That was one massive cluster. I know what happened and I still have a hard time understanding how they dropped that ball.
I guess I don't actually know what the status is of youth games getting filled any more since my last youth game was on Labor Day. I assume the congestion is just because PC requires 3 referees and the assignor is trying to keep referees fresh. There are also SC games that require 3 referees and two youth tournaments (now 1). Yesterday, I got a personal phone call from the PC/SC assignor asking me to do two adult games on Sunday that were just added to the schedule. I assume most of his other referees are otherwise occupied with his youth games because he started to do a hard sell.
U14 girls AR1. Ran into a substitute while sprinting down the touchline for the second time in the match. When I came back up the field I told the substitutes (somewhat sternly, since this had already happened once) that they needed to stay back from the touchline. These players' coach, who had already shown himself to be a highly disagreeable person, said to me “that's okay, you don't need to apologize.” I was super confused by this response, so I reiterated that I need them to stay out of my way for my safety and for theirs. He replied with a remark similar to his previous one, implying that it was my fault for running into his player. I realized this guy was just trying to be an asshole so I wasn't going to let the issue die. I made myself very clear that it is not my responsibility to watch for players in my way while doing my job and this idiot just dug his heels in, insisting I was in the wrong and that I'm a jerk for not apologizing to his player. I put my flag up to talk to the referee about it for a moment and he laid down the law. Luckily there were only a few minutes left in the game so coach didn't say another word (plus he was already on a yellow card for being disrespectful earlier in the match) but I'm absolutely appalled at this guy's attitude. I'm thinking it would be appropriate to send an e-mail to his DoC with a CC to the SRA because this jackass needs to be put in his place before an AR or one of his players gets injured from a collision.
There is a solution to this problem. It involves you blowing up a 13 year old though. I will admit I have run over a coach or two who refused to step back.
I have to admit I was a little irritated that the referee didn't send him, but no one wants to do paperwork especially over a red card they weren't personally involved in. oh that absolutely could have happened on this one. I was fully focused on the field and didn't see the player at all. Luckily it was just a minor collision of our lower legs and no one was hurt, but if she's a foot or two closer to the touch line then it's very possible that I completely run her over. I've had a few coaches over the years who are a bit obstinate about staying out of my area, but this is the first time I've ever heard anyone actively push back on the idea that the AR is entitled to do their job safely and I just can't even
My first response would have been, “You’re right, Coach. I don’t have to apologize for wanting to do my job safely. Please have your substitutes warm up away from where I’m running so they do not get hurt.” And I’d say it loudly enough for the players to hear. They are 13 years old. They are able to understand what you are saying. EDIT-it’s clear you did this. I should stop posting late at night….
We've all dealt with this problem hundreds of times and I'm sure everyone has their own approach, but I make a point to use demanding language to stress the critical nature of my command, e.g. “y'all need to stay away from the touchline” instead of “please stay away from the touchline” — especially when it's not the first time it has happened during the game — and it's possible that choice of words rubbed him the wrong way, on top of the several other negative interactions he and I had throughout the game.
I just shout "MOVE" as loud as I can when I'm running full tilt at the children. Effective and entertaining, a win-win!
If you get the chance, this is also a great opportunity to either not make a call or deliberately get it wrong because their substitutes or the coach themselves were in the way. Coach constantly creeping on the touch line? If a ball goes near him was probably out and it favors the opponent to keep it in play, keep it in play. Tell him “I couldn’t see the line because you were too close again”. Substitutes getting in the way? Deliberately slow down and call/don’t call offside, deliberately call a wrong goal kick/corner kick, etc. Something that goes against his team. And say “hey coach I would have been in better position but your players were all in the way for the third time”.
hard for me to entirely fault someone for doing what they think they have to do to get this very frustrating issue solved, but there's no doubt this approach is unethical and unfair to the players
I wouldn't deliberately miss a call either. But if vision is blocked and you don't know if the ball went out our not, you don't call it. It happened to me before, they complained, so I said I couldn't see because so-and-so (usually a coach) was in the way.
When this happens, I’ll still make the best call I can. If the coach complains, I’ll say that I made the best call that I could despite the coach or players being in the way. Then, I’ll reiterate that others in the way makes it harder for me to do my job as well as I can.
One of the problems in modern America is that almost all adults think back to how they were taught to behave when they were 10, all the things they were taught to value when they were 10, almost all adults think that’s for chumps and losers. I’d just ask those parents, is this how your parents taught you to act back when you were kids? Is this what you’re teaching your own kids? What do you think your kids will take from being on this team when they’re adults?
2 things: - If the coach was already given a yellow card, then that ref was personally involved in the coach getting a 2nd caution by giving the 1st one. - Insist on the ref giving the coach the 2nd caution and offer to do the paperwork yourself. It takes the same amount of time to complete the misconduct report that it does to come post about the situation on this message board IMO.
I really hope that referees are not doing what we should to avoid doing a 10 minute supplemental report. It doesn't help the next referee coming to deal with that "very nice" coach or team.
Saying deliberately was probably not entirely accurate. More like, if it's a debatable call, and you could have made it much better if the team wasn't blocking your ability, then go with the call against that team. Coach/subs are standing on the touchline for the third time and ball possibly goes out of play, maybe more than likely did, but keeping it in play is negative for them? Keep it in play. Subs get in your way running up the touch line again and as a result you're way behind play and there's a potentially close goal kick/corner kick deflection decision? Oh sorry it went against you coach, I would have been more confident if your subs didn't block me for the third time That will usually get results. Not just repeatedly asking them to move.
I generally agree with this and part of me wishes I had done this, but for me it's non trivial to note that a) the players were behaving/coöperating with no issues and b) there was no assistant coach so red card means game over. I can deal with another five minutes of this guy for the players' sake.
@soccerref69420 The hard sell involved saying something like, "I know it is Championship (I almost exclusively do the top Premier division), but it should be a good game and could use a strong crew." The game is paid on-site. Offering more money would be bribery. I think we've all run into a coach or player at some point. My highest level of that, where the team should really have known better, was in a USL-2 game about 4 minutes in. The coach wasn't fully on the sideline, but play was on my touch line and they went long. I turned to run and immediately put my shoulder into his chest. He dropped and I kept going. When I came back up the field, he said, "I was three yards off the line." I just said, "No you weren't" and left it because without a fourth, I was going to need to be the interaction point for the rest of the game and it was too early to create more issues. Sadly the video stream is terrible so you can't actually see it happen.
The first part you need to do is to stop making excuses for the players and the coaches. This is U14 competitive soccer. Coach has coached a game before and the players have played a game before. If they earned a yellow card, then give it. If they earned a warning, then give it. It's not your fault there's no assistant coach available. It's fine if the players were mostly cooperative, but when the one player isn't then they earn themselves a caution. The game can be simpler if you apply the Laws rather than just "deal with another five minutes".
In our state, we have had a record 12 consecutive weekends of rain. I don't believe even Portland or Seattle go through this. We had more rain than usual this past fall, so I bought a rain jacket this winter for matches that are in the early or later parts of the year when I'm running the line when it's cold rain. I never imagined it would be WAY worse and now questioning my sanity in still doing this.