Bad stories

Discussion in 'Referee' started by Law5, Oct 27, 2021.

  1. Gary V

    Gary V Member+

    Feb 4, 2003
    SE Mich.
    "You thought that was bad? I've been much worse."
    or
    "You need to get out more."
     
    dadman and soccerdad72 repped this.
  2. Gary V

    Gary V Member+

    Feb 4, 2003
    SE Mich.
    I first heard that nearly 30 years ago. From the instructor in my original Grade 8 certification class.
     
    dadman and Law5 repped this.
  3. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    "That's the worst call EVER!" "You haven't played very much, have you?" Actually got a laugh from the complainer's teammates. Yes, plural.
     
    IASocFan, dadman and MJ91 repped this.
  4. Chaik

    Chaik Member

    Oct 18, 2001
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Had a college for the third time this past weekend. And for the third time he told a CR "that's the worst game I've seen called in my X years here."

    CR #3, as we walked to the locker room after I told him that: "sounds like cataracts if his eyesight is going that quickly."
     
  5. davidjd

    davidjd Member+

    Jun 30, 2000
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Or more direct, "You thought that was bad? You should have seen me last week!" or "Really? I thought that was actually one of my better games."

    I don't like going down these paths, but I have been on crew where the center responded that way.
     
  6. Pittsburgh Ref

    Pittsburgh Ref Member+

    Oct 7, 2014
    da 'Burgh
    I never say this to civilians, but have remarked to refs that it's a damn good thing we don't make as many mistakes as players do.
     
    dadman, AlextheRef and Dayton Ref repped this.
  7. Dayton Ref

    Dayton Ref Member+

    May 3, 2012
    Houston, TX
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I've found the best way to shut down post game criticism at levels where you can't look at the coach and say ROC/Rules say, "You can't confront us, go away." is to thank them.
    "Thank you. Have a good day." Add in a friendly wave as you walk away and there isn't anything that they can do. They want an argument and not disagreeing with them takes the opportunity away.
    Note: I will have explained the call already.
     
    jayhonk, dadman and Law5 repped this.
  8. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    In reality, that’s what I do as well. Thank you coach, good game. Heard coach, thank you.

    However, that response is far too professional for bigsoccer
     
    IASocFan repped this.
  9. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    Yesterday, JV2 girls, medium skills for that level. I'm R2. Visiting team player face to face with an opponent, in midfield, with the ball between them. She tries to just start directly forward, only to discover that she was smaller than the opponent. She bounces back and falls down. She now is sitting on the ground with the ball between her legs. The opponent is looking at her with an expression like "Do you really want me to kick the ball straight forward?" I call dangerous play, just to get the game restarted without injury. Her coach starts yelling about "What did you call???!!!" I responded "Dangerous play." "That wasn't dangerous!!!" R1 didn't say anything, even after the coach wanted to continue to talk about a dangerous play call in the middle of the field.

    Unfortunately, I know the coach. He's a former referee and former USSF assignor. He was brought up on professionalism charges and is no longer welcome in the USSF world. And JV2 girls is as high a level of team as anyone will hire him to coach. His team lost, 5-1..
     
    soxfaninny, IASocFan and Gary V repped this.
  10. Gary V

    Gary V Member+

    Feb 4, 2003
    SE Mich.
    I did this inadvertently once. A game where the coaches and spectators decided to give there opinions often. As I was leaving the field, one of the spectators said, "Good game, ref." I instinctively replied, "Thank you." As I walked on, I realized his comment was sarcastic.

    The ones I never understood was when a coach simply said, "Thank you for coming out today." Hmm, is that meant to be a compliment or a backhanded criticism?
     
  11. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    In my experience, that is not meant as a compliment. Essentially, 'the only good thing you did was actually show up.'
     
  12. Dayton Ref

    Dayton Ref Member+

    May 3, 2012
    Houston, TX
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    After the game, absolutely. Before the game, sounds like somebody's had a few games without a full crew.
     
    dadman, Law5 and Barciur repped this.
  13. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  14. MetroFever

    MetroFever Member+

    Jun 3, 2001
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    I'm aware of referees losing their badges or being sanctioned for various legitimate reasons. I always wondered if assignors were ever held to the same standard. Apparently, it's possible depending on the state.
     
  15. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    #2140 Law5, Oct 3, 2024
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2024
    We had a very bad case this last year of an assignor abusing his position, in a number of ways. He faked assignments for a relative, including fake game reports, to qualify the relative for youth Regionals. He also had pay for some referees direct deposited into his personal account and then didn't give them the money, referees that he knew are unable/unwilling to report this to the police. He has been kicked out of USSF and NFHS assigning. (He was never involved in college assigning.)
     
