In relation to the other thread about dumbest parents, here list the dumbest thing you have ever seen a referee say or do. Me being a player as well as a ref, have heard quite a few, but I am probably forgetting a lot of them. Well here are some: -I was called offside when I was not, and would have had a good chance on net late in a tied game. I look around confused as to how I was offside, and the ref says to me, "You were offside when you got the ball." -During pre-game when checking us in, a ref tells us, "You may be suprised that I have to check your cleats to make sure they are legal." -One time, a ref did not check to make sure the nets were secure to the post before the game, and of course we hit a nice shot to it, and it goes through. No goal. The opposing goalie even admitted it was in to the ref(cool kid), but still no goal. -A kid on my team received a red card for saying, "What the hell" to one of my teammates. I am sure there are many more I am forgetting and will remember in ten minutes.
Referees are human, and sometimes maybe even more human than parents, and we can be dumb, too. And then, there can be mass ignorance, maybe less today than in the past when fewer people knew much about the sport, but one particular instance comes to mind. When my daughter was playing in U10's some 15 years ago, the ball was pinballing around in front of the goal in a mad scramble of adolescent arms and legs. The ball deflected off an attacker's hand, the whistle blasted. The adult referee went to the point of the infraction, picked up the ball, and marched the length of the field to the attacker's penalty area with twenty little girls following him like the wake of an ocean liner. He ceremoniously placed the ball at the spot, identified the kicker, cleared the area, and signalled the restart. Frankly, I don't remember if a goal was scored or not. I was too amazed. Not so much with what the referee had done, but that everyone simply accepted this. Noone said "hey ref, that's wrong!" There was not a peep out of a single parent. In essence, he sold the call. Now, was that dumb? Yeah, probably, but who was dumber, the ref who made a mistake or the parent's who bought it? I spoke with him after the game. He told me he had always done it that way. I suggested he might just want to check on that restart, before he did it again. A few weeks later he was doing another of my daughter's games. He came up to me and admitted he had been calling it wrong. This was not dumb, it demonstrates the qualities of a good referee: Courage; Character; and Consistency.
At most youth level games I've seen (admittedly younger kids, like U-10 or younger), the parents have no idea what the rules are. If the referee acts like he knows what he's doing, usually no one will say anything. Well, they do say things...but they don't complain that the ref got the rule wrong.
Three personal examples: 1) In college, playing away, a defender for the other team repeatedly got burned by some pretty simple moves, and his buddies in the stands were riding him pretty hard. As I was going by him yet again (and lest you think I am bragging, he displayed the defensive skills of an orange cone), he punched me. The ref gave both of us yellow cards, and when I asked him why I got one, he said, "You must've done something to cause him to retaliate." 2) Playing rec league ball while in grad school, I was holding the ball near the line, waiting for support, with my back to the defender. The defender went through my legs, clearing me and the ball out of bounds. He never touched the ball, just my legs. He awarded the other team a throw. When my teammates asked why no fould was called, he replied, "You have to expect to get fouled if you hold the ball that long." When they asked why we didn't get the throw, he said that the other guy never touched the ball; that the guy hit my leg, and my leg hit the ball out of bounds. 3) A ref red carded an opponent while saying, "G******it, I warned you guys I wouldn't tolerate any bad language."
At the "National Indoor Championships" held in Dublin, OH we took a team a couple years ago and played CoEd Open, while there I was watching the game before ours a ref comes up talking about the game and it leads to his stating "I was discharged from the Navy for technically being blind", no guesses as to who gets our game. This literally blind ref per the Navy then blows his whistle to award us a free kick from the FAR end of the field while the ref directly on the play said play on and our player scored. Of course we had to go back and take the kick and we end up losing the game by one goal. Different game, same tourny, one of our female players stops the ball as the forward was dribbling it, getting the ball first and the opposing player falls over the ball. She's whistled for the foul and in turn says "All Ball!" and the ref screams back "All BULL!". Jackass. Most of the game he was talking with the other team (from Ohio) and joking with them, gotta love homefield advantage...
