Better to isolate the coach without inviting him onto the field. The only time I allow a coach to enter the field is to attend to an injured player, and then I stay several yards away from the coach.
What if it is not safe to go near the sidelines? Hey, as long as the job gets done right. Whatever works.
I handle these situations in a similar manner...once they start jumping around and making a scene. I walk over and tell them "Coach, I don't mind if you tell me you disagree with me or think I was wrong. Sometimes you're probably right but if you tell EVERYBODY every time you think I was wrong I'm going to have to deal with it. Please don't wave your arms around, just TELL me you disagree with my call." Works most of the time. Your theory and mine are the same on when they get more leeway, too: If I think I might have been wrong, they get more rope than on a clear-cut no questions asked I know I didn't get it wrong type of call.
It was in jest. That being said, never put your stuff between two teams/parents when you are on a field in the middle of nowhere. Young and stupid I was. Scoreless draw that elimanted both from the playoffs it was. Happy were none.
Every league should have a well defined policy on how complaints about officials should be handled. In the past, most leagues had a printed form that was to be filled out and mailed in. Now most leagues have gone to a website or email address. Follow your league policy, mail in the printed form or use the internet to log your complaint. Do NOT confront the referee after the game. Confronting the referee after the game is usually the worst way to handle an officiating problem, especially if the officials are young. Usually it's coaches who can't control their emotions who insist on confronting officials right after the game is over. BTW, referees are under no obligation to give their name to anyone after a game is over. If the coach wants to file a complaint, he can state the date, time, and location of the game. With that information, the league can figure out who the officials were that worked that game.
My 13 year old son played in an end-of-season BU14 tournament game for the local AYSO last Saturday. The center is the current commissioner with whom I have worked as a coach when he was the Director for BU12. He's a nice, well-meaning guy with minimal soccer knowledge and experience (never played, never refereed anything but AYSO). Before the match, the coach for my son's team asks me if players can be cautioned for not having their shirts tucked in. I'm a bit puzzled by the question. I stated that as I read the LOTG, a referee can ask a player to leave the field to correct their equipment and allow play to continue but I can't imagine a situation where an untucked shirt would qualify for a caution (unsporting behavior?, simulating?). I asked why he brought up the question and was told the center had announced his willingness to caution for this "infraction" to my son's team during pregame. Immediately upon the beginning of the match, 4 members of the opposing team untucked their shirts. Not a word was spoken. During the course of the match, fair charges were called fouls while kicking was permitted. Never was there any indication of advantage being played either verbally or through the extension of arms. My son was the victim of a sliding tackle from the side/behind where there was no contact with the ball. You could hear the crack of shinguards clashing from 20 yards away. He was clearly thrown off stride and, on his next touch, lost control of the ball. My son is a big kid and did not go to ground on the foul. The ARs were the center's wife and daughter. The daughter was the AR on the end of the field from which I was spectating. She did not signal a single offside. There were a number of obvious offside offenses both by and against our team. There were perhaps a dozen incidents of players being ordered to step a yard or two up or down the touch because they were not executing the throw in from where the ball left the field (these directions were often inaccurate regarding the location). Hard to say if the quality of the refereeing effected the outcome of the match. My son's team played extremely poorly (they had won the "regular" season and already qualified for area playoffs) and lost on penalties. The players clearly were confused and the game often lacked fluidity due to "trifling" corrections on common restarts. I haven't said anything to anyone about the refereeing (other than agreeing with my son that there seemed to be a lot of kicking-type fouls not called after looking at his black and blue shins). Suggestions? Opinions?
