This sounds like a lousy situation (part of a lousy series) and I'm sure in that situation I'd have been, well, WTF. I wonder, do you think there was a way for you to kind of indicate that while you weren't necessarily with this guy, you weren't exactly against him, either? Sitting here in the cold light of day as an armchair quarterback, I'm thinking that despite atrocious behavior, he was on your crew that day. If you were to send in a report that happened to mesh with the coach's report, that would be useful for league admins, but if you and the coach become explicitly allied against another ref, well, that's not a good place for a crew to be. Situation wasn't good either... Again I was obviously not there and cannot claim to speak for your experience/reaction/decision on the day. I guess I'm thinking about your situation in parallel with experiences of mine where I wished dearly to be not on a guy's crew and found many reasons not to be near to or associated with him any more than absolutely necessary. If that.
Unfortunate that nothing could be/was done sooner. There's the issue of teams that have to deal directly with him, but even bigger is that he influenced the image to some extent of every single player and coach who interacts with an unknown referee going forward. The one bad egg can give you headaches when you're least expecting it down the road.
We have had a guy that seems to match that description, except that he's a pretty darn good ref 90% of the time. It's the other 10% of the time that he's intolerable. I will not work with him, period. A few years ago, I was assigned a college center with him as AR1. I told the assignor I was turning back the game and why. He chose to take the guy off the game instead. He has been before the professionalism committee multiple times. One of those times, he was suspended for a year. He then whined that the suspension kept him from getting a maintenance assessment, so he dropped from 6 to 7. This is the guy in my story about him telling a 16 year old female player during a high school game that her coach should check to see if he was the father of her new baby. When the professionalism chair was dealing with one of the complaints against this guy, the chair told me that his problem in holding a hearing was that he had a hard time finding four referees to serve on the hearing panel who weren't already prejudice against him. Guys like that need to find something else to do and administrators need to help them find that something.
totally agree. My state is also about to stop OT in high school as well. OT piles on the minutes with some schools playing 2 times in 3 days. Adding in OT is a recipe for injury.
Yes, our state also prohibits overtime in high school. In the past, we had some leagues that even required kicks from the mark if overtime did not produce a winner.
I've never understood that - ties are part of soccer (at least in the regular season). Not sure why there's a need for a winner each game?
NC is even worse. We have to do two full 10 minute periods in regular season conference games but then it can end in a tie after that. Which completely defies logic.
We had a boy’s coach who always managed to convince (browbeat?) his district into playing overtime. His team was good and he hated teams benefiting from packing in and playing for ties. We were not sad when he finally moved on.
I left out the fact that the following game was going to be cancelled because the visitor wasn't going to show up. If the game was going to be played, I definitely would not have told him that I hate the ref too. I would have just said "well coach, you can feel free to complain to your league's office" about his conduct". Something definitely could have been done sooner. I am sure that the assignor had received a multitude of complaints about him. Perhaps it was just the referee shortage that made him hold on as long as possible. But when I thanked the assignor for kicking him out, he did say that he can't have a bad egg sully the reputation of the entire association. What in the holy name of hell... teenage pregnancy is bad enough, why is an adult man making a joke like that. Just what the hell. What ended up happening to him? I'm really surprised that a referee with behavior like that would even reach the level of a 6. Even if he was a good referee, how could that sort of conduct lead to getting upgrades?
"Joke?" He was serious!!!! The full length version, according to the player, was that he told her that he had been the last one to date her coach before she married her now husband and 'she should check to see who the father is." The coach was in her early 20's at the time and had just had her first child. He also got 'into it' with a high school home team AD for standing on the track during the game, when he was an AR! He also tried to date every female referee he ever worked with, regardless of their age. He was known to be paying child support from a non-marital relationship with a non-referee female. As one woman referee put it, a number of times, "Who'd do it with HIM????" Why did he make grade 6 despite this pattern of judgement flaws? Because there is no/was no check whether he is of good character. As I said initially, he can do a great job 90+% of the time. He got his assessments, he did the physical, he did the written, so he got the badge. I'm not defending him, by no means.
1. It's un-American 2. "A tie is like kissing your sister." (I think I need a crowbar to get my tongue out of my cheek.)
In TX the HS districts get to choose how they end and they can select to end in a tie, go to kicks or play OT and then do kicks if needed. About 1/4 of the HS teams we service choose to go to kicks and the rest just run for the buses. While the referee in me want to run to the car with them I think the ones doing kicks are helping themselves come playoff time if/when they have to do that. There is no substitute for experience there.
I was my state would do away with OT in high school. Instead NY has different OT rules for boys and girls. Both play up to two 10-minute OTs before a game is declared a tie. However, boys OT is sudden death and girls OT is not. In NCAA soccer, they will have OT followed by kicks from the mark for the playoffs, but they are sudden death OT. They will be two full 10-minute OTs.
We require OT and KTFM on every game in Iowa. It’s ridiculous. Teams are playing three times a week and referees are working 4-5 days a week. We have said for a long time to get rid of OT in the regular season, but it falls on deaf ears.
