Well, it finally happened...I've moved from being a soccer ref to a soccer dad, watching games from the sideline as my son played in his first tournament. After seeing four different adult refs at the U9 level, it was fascinating to hear firsthand how the parents responded to the reffing, and how incredibly hard it was for me, someone who should certainly know better, not to yell along with them at times. I know that most people on this forum are older and more experienced, but if you're just starting out, here are some things you should know: 1) It's vital to look the part. Three of the refs looked slovenly...mismatched socks, un-tucked shirts, etc,. two wore jackets throughout the game on a not that cold day. Parents were pointing this out to each other before the games started, and the refs had already lost their respect before the first whistle. 2) Make an obvious effort. Two of the refs were center circlers, never leaving the middle. One stood near one touch line and paced back and forth a bit. They might have been the best refs in the world (they weren't) and all of their calls could have been perfect (they weren't) but you simple can't sell a call when you're half a field away. 3) Be decisive and signal immediately. I can't tell you how many times the refs simply blew their whistle and did nothing else, assuming everyone knew what the call was. And if they did point, it was often slow and unconvincing. Make sure your corner kick and goal kick signals are obviously different as well. If you look indecisive, the parents pick up on it immediately and are more likely to complain during the game. As for the fourth ref, his uniform was in perfect order, he was close to every play, blew his whistle and signaled decisively, and he was clearly treating the U9 game like it was the World Cup Finals. His calls were no better than the other three, but I don't think I heard one complaint from the sidelines...he acted like he respected the game, and the parents treated him accordingly. I know most of this is pretty basic, and is taught in every ref clinic...but obviously it needs to be reinforced as much as possible.
It's all about perception. a little bit of effort goes along way. I completely and totally agree with everything you said. Hopefully we can all take a little something from your experience and apply it to our own games in the future
Those are all thins we emphasize when we teach our new volunteer refs.. and especially the first is so completely in control of the ref and takes very little effort - only caring. (I heard a baseball umpire say that looking like an umpire can get you through the first 3 innings, and acting like an umpire (your 2 & 3), can get you through the next three. So if you do those easy things, you only have to worry about the last three innings.) I think I can tell how seriously a person is taking the class just from their facial expressions when we talk about looking and acting like a ref. (With AYSO intro classes, we have a wide spectrum - from those who are excited to be there to those who are there because they finally, begrudgingly agreed after three weeks of the coach begging for volunteers so the team can meet it's commitments. . . .)
I've told newer refs that adults get 5 minutes where the teams assume they might know what they're doing. After 5 minutes, it depends on what they did. Youth don't get the 5 minutes - they are assumed to be incompetent until proven otherwise. And if you don't look the part, it's harder to display the proof of competence.
I do a wide range of matches. At tournaments now, I prefer to do ONLY the u-littles. First, I'll be 62 next month, and although I CAN do a set of matches at older ages, I do like to be able to get out of my car when I get home. That being said, here's my reaction to the OP. Find the assignor's email address and give him the same discription you gave us. It will help. And it will also make you feel better. There is a reason those guys are working U9 because at any other age group it would be a disaster. It's only a mild catastrophe at U9. Columbus Day weekend tournaments are the biggest tournament days of the fall. I emailed my assignor Thursday and asked if he needed help. Boy, did he ever. It was a massive tournament at 3 distinct locations and some of the referees described here were pressed into action. I enjoy doing the little ones. However, it doesn't mean it's a walk in the park. I did 4 consecutive 50 minute matches. The last one featured an overbearing coach (paid trainer) who had taught his team the statue, the pick up of the ball out over the touchline first, the scream of "double touch" by a goalkeeper who dropped his loose fitting glove, then put the ball on the ground, then put the glove back on, then picked up the ball, and lastly in the final minute with his team winning 6-2, demanded that I give his opponent only 8 yards instead of 10 for a free kick. The coach had been confused because my pace of 8 yards is 10 steps. When the game ended, I calmly called the coach to the halfway line, and I had a not so nice one way chat with him about his demeanor. I told him he was extremely lucky that I had not tossed his butt from the game which would have him barred from attending the next day. So, think of these clowns when you look at the poor schmucks doing U9. Oh, did I mention it was raining during all 4 of those games?