My youngest daughter's U13G premier team is playing their first friendly of the year. The ref calls one of our defenders for a foul in the box (ok), yellow cards her (still ok), and then... awards a goal (not a PK, a goal) to the attacking team. Game ends in a 1-1 tie. Perhaps he thought it was a Got Milk 3 v. 3 game.
My daughter's u10 game, about 4 years ago. Ref: "Handballs outside the box are indirect kicks, inside the big box are direct kicks, inside the small box are PK's." Me: "Huh? Which rules are those?" Ref: "That's the way we always play at this field." OKaaayyy. FWIW, there weren't any "handballs" in the game. (She was actually a good ref, other than this interpretation.)
Ref was assigned to a HS game when it was known he had a personal vendetta against one of the coaches. During the course of this game, he issued a straight red to one player for saying "God Bless", yet ignored another player saying "F*** your mother" which was audible from the far sideline. Another game, another team, younger age group - the ref awarded a throwin from the endline. But he did give it to the right team. You're right, there are others which will come to me as soon as the submit button is pressed.
That reminds me. I awarded a goal kick to the attacking team once. Well, it was u-little, they're all just swarming around, I forgot who was going which way.
My personal favorite was from years ago with an under 10 team I was coaching. This was at a time when the keeper could take only 4 steps but also had 6 seconds to get the ball into play (the Board finally decided that it was overkill and got rid of the steps, leaving the 6 seconds as it is now). My keeper got the ball in her hands, started to punt it, but stopped for some reason (I don't remember why). Once she got going again the whistle blew - too many steps! From the resulting indirect kick, the other team scored (yes, it touched two players - no complaint there). Later in the game, my keeper got the ball again. Not wanting to mess up you could see her carefully taking her steps and counting them as she went. Another whistle - more than 6 seconds! This time we were able to block the kick. We got it to the edge of our penalty area. Our defender and their forward hit opposite sides of the ball. The defender won the battle, clearing the ball but the forward fell. Another whistle - PK! They scored the penalty. It gave them the lead with a minute or two to play. Needless to say we didn't recover from that one.
Okay, I admit I made the worst call ever when I was a very green ref... I actually called a goal when the ball curled and hit the post. Frankly, I have no idea what I was thinking.... But, hey, the day I become perfect, I'm going to retire and move to Vegas. Last year, a referee in an U-12 game I was coaching awarded us a goal kick. Our player set the ball, then decided he wanted to kick from the other side of the goal, so he picked the ball up and started jogging to the other side of the goal box. The ref blew the whistle and awarded an IFK to the other team at the edge of the goal box.
The classic dumb thing for refs to say: When a coach or player dissents, the referee says, "I don't want to hear another word." Inevitably, the coach or player will utter, "but..." Now, what can the ref do. If he/she cards the player or coach, he has dug himself a hole deeper than the one he was in. If he does nothing, then his/her word is not seen as being authoritative. For me, that is the classic dumb thing for a ref to say.
I found it annoying when I played that I knew the offside rule better than the linespeople. My final game in a Framingham United uniform, for example. We're playing 6v6, and it's a really hot day. I'm waiting on the half-line for the ball, knowing I'm onside because of my positioning. Of course, the AR didn't see it that way. I got robbed of a couple of 1v0 chances that way. I almost approached the ref about it at half. (I'd been reffing for a good 3 years.) Wisely, I bailed. Eventually, I did get my goal, though, in a 5-1 blowout.
I've seen a game where a ball hit the post and bounced straight back and a goal was awarded. The worst thing I've ever seen a ref do is eat a sandwich and not move while on the sideline. Unfortunately, I was the center and I couldn't get him removed until halftime.