  16. weka

    weka Member+

    Dec 9, 2011
    For the first time in my career... I had to terminate a (UPSL) match due the fear of referee crew safety. Definitely not what I needed going into my maintenance tomorrow...
     
    AlextheRef and frankieboylampard repped this.
  17. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    I heard this from a fellow referee who also works for the state youth association. He gets an email from club A saying that the website has a score wrong. "It was 11-1, not 7-0 the other way." He checked the referee game reports, all of which said 11-1. Easy right? Except that now club B, the other team, contacts him about the score absolutely being 7-0. ???

    Further investigation revealed that club A has a private high school field for their small sided games, with two fields marked out crosswise. Club A had two games at the site at the same time. The winner of the 11-1 game, let's call them A1, had been in last place in the standings. Their team, A2, which was playing at the same time on the other field, had been in first place but, somehow, lost 7-0.

    My friend finally realized that A1 was a U-12 team. A2 was a U-11 team. Their opponents, B1 and C2, were from the opposite age groups! A1 was a U-12 team playing B1, which was a U-11 team. C2 was a U-12 team playing A2, a U-11 team. A1 had beaten a U-11 team 11-1. A2 had lost to a U-12 team, 7-0. They'd played the wrong teams! As my friend put it, that's all on the club A coaches. Club B and C coaches just knew which club they were supposed to play and that was the club on their field, just not the right age group.
     
    JasonMa, AlextheRef, roby and 2 others repped this.
  18. mathguy ref

    mathguy ref Member+

    Nov 15, 2016
    TX
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    How does that happen? Are they not checking rosters and player cards? I get a team being on the wrong field for a game but by the time you are checking players in someone should have clued into the wrong club/ team/players.
     
  19. Law5

    Law5 Member+

    Mar 24, 2005
    Beaverton OR
    The teams each provide a roster and their player cards. The players all matched the presented roster. But, yes, the referees didn't notice that the age group of one team on their field was wrong.
     
  20. soccerref69420

    soccerref69420 Member+

    President of the Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz fan cub
    Mar 14, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Korea DPR
    Damn what happened
     
  21. mathguy ref

    mathguy ref Member+

    Nov 15, 2016
    TX
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Ah. Every club game I have ever been on the roster for each team was on the printed or electronic match report supplied by each team. So that each team knows who the eligible players for the other team are.

    Last weekend the away team for a club presented a roster with 15 players and it was printed (dated) 3 days before the match. The home team presented one printed and dated the day of the match and it only showed 13 of those players. The away team somehow fudged 2 names on their “printout”. It was two illegal players. They got busted. If I heard the result correctly they lost their bond and got kicked out of the league.
     
    dadman and MJ91 repped this.
  22. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    At the very least, with two full U-11 teams and two full U-12 teams on site, there is usually a noticable size difference between the two.
     
    dadman, frankieboylampard and Law5 repped this.
  23. ArgylleRef

    ArgylleRef Member

    Jan 23, 2004
    Lansing, KS
    Saw something new a couple of days ago. Confession, I know I got this wrong in the heat of the moment, but I'd like to hear some thoughts from others. This is a HS BV game, but I think everything would track with real soccer, too.
    Closing moments of the game, so blue takes the ball to the corner to ... consume time. Minor shenanigans occur and then we have a corner. The first corner, blue plays the ball to teammate standing on the corner arc who then shields it again. Ball goes out for another corner. This is when it got weird. This corner blue had the kicker plus three teammates lined up on the corner arc (think Mighty Ducks and the flying wedge (tm?)). White flies in from ten yards, breaking the wedge. I know I missed some misconduct there but I was making my presence known. We restarted with another FK that essentially was another corner. Same line up. More hilarity ensues. White, on the whistle, charges around the huddle and kicks the ball 30 yards from the endline. Buzzer sounds while we are getting the ball back and I'm giving the white player a yellow for DR/FRD, anyone's choice.
    In the moment, the three from blue huddling around the ball seemed wrong to me, but I couldn't articulate in my own head how it was wrong, so I didn't interrupt things. If I could have come up with a valid reasoning in my head, I would have made the end of that game so much easier on myself. But I couldn't.
    So, to late for short story, but what was it that made the huddle on the corner wrong?
     
  24. Pittsburgh Ref

    Pittsburgh Ref Member+

    Oct 7, 2014
    da 'Burgh
    While blue is going out of their way to buy trouble here, there's nothing saying they can't or shouldn't huddle on the arc. Situation calls for heightened attention/presence, which it sounds like you provided. HSB, man...
     
    dadman repped this.
  25. ejschwartz

    ejschwartz Member

    Manchester United
    United States
    Oct 17, 2021
    Were the huddlers obstructing play of the ball? I assume the ball was in play..
     
    Beau Dure and frankieboylampard repped this.

Share This Page