Again, from the "not that anyone cares" file...I had to abandon my first match today. Well I wouldn't say "I" did, but it's a long story. Perhaps others around can give me advice for future games I do. Setting: Tournament, U-19 boys match (regular round). Now I've said before I am not a big fan of doing this age, but I figured, what the heck, I need to work on my game management skills, and these are shorter halves (30's), so it seems like the perfect setting. Now as with most tournaments, this field is pretty small. Point #1: Old boys + small field = not good. Anyways, one of the teams was basically a local team thrown together to I *guess* go out and have fun. Well even at the start of the game, one could tell they (A) figured they had no shot, and (B) didn't care much. Point #2: Old boys + don't care + better opponent = not good. They pretty much were cherping from the start in sarcastic tones (not at me, yet, just in general). Typical 19 year old boy crap. Well the game started as you would expect...some hard fouls and physical play, but I tried to let them play a little...letting holds and pushes go unless I could tell they effected the play, blah blah while keeping the rough stuff locked down with cautions and verbal warnings. Again I found it hard to see everything that was going on because of the close quarters so I'm sure stuff was happening out of me and my ARs view, but that is my problem I guess. Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), we had 3 cautions/no send-offs, and a 4-0 score in favor of the team that seemed to actually want to play soccer. The other team (the one that didn't care) basically just wanted to hit people and really could have cared less about playing soccer. Now before you say "Gee Flunkie, why didn't you send anyone off"...to be honest, there wasn't anything that I saw that warranted a send-off. I cautioned the 3 players (2 on the didn't care side), and actually thought I had that covered pretty well (the physical stuff...but I'm sure I didn't). Where the problem was was the constant complaining and verbal abuse by the players on "don't care" team. I got my share, but I didn't consider it horrible or over the top (more then I like, but with 19 year olds, what could I expect). However, apparently they were giving my AR holy hell (substitutes and keeper/defenders) about silly offside calls. I told the team I had full confidence in my AR and to basically let him do his job (in my nasty tone). Well 25 minutes into the 1st half, the head ref of the tournament comes over to chat with my AR and decides to abandon the match. I was fine with this because I could tell where things were going. At this same point prior to the stoppage I had decided to basically shut everything down (as suggested in a previous question of mine) and whistle everything under the sun. This never came to pass of course because the game was abandoned. After the match I came to find out how much crap the team was giving my AR (again, at the time I thought it was the standard "that was offside ref" comments and that was it) and understood why the head ref decided to stop things where they were. I did tell him (AR), though, that I wish he would have signaled me over first and told me how bad it was so I could try and address things myself. All 3 of us are not "high level" ref's, but this game seemed doomed from the start. One team having no interest playing soccer, while the other one tries to, but also ends up being drawn into the crap. My ARs said I could not have done much more to keep things in check, which was nice, but I still feel like I failed somewhere. I would appreciate anything you can find in my story that would help me in future games like this. I'm not refereeing to be disrespected and berated by some 19 year old. Funny how this happened after a game (16 girls) where I was complimented by a parent saying I was the one of the best refs they had had in a while. Oye...I need an asprin now. Thanks for listening to my story, and feel free to ask questions if you need more info in order to help.
My first reaction is that abandoning a game with only 3 cautions seems a bit extreme. I'm not sure how these things are dealt with in the States, but over here we'd only abandon on discipline grounds if there was a major breakdown in discipline such as a multi-player brawl, a serious attack on an individual player or the referee or an assistant was assaulted. However, it seems like there was more to it than the cautions judging from what you say about the assistant. It does seem like your communication with the assistant could have been better. I am particularly vicious in protecting my assistants, and if its something more than the regulation whinge about a decision I make it clear to them that I want to hear about it. In addition, I keep a close eye on my assistant after he's made a close call to see how the players react. That's the only point. How strict or lenient you want to be during the match is your business, and it seems like this aspect was dealt with fine. The one thing I would look into more closely is why the Head Referee made the decision to abandon the match. For a start, this is your decision, not his. However, more importantly - I know you are a good referee from your posts - what was the reason that you didn't make this decision before he arrived? It seems, again, perhaps due to a breakdown in communication with your assistant. This isn't a criticism, I know how hard it is to work with an assistant you've been thrown together with hastily at a tournament. It's just something to consider.
