quicker with a yellow than normal. You mention a couple of incidents, one where you chose not to caution, maybe a caution would have helped there, and the play leading to the red, maybe since they where banging pretty good, a call would have helped.

All that said, you where there and any of the above could have also back-fired, you have to judge as you go by the reactions and styles of the players.

[HeadHunter]

Hindsight being perfect and all, you hit the high points, the biggie was the red carded player still being around, he should have been gone.



100% agree, but the understanding I had was that this was not the standard procedure over here. I will need to check on that with the league or perhaps if one of the English refs we have on the forum could weigh in on what would be the expected procedure in this case and for this level (Sunday adult football).

[IASocFan]

"Freezing the benches" is taught as a referee technique for another sport that I referee.

One reason to have the senior AR on the team side is that the AR can really help you by "freezing" the benches. ...


Another reason to have ARs!!!

Sounds like you did what you could - except for the out of sight/out of sound for the Red Card recipient.

It's tough when adult players act like out of control teenagers.

[JeffG]

...I will need to check on that with the league or perhaps if one of the English refs we have on the forum could weigh in on what would be the expected procedure in this case and for this level (Sunday adult football).
You could contact The FatRef (http://www.refwrites.blogspot.com/)

[refontherun]

You could contact The FatRef (http://www.refwrites.blogspot.com/)

Sometime you can look back and give yourself specific things that happened during a match that could have changed the course of the ultimate result. Other times, one moment the game is going fine and the next moment you have a brawl on your hands.

I had such a game. Everything was fine. One player threw an elbow that caught an opponent above the eye and cut him pretty badly. The violator was sent-off immediately, and being escorted to the parking lot when everything went nuts. You just never know.

[boylanj64]

It sounds like you did everything right. One thing I consider if I feel a match goes poorly is what the warning signs were throughout the match that could have warned me.

I don't think you need to beat yourself up over the hesitation before showing red. You'd already sent off two, they certainly knew you were willing to do so, and it's good to channel the player away from hostilities. As for the player being too close to the field, when you're by yourself it can be difficult to keep track of things like that.