Love it when we are ascribed responsibility for the administrative shortcomings of others. I'm all for bobbing and weaving, but within the bounds of reason and not beyond the point where players/teams are embroiled in a SNAFU with their league's responsible adults. As I understand the events, I'm glad to see that the permitted youth team stuck to their guns and at least forced the a-duh-lts elsewhere, but c'mon gents and ladies, if your plan goes awry don't take it out on the refs. And the field coordinator seems to confuse wish with reality. It's just basic, you have the field or you don't, and if you don't then don't act like you do. I can tell by my bile around the care and feeding of field permits that it must be early August...
I must not have been clear - the youth team moved from the turf field to a nearby grass field, despite (as we found out later) being the group that rightfully belonged on the turf.
This reminds me of the time that I showed up to do a game at a multi-field park. There's a game already on the field where I am assigned. The referee on the field is wearing jeans. He has a whistle that clearly came from the stuff next to the checkout line at a local variety store. As I'm watching this unfold, two guys get into it, pushing and shoving each other. The referee stops play, shows both of them the red card and then he jogs/walks up field where play has already restarted. The two guys shake hands and just stay on the field! And I'm thinking, "Okay. Not a sanctioned league." It wasn't. Their league was just jumping on apparently open fields and they slunk off when the players from my game made it apparent that they had the right to use the field.
This Saturday I'll be doing 6 dual ref games of another unsanctioned co-ed adult tournament. Given my experience in the last unsanctioned co-ed adult tournament I did on Memorial Day weekend, I am quite certain I will be posting in this thread afterwards.
Rec adult men. 7v7 on a youth 9v9 field, league semifinal. Dual. President of the high school association is one referee. The other is a student of the rules. He posts oddities he sees in our Facebook group, then posts a screenshot of the rules/laws that relate to what happens. At one point in the match, a corner is is taken. A teammate is around five yards from the kicker. An opponent marks the player closely. One ref tells him to give ten yards. The HS pres. ref says he doesn't have to give ten yards because the teammate of the kicker is inside of ten yards. I can't find that in the NFHS rules, USSF LOTG, or even the rec rules.
If someone wanted to be more than a little ironic, they should post the event and a photo of the rule/law showing defenders must be 10 yards from the corner arc on corner kicks…….
And would this mean that if a player stood a food away from the kicker that the defender could stand that close as well?
As predicted, I have one story. Doing a dual with some old referee in his 50s or 60s who can barely move, lumbering around, wearing the old yellow jersey. His side of the field, a player in his top corner of the PA shoots a shot rolling on the ground to the far goalpost. The goal is a crappy goal with just a crossbar and uprights with the net hanging off the back. Attacking team all start yelling it was in. I have no idea because that's not my call and wasn't directly looking at that, and he has no idea. I have to stop the game and go over the the goal, and he hadn't even bothered to put the crappy spike into the ground to fasten the net crappily to the ground pregame, so the side net is just fluttering around. We have to stop the game for two minutes as we talk and we have no idea what to do, so I do the only thing I can do: Give a GK to the defending team. And now despite this not being my call, I am basically taking on all responsibility because this guy hasn't done crap all game and doesn't even talk to anyone, he just sits there and lets me take the blame. Typical for an adult unsanctioned tournament, old refs with no mobility, no care, no clue. Scoring team goes apes-, and of course this is a trouble team from the Sunday adult league I usually ref solo, so I hear grumbling from them making comments about me. They end up scoring two more and win 3-0, every goal some sarcastic OH HEY REF I THINK THAT ONE WAS IN, YOU SURE IT WAS IN? Postgame I have to ask them for a signature on the score, they start giving me some sarcastic response. I tell them "Hey guys don't worry, you'll be happy to know that you will never see me on another game of yours again, and it will my absolute pleasure and honor." But hey plus side, another learning experience that I will always be checking side nets and being completely anal about the side netting of any goal I ever seen from now on. Clips, zip ties, I will be prepared.
Did a youth tournament 2 weeks ago. On Saturday had 2 of my 4 games go to kicks from the mark. On the last one the coach of the losing team approaches me. Says it was a good game. Then asks "are you required to have shin guards in when taking kicks?" Honestly, I was dumbfounded. Turns out both teams were removing them and I hadn't seen (nor my AR at midfield). What would be the proper thing here? Say I caught the kid(s) without them after their kick but before blowing the final whistle.
If you catch it before the KFTM are finished, make them put them on. If you notice afterwards, nothing really to do.
I thought if we weren’t getting paid a LOT extra, we were supposed to do everything possible to avoid KFTM? kidding, but I would do my best to not notice if they had their shinguards on or not. More worried about them changing jerseys to sneak in a second kick (which even that I’m not really worried). If it was pointed out to me during the kicks, I’d let them know that the rest of the kickers better have them on
Both games had goals in the last minutes of regular time to tie it up (one hitting the net as my watch beeped). The extra time periods were two 5 min periods where each team was so scared of making a mistake that we might as well have just gone straight to kicks.