I don’t understand this. Are you saying that a team fighting for the shutout point creates more tension than two teams trying to gain another three points by winning?
I don't know if there is more tension, but in my opinion, it creates unnatural tension of trying to keep a clean sheet by a team that might be up by 3 or more goals and a team that is destined to lose anyway but might get a point for a goal, which might matter.
I don't like the shut out rule from a participation perspective. The team can be up 10-0, which would ordinarily be a chance for weaker players to get more time and for players to get to play positions they don't usually play. But that incentive to get a shut out encourages and almost compels teams to keep their strongest team on the field. IMHO, that's not the right thing for youth sports. But no one asked me . . .
For youth sports, if it's a competitive tourney, then it's a competitive tourney. It's not a rec league. Heck, many rec leagues require players to be removed from the winning team once up by x number of goals. There's an argument that a team not comfortable resting their starters and keeping the shutout is weaker than a team that holds the shutout without their starters. That said, it feels like a goal difference might be better. If you have a goal difference of 3 or more you get the extra point. Is 3-0 really better than 6-1? At that point, it's a dominating performance either way. (There's probably some case for putting a cap there too as well b/c while 3-0 & 6-1 aren't that different a 10-7 is a lot different but would be worth the same. Sorry maybe I'm just full of it....again.)
Give a FRD yellow to a player last night for one of those blantant running up and jumping in front of a ball. About 10 minutes later, same player right before a slowly taken free kick walks in front of the kick about 9 or 10 yards away from the ball. He is stationary and nothing I would ever give a card for. He looks at me and asks "Am I far enough away?" My reply is "You are on a yellow, if you need to ask, you might want to take a couple steps back"
There is a lot of data out there that suggests overly competitive youth sports (typically driven by parents) are a key factor in why so many kids drop out of sports. A competitive tournament is not at odds with recreational teams--competition is fun, but can be overdone. Some form of goal differential or goals scored is a necessary evil of any tournament that uses pool play, as it otherwise becomes all but impossible to differentiate teams in many cases. But I stand by the view that the shut out point is not a good thing for youth sports. It isn't necessary and doesn't drive the right behavior. (The younger the kids, the more I feel this way; I don't really care at 18U or even 16U; at 10U I feel really strongly about it.)
Tournaments in my area usually have a "mercy rule" where a team starts losing a bracket point for every goal they score above a certain difference, it's usually around 6, just to try to mitigate how different areas of the state may have different skill level interpretations so a very overpowered or helpless team gets into the tournament somehow. This rule led to probably the most disgraceful situation of my ref career 4-5 years ago. A (home) team was losing by the mercy rule with something like 10 minutes left and the visiting team was just kicking the ball around, as usually happens in these situations. The home coach started yelling for her players to start shooting on their own goal if they got possession (so the winning team would lose points). A player attempted it once as his keeper ran out of the way and the visiting team's attackers had to run up protect their opponent's goal line. He missed the shot and I YC UB him, then went over and gave the coach the same caution and told her to not do it again. Play restarted and she immediately started yelling for them to do it again so I immediately ended the game. Altercations nearly happened between visiting parents and the coach. Technically, I believe abandoning the game was outside my jurisdiction, or at least so I was told as it was like a mass confrontation or similar situation, just an "ethics" question, but there was no way I could let that game continue, and I know ending it was fine. Just disgraceful.
In my area, there are just too many clubs/teams. Today, I did a pair of games where the home team brought 12 to both games. Fairly high level (at least in theory) EDP club. Two weeks ago I did a State Cup (National Bracket) U19 boys where the home again had 12. And it was a quarterfinal. And this is a club that costs probably 3,000 plus tournaments/travel fees per player. Not only is it becoming a rich kids sport, it’s also becoming a sport you can blow off. The State Cup team had a roster of 18. it takes nothing for a coach/trainer to split off, find some backing and form a new club. Todays club with 12 also had spent money on a rented video system with trackers. It’s $5000 split between 3 teams for the season. The team with the video system got played off the park, mainly because it got to over 70 and 95 humidity for the first time all spring.
I have a local club with this issue. They therefore schedule one game to start exactly 10 minutes after the previous game (halves + 10 min HT) ends. Kickoffs on the :05, :20, :40, etc. No accounting for stoppage time, time for the teams to get off and next teams to come on to warm up, check-in, etc. Kickoffs after 4 PM are usually at least half an hour late. I stopped taking games there 5 years ago for this reason and they still do it, except for their 2 hr. mandated ECNL games.