CDM76, At first glance, it looks like your center ref/RC fellow is underqualified to CR for U14 matches. In our Region, on paper one needs to be Advanced (aka Section); in practice, ambituous Intermediates (aka Area) do a lot of U14 games. (It's a practical matter -- we've got over 3600 players & not nearly enough refs.) The unfortunate reality is that since everyone staffing AYSO at the Regional level is a volunteer, you get what you get. I'm assuming you do your part in officiating matches, too. Without filing any official complaint with the Region, can you at least bring up the issue to your Regional Referee Administrator and your Regional Director of Referee Instruction? You can't change the past, of course, but perhaps let your regional staff learn from it. I share your frustration. I bust my butt to be the best ref I can, work 6-7 games nearly every weekend, & have a hard time coping at my son's game, when some ill-dressed guy tries to call the game, utterly hopeless in positioning, inconsistent in calling fouls, & letting coaches run him ragged. At some level, I feel sorry for the fellow. At another level, I'm furious this is what we get. The bottom line for me in AYSO is that the money we save by supporting an all-volunteer organization must be made up for in tolerance. Perhaps this unfortunate situation is an opportunity for a life lesson you can provide to your son. What could be more precious than that? Be well, Sandcrab
I agree with Campton here. Although it is always tempting to say something clever, sarcastic, or whatever, it won't help. Stay professional, talk to the coach when necessary (not extensively), and then, if you must, take further action. Occasionally, I'll briefly explain calls on the field--a good example is when an attacker is offside relative to the nearest defender, but is kept onside by a defender farther (further?) away. When the agitated close defender says "He was offside," I'll say something quick, such as "Your left back played him on" or somesuch. But these are quick explanations--I won't debate the call or let emerging dissent go on and on. Similar on some handling calls--everyone jumps up and down, I might say "Trivial--it didn't affect play" or something else. But short and purely informative. Maybe they'll learn something...
And these responses are exactly how I believe it should be called (whether I'm coaching or refereeing). As a ref, I don't have a problem explaining a call if the opportunity presents itself - though preferably it's the way you mention... keep it short, keep it informative. Don't allow it to be a debate. Say what you saw or why you called it in a short sentence or two if it needs. But do not stop what you are doing, and do not give them an opening for rebuttal. Players and Coaches know a referee isn't going to be perfect. Their problem is if they think you didn't see something. If you tell them what you saw or why it was called, they normally back off. It doesn't mean they agree with you, but at least they know you had a reason. Much easier to complain if you think the referee "missed" it completely.
Excellent. For a ref, this is the heart of the matter--they need to know you saw it, and made a decision. They still may argue it, but Wahoo makes the key point here--communication (brief, to the point, play usually continues) informs them that you saw the play in question. This is a big issue for match control, especially at more competitive levels.
This can be verbal or even non-verbal. In a recent match, I was AR and a ball was played through into my end. Defender turned, thought it was offside (it wasn't), raised his hand and looked at me. I had to go with the play, but as I took off I looked the defender in the eye and pointed to him--he was the one who had kept the attacker onside. The message was delivered, and there were no complaints about the non-call. macheath and Wahoo make a key point: it is much easier to manage a game (much of the time) if players know you saw it but judged differently than they would have versus having them think you didn't see it at all.
This doesn't always work. I find that many times, the coach/player already has decided you screwed up and it doesn't matter what you say -- nothing you say will make them feel better and often times, saying ANYTHING makes it worse.
But notice he wasn't "SAYING" anything. I think that was the point of the importance of non-verbal communication.... Also, if briefly explaining the call occurs, and it makes it worse, you have many more problems on th field. My Match control ( 1000+ games over 10 years in local, state, regions, tourneys, cups, ect.) has failed rarely. Explaining the call doesn't cause loss of control. Failure to communicate effectivle losses control. Poor foul recognition losses control. Poor positioning loses control. Not "briefly" communicating a call... I know the level of games you do, bluedevils, similar to mine, but still I don't think there are times when saying "ANYTHING" makes it worse... maybe I need more experience... ANR
I've had plenty of situations where I made the mistake of saying something and it blew up in my face and I'm pretty confident things would have been smoother if I hadn't said anything at all. Was there SOMETHING I could have said that would have made things better in some of these situations? Perhaps in some of them, but I don't know what it was. And not in others -- better off to keep mouth shut. Did a game a year or two ago. I call a PK for a push in the back while the throw-in was coming to the player's head. I get the coach 'innocently' asking what the player did. I foolishly thought the coach really didn't know what the player did, since the coach's position was not very good to see the infringement. I say maybe 5 words and then the coach goes off -- you've been waiting all game to call something like that, blah blahl blah. Looking back...the coach knew damn well what the player did! She was just trying to bait me into something so she could justify additional and more aggressive and insulting dissent. I gave a short 'communication' and it blew up in my face.