The last time I was in NY, almost the entire crew on a nearby field was officiating an ECNL game without their badges (who knows if they're even certified for this season) including AR's with jackets on and Under Armour beneath their short sleeve jerseys but the fans were still well behaved and comments from the sideline pretty much to a minimum (unfortunately, the attire is the norm for that site). You can assign referees from PRO and it would hardly make a difference about the comments from the coaches or parents at this age group on these types of tournaments. It's a no-win situation since you have cranky folks who woke up early for an 8:00 am. match and drove quite a distance or have a late afternoon match with a crew doing their 6th game of the day and are spent physically and mentally. In NJ, emails were going out to the last minute to fill matches. The assignors know what's going on, but they need to put a body at these matches. Almost all tournaments out there pay poorly, so this is what you get.
How important is good officiating, really, to the parents? Ultimately, they are paying the bills for this soccer stuff and that includes us. Supply and demand. People think I'm Uncle Scrooge or something when I point out that paying more would get more referees and better referees to do the games in the league/tournament that is complaining about the numbers and quality. They seem to think that, no matter what the pay is, there is an infinite potential supply out there.
Good officiating by whose standards? Many parents wouldn't know if it was Mark Geiger out there. I've had U10 parents gripe so much over throw ins, I finally pointed out that their comments is what makes referees not want to do their games. So instead of three fast teenagers, they get me, one old fat guy.
Officiating is just like being a neurosurgeon. You're expected to start out perfect and show steady improvement from there. But, as much as parents complain about the calls that aren't going their team's way, they don't seem to be willing to pay for better referees and more of them. Now, of course, they don't really appreciate the difference that having three instead of one makes or the presumably higher accuracy that a better referee gives the game, even if they don't get to 100% correct in the opinion of everyone present at the game. I don't mean "don't appreciate" in the sense that they are ungrateful but rather than they don't notice what they are missing or what would make things better. It's just like the parents who get their kid on a competitive team and then complain that the team isn't winning. Maybe the problem is that your kid is starting! I had an e-mail last week from a parent of a high school player. The dad asked if a parent could make a complaint about the officials they had on their game two days ago. He then launched into how these guys were, in his opinion, so bad that they should be banned from ever refereeing again. "Ever refereeing again." I wanted to ask him if people who get fired at work also get banned from ever working again. And there really isn't some "other" group of referees out there to do his kid's school's team's games when those three officials can't anymore. I confined myself to just telling him no, parents don't get to file complaints about officials. The schools hire the officials (directly or indirectly), so, if he has a problem, he needs to talk to the school's athletic director. Yeah, we'll see how that works for him.
In regards to supply and demand, there can be two levels to getting new refs. If you pay better, you will fill more of the games. Our adult league around here raised the rates for the ARs from $30 to $40, and behold, all the AR slots were filled. Of course, that meant that some other league probably was short a few referees. But that's where having a good development program is necessary. A program the supports young refs and new refs to be successful and to stick with the job. Too often it seems we through new grade 8s into the world and just expect them to be successful, as if the struggle will weed out the good and the bad. That doesn't cut it.
Two thoughts. (1) And I may have posted before, at my son's High School at the preseason parent meeting (for both hoops and soccer), the AD essentially said "yeah, we get bad refs, but be quiet. The reason we can't get better refs is they don't get paid much and get fed up with the abuse. As long as we keep chasing them away, they won't get better." (2) I think sometimes experienced refs get grief in low level games because (A) coaches are used to being able to abuse /control the referees and (B) certain incorrect calls get made regularly enough that coaches/parents think they are right -- and are bewildered when the actual right call is made (especially as to things like handling and OS).
I just found out about this for the Houston area in an effort to improve referee coverage. I would say that it works because even the U-11 and U-12 usually have 2 certified referees. In theory this means that 80% of the minimum slots (3 for U15+ & 1 for U-14 and down) are covered by refs that are associated with a club.
It's not the parent's who are deciding if the referee fees should go up for these mid-level and lower-level tournaments. I have friends who vent about how refs missed the easiest calls at their tourney and suddenly the ones they see in State Cup play aren't so bad after all. These parents are already spending thousands on fees to play year-round, hotel fees, personal trainers, etc, so I don't think they'd go ape to spruce up a few more bucks for ref fees going up. The sponsors of these events low-ball refs because they can. A very high percentage of the teams return the following year. For the one's that don't, poor reffing is usually not on the top of the list, as much as we'd like to think it is. If the clubs are happy with the competition, playing facilities, organization, etc, they'll usually be back. The missed fouls in a one goal loss a year later will be long forgotten.
