I see these mistakes most often by youth soccer referees - 1) Handled Ball - Mentioned in another thread. Nearly every contact with hand/arm is whistled, even though contact is usually accidental. 2) Offside - Linesman are often of very poor quality and will flag any child who is free onto goal, even if this freedom is the result of a well-timed run and/or lax defending. Very often, the head referee does not overrule the AR's errors. 3) Heel Clipping - Often, defenders will flail at an attacker who is shielding the ball, repeatedly kicking the attacker's shins & heels without having any reasonable play on the ball. These infractions are frequently permitted. 4) Dangerous Play - Most youth refs will automatically whistle a child who plays the ball while lying on the ground, even if the opposition is nowhere near. 5) Persistent Infringement - Very youth referees understand this concept. Items #1, #2, and #4 are exacerbated by lack of knowledge among the spectators, who invariably shriek in horror anytime a ball hits an arm, an offensive player is yards ahead of the last defender, or a child plays a ball while lying on the ground. Regardless of other circumstances, the shrieks begin.
Without exception, I'd say that these are also errors made by senior youth (U16 - U19) and some adult matches as well. #4 is often called inproperly at all levels because referees don't recognize that the simple act of playing in a dangerous manner in itself is not an infringment of the rules. An opponent's effort to make a play must be affected by the player's dangerous act. "Hey! High kick ref!" generally ranks right up there with "Hey! Handball ref!" on the list of stupid things parents and coaches say during a soccer match. Scott
In regard to 2. Most refs I work with don't have club linesmen call offside infractions. Which means they have to call them when they don't always have a good angle. When coaching, I tend to tell my players not to plan on offside being called correctly unless you have uniformed ARs - and then it's still not 100%.
I'd say another big problem with inexperienced referees is poor card management. Many inexperienced referees are terrified of pulling out the yellows and reds. I guess that's a mistake that can only really be learned the hard way.
IAW the ATR you are not supposed to let club ARs call offside. Well trained, experienced referees screw this call up and non-certifieds should not be asked to do this. Club lines men signal when all of the ball crosses the touch or goal line. Failure to adhere to the guidlines for club linesmen could result in the game being nulified if protested.
I think this may be the least recognized foul of all by referees who have not actually played the game. To the non-player it doesn't look like a big deal, but it hurts like h#ll. If not recognized and whistled by the referee, it frequently evokes retaliation from the victim. The non-player referee then incorrectly interprets the retaliation as being hugely disproportionate to the original action by the opponent.
more scared of making a wrong call than any call Youth, inexperianced or plain obstinate older referees will all have the same problems with the recognition factor in all the listed concepts I believe the worry factor of making a mistake tends to freeze up the whistle or cause youth to doubt what they think they see. Often we see the throw ins repeatedly blown or a red card for a DOGSO on a ball handled by a defender in that these are painfully obvious. These kids need mentoring and confidence not always easily obtained. FEAR is the greatest obstacle to overcome on the way to actually enjoying the outing in the middle.
Re: more scared of making a wrong call than any call I couldn't agree more. Refereeing is not for the shy or timid. I used to referee intramural games in college, and we would rotate who was in the middle. One threesome was me, another experienced ref, and a very quiet, inexperienced young woman who could barely be heard even when she blew the whistle. In the match, I counted four separate incidents that could have warranted a red card, and she never even cautioned anybody. Needless to say, the game was WAAAAAAAAY out of control.
Well, it would be great if referee clinics could schedule some friendly matches at the end of the clinic so that refs could get some training on the field.
"Whistle clinics" are a great tool, used many places, but the problems do not arise in a training session. The first quote gets to the heart of the problem, training referees to expect the unexpected.
Refs (or umpires, judges - it doesn't matter what sport we're talking about) are expected to start at perfection and steadily improve from that point! One big problem with getting "on-the-field" training is that many areas of the country schedule their ref certification classes during the off-season. That's when the instructors are available - other times of the year, they're out on the field. Here in the North, that means during winter. The best place for inexperienced refs to gain experience is in real games. Most assignors know to put them in games that "don't matter" - rec games or u10 7th division games. Unfortunately, even though those games don't matter in the larger scheme of things, they do matter to those participating. If players, coaches and spectators could only remember that the ref is learning the game just like the players, there would be a lot less problems.
Of course, with a clinic of the right size, the referees themselves could be the players and rotate who is playing and who is refereeing. Just a thought.
A practice game after a clinic will help some, but it's still only one game's worth of experience. I do think senior referees and coaches should discuss more often how leagues can improve their referee programs. Some ideas were discussed in the following thread. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=52864
When I was refereeing State League in South Australia we did this at the end of every one of our weekly training nights - and we had National League and FIFA list referees and AR's training in our group (they were usually the dirtiest players too !!)
The club I was with previous to our move scheduled preseason scrimmages. New refs worked alongside an experienced one for a match or two, then soloed with supervision. By the time anybody took the field for even a U-Littles match they had been on the pitch 6 or 8 times. The offside calls are, to me, getting worse all the time rather than better. There's so much "offside paranoia" that these younger refs feel under a tremendous amount of pressure to raise the flag. And as you know, it's very tough to overrule the AR on a lot of these. Even if you don't blow the whistle, the flag is up, people are yelling "off", the kid sees the flag and pulls up, and either way it turns out everybody is PO'd.