I don't get it. It sounds like the ref called everything correctly (well, who knows about the PK, but I asume your point was the GK rules.) The rules may be dumb, but it doesn't sound like the ref was. Here's dumb: I once was a linesman in a tourny in NJ when a pass was headed upfield, but it looked like it was going to go out. So I raised my flag, but as I did, one player made a quick run and picked up the ball just as it was on the touchline (but not out.) He took a few quick steps and scored, but then the ref saw my flag up and called it back. Boy, did I screw up. The forward was a friend of mine, too. I was the linesman his team had brought up for the tourny, and I robbed him of a good goal. He still bugs me about it when I see him these 25+ years later.
The U-littles are fun. they run around and just do whatever. i'm sure i've done it. and tehn they tell me that the other team should get the ball. so good when they're innocent.
oh, was @ a tourney this weekend. referee awards a free kick to team A. B player has the ball, A asks for it. B says, "no, go get it." drops it, sends it from the half line over the goal line. cautioned for unsportsmanlike conduct. >crosses eyes<
Well, let's not forget the recent MLS game between New England and Metrostars when the ball went over the touch line and the ref awarded a goal kick.
I was reffing an under 12 girls game a couple of years ago that was one of the best I'd seen. Not mob soccer -- good passes, back and forth action, and several lead changes... It was such a good game and I got so caught up in it that I lost track of the time until one of the coaches gently reminded me of it, turns out we were almost ten minutes past time!! Thankfully there hadn't been a lead change during that time and I sheepishly blew the whistle. Ahhhh the love of the game.
I held off on this one to see if anybody had a better one...I think this is the winner. This REALLY happened...it was a freshmen high school match (not USSF) with one referee who didn't look for clublinesmen. [WARNING]What follows may shock you[/WARNING] Game started, Red kicks ball downfield into White's end TWEEEET...IFK coming out. White then sends the ball down into Red's end TWEEEET....IFK coming out. Parents from my son's side come to me asking what the ref is calling (I haven't the foggiest)...parents from opposing side equally confused. No more whistles of this type throughout the 80 minutes of the match. Last play of the match, my son (who was a good 5 yards offside) gets a through ball and breaks in alone on the keeper. My son drills the ball from around the penalty spot right at the keeper who blocks the shot. Rebound goes back toward the 18. My son turns to see he is still the closest player to the ball and goes back to try to retrieve it for another shot...TWEEEET...IFK coming out. Game ends within a minute. Referee walks in my general direction after the match and I identify myself as the father of the player who had the breakaway at the end of the game. I ask her what he did. This happened over three years ago, but I was so shocked by what she said and the advice she gave me, that I remember it pretty much verbatim to this day. "Oh, he had to run back to get the ball so he was offside. Let me give you a tip. At the beginning of every game I call an offside right away, once for each team. That way, they know you're going to call it and they will stay onside for the rest of the game. That way, you don't have to worry about calling it anymore unless they're WAY offside." I thanked her and went out for a drink. Scott
In Ohio, we have some HS refs who only do HS soccer, and they do hardly any other games until the next HS season. I worked with one such ref when a player had a break away down the left side of the field into her half of the field. The player pushed the ball forward and ran around a defender to get the ball himself. The other ref call the player for being "offside." Tried to talk to her after the match, but she was positive that she was right. I think she caught on by the next season.
Brain F**t! A few weeks ago, doing a single middle in the last few minutes of a one sided HS JV game, the ball rolled for some distance directly along a well marked line as an attacker from the team with the untouchable lead and defender raced down to control it. There were several touches until finally the ball fully crossed the plane of the line but was quickly brought back. I whislted and signaled a throw-in for the defense. As I backpedaled, the defender lined up to take a kick to put the ball back into play. I was about to give her an instructional whistle to indicate that it was a throw-in, when I realized that the line that had been crossed was the edge of the penalty area and not the touch. I allowed the kick to continue, though it should have been a drop ball. In my line of view was another ref, a parent of one of the players, who gave me a very quizical look. After the final whistle the defender's coach complimented the way I had handled the match and particularly that last call. I asked him if he was serious and he said yes. He wished more referees would call "hacking" in those situations. I left the field, feeling dumb, but at least my reputation was still intact. Sherman