Offside Utah Youth Soccer Association Dear UYSA Member - A letter from the League Commissioner As you are aware we have a severe shortage of referees, due in large part to the abuse they are subjected to by coaches, players and sidelines. The behavior towards referees has to change. For the past several years UYSA has restricted the sidelines of many teams to ZERO spectators at games when there have been reports of parents and sidelines making inappropriate remarks, harassment towards referees, or refusal to follow a referee's instructions. However, it seems that hasn’t been enough to curb the growing number of games where referees are being subjected to verbal and sometimes physical abuse. Effective immediately UYSA will enforce a ZERO TOLERANCE policy in regard to any inappropriate behavior towards referees. Under the directions of the President of the Association for the remainder of the Spring 2022 season, any coach, parent or spectator at the field that berates a referee, will result in a strict no spectator season going forward. Meaning - that team will not be allowed to have ANY spectators on the sideline for the remainder of the Spring season. A coach has the responsibility to coach the players, and you as a parent or spectator on the sideline have the responsibility to cheer for your player and their teammates. At no time does your role cross over to being a referee mentor or educator, regardless of your knowledge or understanding of the game. That role belongs to the State Referee Committee. DO NOT tell the referee “to call the game”, “to keep the kids safe”, to “call it both ways”, that they “are a terrible referee”, that “you are going to file a complaint” (you can file a complaint - but there is no reason to yell this at a referee as it is viewed as a threat), or any other derogatory or personal, public or provocative remarks directed at the referee. There are no excuses - if you are making any remark towards a referee, you are at risk for the entire sideline being uninvited the rest of the season. You put your team at risk of game stoppage and forfeit, and other potential outcomes as adjudicated by the league. How will this be enforced? - the referees assigned to the games will be told that Team X is not allowed to have ANY spectators within 100 yards of the field, or the game will be forfeited by the team. Let's let the kids play, Let's let the kids play and referee’s referee- it is their game not yours!
This is absolutely great. One person can ruin it for everyone, and you know how the parents would "thank" that one parent if they are banned for games, or rest of season. Just throwing the single offending parent out is not punishment enough. When you punish innocent parties for the antics of a single guilty party, that's when change will happen. If I ever have spectators yelling at/taunting a youth player on the other team I will kick their entire sideline out, or have a youth game where both parents sides yelling at each other, I will throw them all out.
Interesting. Will it work? Not sure. Referees have had the power to eject spectators for years. It is rarely used. Why is that? Have organizations given the impression they won't back the referees decision? I find that hard to believe. Is it because referees don't think people have said/done enough to warrant ejection? If referees aren't willing to throw out individuals, why would they be willing to throw out entire sidelines? And I wouldn't put it past some diabolical parent/fan to go to a rival team's game and say enough to get that team's fans suspended.
I had a fantastic week of soccer and I am not sure if this is reality or not. On Monday, I went back to the indoor league for coed, 3 games 2x25. I have not done those in a few years, I quit because of stupidity, yelling, fights etc. No problems, all 6 teams came to play, not one complaint, everything was great! Thursday I did rec open-men, same thing. Friday night, had a U-16 boys game, decent level of play, everybody trying to play, called like 6 fouls all game, everybody happy, very respectful. Saturday I had a U-12 center, U-11 AR and U-16 center. In not ONE of those games was there any significant complaints or even any complaints at all. I really enjoyed myself and it's just amazing to not have to dread dealing with somebody on the pitch - dissent from players, coaches or spectators.
The statement from Utah comes 9 years after a referee was killed there during a game. I think they're a little late to the issue. When referees were plentiful, folks were afraid they would be blackballed if they "stood out". At the end of the day, referees have the authority to stop games until a situation is rectified and elect not to do so.
Welp, managed to pass my fitness test this morning, despite taking a puck off my ankle in ice hockey 10 days ago (it's still bruised and swollen)... And the best part? I didn't feel winded after at all -- just ankle and knee sore.
At least at the high school level, things may be changing. I had a very nice week as well. Sunday U16 NPL middle and then four JV/V doubleheaders where I handled the varsity center. A few grumbles and one “worst call I’ve ever seen” from a student in the stands, but other than that no real issues. Players played and were respectful. Coaches were good to work with (I know my proactive communication helped with that). On Friday, I had players from both teams come up and say our crew was the best one they had all season. I could get used to weeks like last week.
I solo referee a few games for a rec adult league every Sunday morning. I have gotten so tired of the constant offside whining this Spring. They clearly care way more about offside than fouls. So this morning I tried something different. The red line is where I ran 90% of the game, and the blue line was as far as I ever got to the opposite side of the field. Up and down the red line all game. I was almost always either directly on a or a yard off the 2LD line. 12-15 offside calls, and plenty more where I gave a one armed advantage call while calling out "player's good" to indicate onside. By 10-15 minutes in, offensive players realized there was NO REASON to complain because I was right there correct every time, and defenders realized they could actually run an offside trap because for once the ref is in position to actually call a close player offside. I had one guy complain twice, I told him if he does it again he gets a caution and I feel my dissent tolerance for offside will now be one warning then a caution. If a game starts having foul issues where I fear losing control of the game I will go back to a normal diagonal. But players seemed to like this outcome much. much more than what has been going on this Spring. This will be my new strategy. I doubt it can be carried over to legit games with coaching staffs even small sided solo youth games.
I have noticed both HS and club coaches and spectators are much more appreciative of our efforts. Thursday we had a high level JV/V boys double header with two of the better local referees (I was the third). One of the teams had issues had an issue recently with a third team's parents. The AD and the CR conferred about the issue, and the AD followed up with a pregame PA announcement. We had no issues during the game and the coaches, fans, and players thanked us for a great game.