I'd stay away from small field,short halves on anything above U14.I also wouldn't do a tournament where anyone but me could decide to abandon a game. That said, I had a similar experience with some U16 idiots only the "better" team was the one complaining. If your tournaments are anything like the ones we have in Georgia, the assignor would welcome you putting a team of 3-4 together and taking a string of games. That way you know who you're working with. But...that's not what you asked. In your pergame, you should always emphasise to your ARs that they are not there to be badgered by players/coaches/spectators and you are to be told immediately of anything going on. I suspect if you'd carded some of the bench players early, it would have stopped things. Sounds as if you feel you handled the field goings on ok. In retrospect, maybe you should have established earlier that you weren't tolerating bad behaviour and foul play, but that's your decision. Incidently, if the AR had gotten your attention and the 2 of you couldn't decide who on the bench said what, you could have cautioned them all for dissent. Then they'd behave as another caution would get them booted. Why people put together U19 teams that don't really want to play is beyond me. I don't do that age group at tournaments either but have had no problems with U19 teams in regular season games
I've actually worked with this assistant before (and I like him and think he does a good job). We had been working the previous 2 games together, the one right before in the same positions (me the center, him the AR). I do agree there was a breakdown in communication, and in the pregame I did tell both ARs that (knowing we were going into the lion's den) that if they could not handle a problem, to let me know and I will try to take care of them. I usually try to let my ARs work through any problem's they may be having on their own, but I do recall telling them, if there is something they can not deal with to let me know. I will stress this more in the future! I also agree that it should not have been the head ref's decision to stop the match. While I do like the fact that he is very protective of his ref's (this was a local tournament so I know him from scheduling the regular season stuff), he does seem to have knee-jerk reactions. I also agree, hearing of an abandoned match after 3 cautions is not common (even more reason I'm feeling like crap at the moment!), even in the US Caesar. I do not know how long he (head ref) was observing, but he was very adament about stopping the match and I was not about to get into an argument with him about it, at least at the time. Perhaps I will make a mention to him later that it should have been my call to stop the match. It sounds like we had a breakdown in communication overall, which I will work on in the future. As for controlling the bench vs. controlling the field players, again I was not hearing as much from the bench as I was from the on field players (perhaps because the field players were so loud? ). Seriously, it sounds like they kept their vocal levels low enough for me not to hear, but enough to give the AR crap. I guess I just never know the best way to nip complainers in the bud. The whole time I was just thinking "Ok don't just flash cards, then they are meaningless", which is why I restricted them to the plays that I felt warrented it. In retrospect, while I would not define what they said directly to me dissent, it was definitely complaining, and I should have just told them to zip it and if it continued to pull out the caution (I think 19 year olds are just incapable of keeping their mouth's shut though!). I was just trying so hard not to fall into the flashing card syndrome, perhaps I was too lenient on my cards (DOH!). I've done U19 a few times before, during the regular season, with teams that wanted to play soccer and did ok...some good, some ok, some acceptable (nothing real horrible). Unfortunately, my general refereeing persona is to let teams "play" more than keeping things tight, perhaps I need to change that for the older boys games. I'm starting to think I will avoid that general age group at tournament in the future as well. Thanks for the remarks....keep them coming if you have thoughts, hopefully this helps others and not just me!
Flunkie, just a couple of personal observations. You can take them or leave them. 1) I always want my ARs to let me know of bad dissent right away if I can't hear it. As far as I'm concerned, if the players chirp to the ARs, then they're chirping at me. In my pregame, I ask my ARs to call me over if they have any doubts about the nature of dissent. I'd rather err on the side of cautions/send offs when players start yelling at ARs. I haven't had to deal with it yet, but I would be very inclined to go straight red for OIAL if a player made any personal and public attacks to an AR - even if no foul language was involved. Statements like, "You're blind!" to my AR qualify as insulting in my book if they're loud enough for the parents to hear. 2) When I meet with the captains, I usually stress that they are to bring any questions or concerns to me, not my ARs. Implicitly, I'm telling the captains to keep their teammates away from my ARs. I've had one referee I've worked with explicitly tell the captains, "They're my ARs - not yours. Please do not argue with them". I'm not sure I want to go this far, even though the players didn't say a word to either my fellow AR or me the entire game.
Yeah I guess I have learned that the best way to deal with dissent is to go straight to the books if a simple "quiet" doesn't work...they had their chance to zip their lip. I will definitely be more "insistant" that my ARs bring any dissent to me as well. Thanks for your thoughts!