When games started back after Covid, I loved the extended time between games to get spectators out and new spectators in. 7v7 U-littles (25 minute halves) would be 9:00, 10:30, 12:00, etc. Plenty of time for this 54 year old, 300+ pounder. The club I did a couple games for Sunday still do that. Others have gone back to 75 minute blocks, and one to 70 minute blocks. Six games back to back with no break at 9:00, 10:10, 11:20, 12:30, 1:40 and 2:50 ending at 4:00 is brutal.
One thing that really helped me identify misconduct is reading through the misconduct codes for writing reports. While there are specifics for a number of things that you can issue misconduct to team officials for, like entering the technical area of the other team, there are two dumping grounds for other issues. CTO7- Persistent unacceptable behavior (including repeated offenses) CTO8- Showing a lack of respect for the game I think an appropriate punishment would have been getting the coach out of there with a pair of cautions, but I understand just ending the game.
Wow, that is ridiculous. Maybe as a technical "work-around" would be to show the coach a 2nd yellow and red when she yells for the team to do it again and then the match ends because the team can't play without a coach? But yeah, assuming it isn't some high-level game where it'll come back on you for blowing the match-dead I would absolutely do what you did and just end it.
The local rec league here spreads the 7v7 25min half games on hour 30 minute schedules. There is no real check in needed (maybe 5 minutes total) and players only show up to the field 15 minutes prior so the field actually sits almost empty for most that downtime. My teenage son, along with other young refs, would be annoyed at having a 30 minute break every hour. They don't get paid for this time which means a $15 game fee turned into $10/hour. They could get much more than that with no experience doing fast food. We all hate the 5 minute break, but for U-littles 30 minutes is pretty excessive I think.
Among baseball umpires there is a saying that "local rules are made by fools," as so often local rules miss the side effects. This is an example of well intentioned rule that simply doesn't work, as the cure is worse than the disease: an opponent beating you so bad they are trying to score against themselves to avoid punishment is far more embarrassing and not fun than being beat by more goals. The scenario reminds me of that professional game some years back, and I don't remember the exact details, but the team leading by a goal realized it was better off going to extra time than winning by one goal, and spent the last couple of minutes unsuccessfully trying to score on itself. (I think it had something to do with way goals counting as two, so conceding a goal and then scoring in extra time would bump them forward, but a one goal win was effectively a loss.) Anyone writing rules needs to think through all the effects rule can have.
I am almost willing to bet most tournament organizers don't read their rules closely and put thought into them. I'm guessing that most are just plaguerized by organizers who copied the rules from one of the tournaments they attended and thought was 'run really well'
Yeah, exactly this. One of the organizations around here runs a couple of tournaments a year and in their rules, for each of them, it said "Every effort is made to have U-11 and U-12 9v9 with two ARs, but as this is the busiest weekend of the year for tournaments, it may not be possible". Times 3 or 4 in a year.
I had a line on a USL2 game this past weekend. The center let us know that the game was going to be assessed. Turns out that he had received confirmation of his request, not on an assigned assessor. I was disappointed because I love getting assessments on the line. It was probably for the best though. I don't know that the center would have passed. However, between the other AR and I, the center got a full assessment's worth of feedback that will hopefully help him when he has an actual coach watching his game. On a bad note, I absolutely trucked an assistant coach 4 minutes into the game. I just looked at the video, and while it is very grainy, the coach ended up on the ground. He said something about being 3 yards off the line and what was I doing. I just ignored it as I know from previous seasons he can't stay off the line if there isn't a marked technical area. All that weight lifting is paying off
There is an AYSO tournament that I have done where, at least for the 16/19s, the teams are on opposite touchlines, and the team, coaches, and all fans, have to be on the half of the touchline away from the AR. Great system when space allows.
Not an un-alloyed best story, but I just helped a young AR with how to report unacceptable fanside behavior to the State Ref Committee. CR is putting one in too. Hoping we can resupply a village with its idiot.
one of the last things I will do before I frame my last red card will get NFHS to put into a practice ONE coach in the TA at anytime, and ONLY to give instructions before going back to sit down. By the time we get to the state tournament, there are upwards of 5 coaches in the poorly defined TA because the freshmen and jv seasons are over. Then, I will move on to immediately being able to readily dismiss any assistant coach who dissents in any youth match, No Ask, Tell, Remove. Just remove. Finally, before I go, I want to be able to tell a coach how stupid his tactics were after he complains about a call!! In a very loud voice.
Bad story: Gave myself a foot blister because my OSI socks developed holes in the heel after only a Spring season of use Best story: I have cut the feet of the socks completely out and I will just tuck the calf-high part into black ankle socks, so I should never need to buy another pair of these OSI scammers ref socks again.