Here is a great reason why we don't have referees. The following two coaches. I took a game on Memorial Day Saturday, U11 boys Great Lakes Alliance. AR. I debated taking it, because I often have more problems with the out-of-town coaches in this league, and it's a holiday weekend. But thought what the heck. One game SHOULD be fun. Canton-Akron United Force teams drive an hour and a half to PA for this game. 6 minutes in, a through hall from the home team, I see forward on far side of the field clearly inside by a couple of yards, blows by defender, runs onto ball. I hear visiting coach behind me "That's offside, offside, offside" the whole way down the field. He's wrong, it wasn't even a hard call. Shot, rebound, score. Coach disputes, whatever, I try to point out the timing of the play, but coach interrupts and claims I wasn't even in line with it, "You were 15 yards down the line." Assistant coach agrees LOL. Ok now I can't even work with him, and that's insulting. I call center over to issue yellow, because I'm not dealing with THAT garbage all day. Rest of game is fine. Visitors win 3-2. Good game, refs. We fill out the GLA paperwork and it's signed off by both teams. Coaches see me and center ref in parking lot. Head coach goes passive aggressive: "you know that first goal shouldn't have counted. Referee wasn't in position." Asst. Coach: "You're right he wasn't." Really? What clowns. The center and I just watched them. Too bad we already handed over the meaningless league report. The home team had been laughing about their claims I was out of position for a U11 offside call. I am a Regional and college referee, and have done pro and high level amateur lines. I was perfectly in line and looking straight at the play, and the coach knows it because he was right behind me. But when you're making stuff up, lying that badly, I can't work with you. In the end, it made me really wish I hadn't taken the game. Also, the other AR was a high school freshman. What if he had made the obvious inside call, and had been subjected to that? I probably would have felt worse. These coaches are the primary reason we don't have referees. Disgraceful.
If they approached you in the parking lot that's highly inappropriate and should be reported to the assignor and/or the state.
Unfortunately, the assignor for this match is a local assignor for the club,band doesn't even know how to contact the league when I have a red card.
Confronted in the parking lot after the match? Why waste time asking? Should immediately write the report and send it to your assignor, the competition authority, the SRA, and the SYRA at least I think. This is clearly irresponsible behavior and needs to be curtailed, or else they're just going to to do it to the next referee. And the next. And the next. Am I wrong here?
You're absolutely not wrong, but without a supportive assignor it seems like it might be hard to accomplish what is needed here, especially if the coaches involved are registered in a different state. Yes the correct answer is to write a thorough supplemental with everyone involved providing their narrative and to copy it to the assignor, the league, and the state including the SRA and SYRA directly. If my assignor was not supportive in this situation, I'd also find another assignor.
That sucks ... I've had issues with out of town teams on the last day of a tourney ... like writing up a red card report is going to do any good. Sigh.
If you do not have confidence in your assignor, then your next call is to someone on your state refereeing committee. I would assume that given your level of experience that you've stated, you are very likely someone who would generate a response if you reported something like this. We have to address situations like this. A couple of years ago, I was an AR along with my son for a U16 girls ECNL game. For some reason, an out of town parent was trying to argue with me on a foul call that happened at the other end of the field from me. I told him I wasn't engaging with him. As I looked to get his license plate, the guy started to get out of the car before my wife read him the riot act. I reported him and the coach (who was acting like he was packing his car and not hearing anything despite his car being between the parent's car and our car) to the league and to the state. Not sure if anything happened there. But I resolved that if that happened again, I'd absolutely follow up on it.
Report has been written and sent to anyone and everyone I can think of. Only thing is, I am not even sure what Ohio/Ohio North is still active. It's unclear on searches, as well as US Soccer site. But I sent to everything I could find.
To be fair, the guy stopped and returned to his car after my wife told him off. He never got within 50 feet of us. She let him have it. As she said, “I know you couldn’t do a lot since you were in uniform. I didn’t have to worry about that.”