We have a men's league that is largely, but not completely, Latino and all of their referees are Latino. A player from one of the non-Latino teams comes into the state office to complain. "The referees are prejudice against us. We're all Iraqis and they are saying something about Allah before the game, like they're mocking us, but we're all Christians." The officer manager gently told them that they weren't saying "Allah." They were saying "hola."
Last night I had a U14B D2 game. When I called a foul on the White team, the coach asked what the call was for. I replied "He kicked the players leg and the ball" to which the coach replied "You're telling me he can't do that?". I just smiled and jogged away.
how long did it take you to type this up?? Hard to imagine you can type and lay on the ground laughing at the same time...
U12 girls game. Red Coach is near the 2nd to last defender. Red team is attacking. His player is offside and yells "YOU ARE OFFSIDE GET BACK ONSIDE" as the ball is played to her. I raise my flag for offside, she was clearly off by a mile. Female parent behind says to someone that the ref wasn't going to call it if the coach didn't yell that.
Yeah, don't you love the help? I was AR1 on a HS game the other night. First through ball, the coach is right in my ear, "She's off! She's off!" On the ensuing indirect kick, I say "Please don't help me coach. My brain works from right to left, and it will backfire on you." "Uh, OK."
As AR, called handling on a keeper the other night at a HS game. Keeper points to a spot just inside the top of the arc and starts yelling, "this is where I punted the ball. right here." In actuality, he was about 2 yards beyond that. The referee did have a quiet word with the keeper about the whole PA and keeper using his hands thing! Gotta love HS soccer.
He hadn't really come that close before this and he was 6 yards beyond the PA line in front of the opponents bench, so straight to flag.
Last night's indoor coed league. One of the players slightly trips a defender from behind, I call the foul and he says: "Ohh com'n ref", and his teammate replys: "Hey its not his fault that he saw that." I got a kick out of that one.
Because this is probably merely the second of a long series of "The Things We Hear" threads, here's a link to the first. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/the-things-we-hear.1946070/
I'm coming off the field of a mildly contentious high school girls game with a boys game to follow, when among the general howling some fan decides to come up to the rail and loudly tell me that "you'll never work in [town full of idiots] again" (home team lost 5-0). Thank you for your opinion, and now Mr AD please escort this man out. What made it more irritating was that the players had no problem with the way I called the game, just the parents.
"That was 48 minutes!" Irate fan after the other side's boys come back to win 3-2 in the last minute of a highly contentious HS game for which we're keeping time on the field, the scoreboard clock having died an ugly death midway through the first half. And I'm thinking, well, with the three goals, four cautions, and several injuries, yeah, that sounds about right.
Indoor field, but nearly full size, outdoor rules, 3-man system, I'm in the middle. Field is lined for many sports including football and soccer. I call a foul, and spot the ball on one of the pointy ball 5 yard lines. Attacking team asks for ten. I have the wall step back to two 5 yard lines, as is marked by the football field. Mr Goofball defending coach (who's been a problem all morning) starts screaming that I "have to walk off the ten" because I've lined his girls up too far back. On a football field. With yards marked. Still not as good as a couple months ago at the same facility when I had a coach tell me "just because you put on the shirt and have a whistle doesn't mean you're the one in charge out here." (This was after he'd been cautioned for persistently arguing the stupidest stuff.) I wonder if he questions the police when he gets pulled over and tells them having a badge and a gun doesn't give them the authority to write him a ticket.
I had a coach yell that the other week. In my head I'm thinking "If I walk it off, you can bet that I'll be moving them back more."
Yesterday I am working a block of U-14 girls indoor. The league has a wide variety of skill levels in it. Goal is scored, and red is running back to position for the kick-off. Midfielder to the center forward --- "Get out of the circle, it's their kick-off" Forward -- "It is?" Midfielder -- "Yep, we scored" Evidently they did not have a lot of time to practice that scenario all that much this season....
In a girls Varsity game last week the coach was complaining when the referee made his girls go the full 10 pointy ball lines back on a free kick from the sideline. He kept yelling "That's more than 10, it's a hypotenuse, for God's sake!". As AR on his side I suggested the referee probably couldn't do the math in his head.
HS last year (LOTG not whatever rules the gym teacher decides to play with) and a defender with the ball under control and unchallenged turns around and passes it to his keeper who decides to pick it up right on the top of his goal area. I lean on the whistle and explain to the keeper that he can't touch it with his hands after its been passed to him by one of his own, at which point he begins to scream "It's indirect ref, that's indirect!!!" in my ear as my arm is straight up and his own team is on their goal line...
Men's open 3rd division game yesterday. We're seven minutes in and a player indicates that he wants his late arriving teammate to replace him. The teammate says "You want to step off now? Okay but it's going to take me, like, 20 minutes to warm up." The player stayed on.
I will actually do this with players. I will get the defenders back 10 yards. Inevitably there are complaints that it is "too far" and that I should "count it"? I usually reply along the lines of "are you reallllllly sure you want me to pace it, because I will make sure we have at least 10 yards?" I have only had one team take me up on my offer.... They didn't ask again
Not meant to call you (or the others who ascribe to this theory) out and I know we are talking about anecdotal things here, but I still am firmly in the camp that this "at least 10 yards" discussion is not supported within the LOTG. The requirement that the wall be at least ten yards is only to say that players aren't required to be 10-yards away if they don't want to. But we have defenders who want to be be lined up at exactly ten yards, the referee has no right to say otherwise. For us to set a wall back 11 or 12 yards as a supplement for managing players, punishing dissent or FRD is just plain unfair on our part and not allowable under the LOTG. I hate to be so extreme about it, but we hear so much about that one or two yards making the difference between a goal or no goal; why do we think it's okay to rob the defense but not okay to rob the attacking team? Ten is ten, period. As far as the "walking it out" part is concerned, I agree this is sometimes just dissent. You ask me to pace out ten yards at midfield and I'm going to give you a look and some sarcasm. But why do you think elite referees have a process* for stepping off ten yards when it's within scoring range? Because they want to be right. So, if an elite referee sees value in this approach, we might all consider putting that into our toolbox... *This doesn't mean taking ten, one-yard steps. I was always a fan of back pedaling after placing the ball. I knew approximately how many steps translated to 10-yards and it was a consistent approach I took on both ends of the pitch.