On first read, it sounded as though while there may have not been any one incident by a player, there may have been something brewing on the persistent infringment front. For me, it's one thing for a player to make a comment here or there. But if the same guy lips off a couple times in a matter of 10 minutes, that's different. And it sounded as though you were aware that the ARs were getting some flak. What do you think? Could there be something more that could've been done on that front?
I find that when you have a number of players dissenting there are usually 1 or 2 players instigating most of it - either they're the most influential players on the field, or they're persistently the first to appeal, or whatever. If you can identify those players and nail them early, it should help. another problem with mass dissent is that sometimes cards can make it worse, but then again, the more cards you can give out, the quicker you can start sending players for a 2nd caution. I had a situation a week ago where I had lost all respect from one team - I tried to regain control way too late, but I gave out 2 cautions in 3 min for dissent and that did seem to help. Also, while I'll usually let a player vent a little, even let him make a comment under his breath as he walks away after I have a word with him about dissent, when I think there's a risk of the dissent increasing throughout the team I won't. Last sat I had an U/15 match, and the home team were starting to whinge more and more. One player nearby had a whinge, so I decided to make a bit of an example out of him. I had a word with him, as he walked away he muttered something. It wasn't much, but at that point I had decided to exercise zero tolerance, so I called him back and cautioned him. Everybody guessed that he had said something after I had a word with him, so he got the blame for it, not me. I mentioned making an example out of somebody - sometimes you do have to do that. that's called using cards for control. IF you do decide to crack down tough on dissent then that also includes OFFINABUS - when it gets to this point I'll be more likely to RC somebody for swearing or even industrial language when arguing with me then I would be otherwise. You also mentioned that one team had no intention of playing soccer. Well, at this age in particular, the moment anybody even looks suspicious of playing the player, deliberately, and not the ball, card him - even if it isn't that bad a foul. Of course, the longer you leave it before implementing increased methods of control the more difficult it gets, and it may be obvious you're on the back foot. If a game gets like this get in early, get in hard, and draw that line hard. That's all the advice I can think of - I don't know how much of it you already considered, so it may be pretty irrelevant to the case at hand. When you've got control problems from a number of players in a team it does get really difficult, and I'm far from the expert at controlling those games. Just out of curiosity, what exactly were the reasons for abandoning?
Several people have said to card the subs on the bench, I thought cards where only for players on the field? Can you caution them without the card and have it work like a yellow card?
Cards are used for all cautions and ejections. Refer to the WC2002 group stage match between Argentina and Sweden, in which Claudio Caniggia was sent off from the bench, apparently for persistently harassing an assistant referee. In this incident, the referee did in fact run over to the bench and show a red card. There was also an incident in the 2003 MLS season in which a player on the bench was shown a yellow card.
Yeah you can caution/send off substitutes, just not coaches/parents (they can be ejected or warned, but you do not physically show them a card). Of course when you send off a substitute, they do not play a man down. Ok here are the conclusions I have come to from everyone's suggestions so far: 1) I should not have been paranoid about "throwing cards" around and just cautioned the main "complainers" right away, as well as the bench if necessary. 2) I should have been more observant about how my ARs were treated, even though my AR also should have been more vocal to me about the stuff I was not hearing (I can't take all the blame on this one) 3) I was probably ok with my on field misconduct handling, but probably should have shut things down a bit earlier instead of thinking they would start "playing soccer" on their own.
U-19 matches are intense affairs whereby the referee and AR's try to do the best theycan in a intense environment, Many times teams play right on the edge and battle for every ball. The whining for offsides and unfair charges is constant. Fans also scream for calls. A sane ref has to ask himself why other than the challenge do I want to be on this pitch with these jacked up soccer guys. Do the best you can and nip dissent in the bud pronto. Don't expect to many compliments during or after the match. One coach refered to me as Stevie Wonder. Of course he was 50 yards away. Another time another place he's not so bold! Kudos to all who pick up the whistle to meet the challenge. We are special!
There was an instance a few years ago in England where a player was carded whilst in the car park outside the ground.
At least one of the travel leagues around here requires you to card coaches if you officially "warn" them. I've used it a couple of times on parents. They tend to get the point if you show them a yellow.
They tend to get the point if you tell them that the game will end if they do not stop their bad behaviour.