My mileage may vary. I've been a club president and a tournament director. Yes, game fees for referees are not a huge percent of the cost but they are significant. Pretty much the big four costs, in order, are coaches, league/tournament entry fees (which translates to referees), fields and uniforms. And the total cost frequently gets divided by a number less than the number of players on the team. What are you going to do when two of your best four players can't afford to pay because their parents are immigrants working for minimum wage? They become scholarship players and sometimes we had to ration how many a team could have because the other parents couldn't afford to pay for their kid and part of another kid as well. Frankly, there are more tournaments than the market will handle because some people think you can run one out of your back pocket on a month or two's notice. But the result is that there are limits to what a tournament can charge because there are so many other options.
Although it was a basketball game, I gave a Jr High coach an object lesson in this once. I typically do JV basketball, but was working a Jr High game as a favor for a local AD. About a minute and a half in, one of the coaches learned that I really meant it when I said that's enough. I can't imagine what he puts new referees through who don't have the experience to just hit him with a technical when he starts in on every single call.
It is so easy to be sucked into the pace of a match and only walk and still be able to see everything. Some advice my son received from an assessor a few weeks ago was to 'challenge yourself' and sprint ahead of the play - but only like 4 or 5 strides, anticipating the play. Get in front of it, rather than always reacting and moving behind the play, to the point that you are almost feeling uncomfortable about it. You can never be criticized for hustle. And if you work with a youth ref, you have to make sure you tell them each and every time at a pregame.
I was a tournament official at the Region III tournament a few years back (actually more than a few now ) when a woman came up to me to complain about how the referee was calling her son's U18 game. I looked over at the field and the center was Matt Foerster (pre-MLS, but after he'd had the whistle on the U18 national championship game). I told her that he was probably the best young referee in the region, which amazingly enough seemed to satisfy her. Every once in a while people are self-aware enough to realize that maybe their observations and expectations aren't the final word on good officiating.
As a parent who was involved with club soccer for many years (ECNL) I can tell you the fees are exorbitant, and ours did not include tournaments (coaches got paid EXTRA for tournaments), travel, or uniforms (which they changed every TWO years as I am sure they got significant "incentive" from Nike to do so). The club we were with could care less about referees, development, or availability - only how little they could pay and how long they could stretch out delivering the pay. ECNL set the pay for ECNL matches (and the pay is very nice) but regular season and tournaments (they ran/run several HUGE tournaments every year) the pay was set by the club and was(is) pitiful. Also on the tournaments on top of poor pay there is NO consideration for food, drinks or even water and the games are impossibly close together so the referees get yelled out for not being on schedule. Make no mistake, it's ALL about the money for the clubs and if they can shave $5-$10 from every game they will gladly accept any semi warm body. The perception is it's the availability, or assignor, or whatever outside the club's control so the club can continue to pocket the "extra" and still claim to care while blaming whatever convenient "outside" reason that may may come up.
Did a columbus day U-10 tournament with 25-minute straight-thru games. 10x games in a row, with 5 minute break between the games. Finished all of them 5 mins early the field was a patch of weeds, dirt and a mix of grass. The goals were the 4-footed kinds which dont have crossbars that just stake into the ground. The net was too small for the goal, so it was exposed in 2 areas and I am fairly certain based on parent and coach reaction that I missed a goal as a result. Oh, and the field was partially lined in orange with some parts white. As a colorblind referee, good luck seeing a ball in/out from 20 yards away. If I were a parent paying thousands of dollars per year, to get my kid in these events, i'd be outraged at the level of give-a-crap some of these tournaments put into finding field locations.
Another ref saying "that ref is doing a good job" quiets down a lot of people quickly. Its funny when I am on the sideline of my son's matches and parents ask me for confirmation.
camconcay, your club changes the uniforms every two years because they are with Nike ("not that there's anything wrong with that...") and Nike only makes the same uniforms for two years. Then it's on to the next great thing. Despite having a couple of spouses of Nike employees on our board, our club went with Adidas because Adidas kept uniforms in their catalog for three years. Parents didn't have to buy new uniforms as often that way. And the sponsorship deal wasn't materially different than what Nike offered. The late Clive Charles, the University of Portland coach, also had a youth club. The school and the youth wore Umbro. (This was before Nike bought Umbro.) A high level Nike executive called Clive up and told him how much it pained him that his daughter, who played for Clive's club, was not wearing Nike. "What's it going to take for the college and the club to wear Nike?" "I want college men's basketball coach money." I don't know how much Clive got from Nike in the end, but John Thompson of Georgetown was on the Nike board at the time and the proxy statement said that he was getting $900,000 a year to have Georgetown wear Nike. And that's what Thompson was getting, not the school.