I was refereeing a girls' game and one of the players took a shot from just outside the PA. It (apparently) hit a defender in the arm inside the box, but I couldn't see it because I was screened. For about a quarter of a second, I could feel the psychic energy of about three dozen coaches, players, and parents about to scream at the top of their lungs, but I couldn't call a handball because I didn't see it. Fortunately, one attacker had the presence of mind to realize play was still on, took a couple of steps to the ball, and drilled it into the back of the net. All of a sudden all the people who were about to berate me thought I was a genius for seeing the "advantage."
My AR last night gave me another one. IFK, girl takes the kick. Opponent comes in from outside the 10 yard distance and intercepts. Tweet! The opponent hadn't given the kicker a chance to kick the IFK the required second time.
I coach a high school team. One of my players last year was a real smart aleck. One game, the ref kept telling him to quit complaining after every call. Player kept complaining. Finally, the ref said "You know Christmas is in a week, right?" Player said "Yea. So?" Ref said: "So here's your card!" and showed the yellow to him... Pretty funny...
Here's a couple: 1) I am reffing an intramural game in college and my supervisor, who was in a rival fraternity and constantly told me at halftime and after games what I was doing wrong...in his opinion, gets fouled from behind and pulls down the guy, so I whistle it and start to take out the yellow for both when he stands over the guy and stomps (not very hard but can't really think of another way to describe it) on the guy! Straight red. A week later he comes up to me at halftime of a game I'm reffing and proceeds to tell me how he should not have gotten a straight red but a yellow (would have been two yellows then!) since he didn't hurt the guy and that I presented the cards in the wrong way?!?!?! 2) Two days ago I am coaching a HS game and we run a free kick play with two guys approach and stop as if they both thought that only one of them was going to take and start to argue, as they begin a third player comes in and takes it and scores. Ref calls it back and calls me onto the field with my captains (who were on the field already) to explain that it was not taken with a single fluid motion, looks at me sees my expression (kind of a cross between "huh" and "you're an idiot") and adds "it was also an attempt to decieve." Now I get the deception (and a number of people on here said the arguing would lead to that call) but not the fluid motion part! 3)Later in the same game one of my midfielders tries to play a through ball in the air and it hits an opponents hand bounces right to him and he sends it up on the first touch and puts a striker in on a breakaway...and the ref blows the whistle for the handball! I yell "advantage" and he responds that we did not actually posess the ball. The ball was about ten yards behind the defender with our man about 2 yards behind it running on! oh and going with Yankee's theme I once asked a ref if I could get a card for what I was thinking, he responded that I could not, so I said "I think you suck!" and he about fell over laughing!
Since the thread is allegedly about foolish things referees say or do, and the original poster 'crossed his eyes' at the outcome, one would deduce that the poster thought it was foolish for the referee to give a caution in that situation. That's what Headhunter, and I assume most people, read. I have to say that I am just as confused as Headhunter.
Can we erase that whistle from the soundtrack? DOH!!! Then again, I whistled for offside last night for a cross from the goal line. The other side of my brain reminded me that the player was behind the ball. Fortunately, the 'keeper corraled the ball and I could sell it as an IFK in the scrum.
Dumbest thing ever? In a U16 game away from play our team had an injured player laying on the ground. The opposing team has a player run by and kick him in the head. The ref blows the whistle and awards a free kick for the player who kicked the other stating that the hurt player made a dangerous play by being on the ground. I've also seen a ref give a PK from the 6 yard box, give a straight red card to a player who said "oh sh@t" when he got his leg broken, and the same ref from the U16 game above also called advantage when I had a 1v1 vs a keeper in a different U16 game and rounded the keeper and the keeper grabbed my foot (and did not let go!) tripping me in the penalty area. This advantage? The ball rolled out of play for a goal kick. But I'll never forget the ref shouting "advantage" and claiming to me after the play that we had an advantage because the keeper was on the ground with the ball in the box.
Ok, this isn't totally about dumb things referees say -- but it's a dumb thing a parent who is a referee said during his kids game (me). One of our midfielders passed the ball back to a defender. One of the other team's attackers runs from 6 to 8 yards in an offside position and intercepts the ball. I state loudly (not really loud enough to be heard by the referee -- just loud enough to be heard by most of the parents around me) that he had come from an offside position. Another parent on the other end of the stands states equally loudly it wasn't passed by his own team. Then I stated just as loudly, you're right. All the parents around me had a good laugh .
Exactly as MassRef said. From the context of the thread it seems that the poster feels that this was a stupid decision but two me it seems completely warrented. In fact, I gave a card the other week for a similiar situation.
Actually I have one from reffing as well. I was the assistant on a State Finals game and off a corner a team scores on a header, but the player at the post reaches back and grabs the ball. I try to signal for a goal but the center does not look my way and instead calls for a PK and red cards the defender. The team that had scored a goal misses the PK and loses the game by a score of 2 to 1. This center never once glanced in my direction, but immediately placed the ball on the spot, walked over to the opposite corner and called the player over to receive his red and talked to him for a minute, watched him walk off the field, and then ran over to the spot and blew his whistle for the kick to be taken. I was signalling for him to come over the entire time until he blew the whistle for the kick to be taken (and took a position with his back facing me!) Anyway he decided a state championship simply because he didn't know what an assistant was. That was the last game I ever reffed too.
Since this is a forum for improvement, did you call out his first name? It's too bad you no longer ref. It sounds like you know the game pretty well. Most areas will coninue to need good refs.
A friend of mine who is a very very good ref helped his father out by being a field coordinator and a local low-level tournament. He witnessed one event where a player was fouled pretty hard. The ref cautioned the fouler, then sent off the foulee. When asked why after the match, he said it was "fear of fighting". He was afraid the foulee would get up and punch the player that fouled him. That one makes me chuckle, makes me understand why many involved with youth soccer have a skewed view of the game.
Many of you have had stories where the ref misinterprets the LOTG, I can beat you: I once had a ref misinterpret the Laws of Physics... Heres the situation. In highschool we were ahead 2-1 and our outside back had just conceeded a corner. Anyways long story short the other team takes the kick and it floats over our keepers head and into the goal! But wait!! The center signals that the ball went out of play before it went into the goal. The other team goes balistic of course... The ref never did explain to them how the ball managed to change directions twice in midair. It didn't end up mattering as we won 4-1
Dumbest things .... Pool play at State Cup, GU13. Near the center line, the ref whistles for foul on Green as ball rolls into touch. White player picks up the ball and performs a throw-in to a teammate who begins sprinting toward the Green goal. White team doesn't respond to throw-in and is caught flat-footed, as is the nearside AR. White player proceeds to pass to an offside teammate (AR is 20 yards behind play at this point, CR even further behind play) who takes it the rest of the way and beats the keeper. Game ends White - 1, Green - 0. After the game, the coach wants an explanation from the tournament director and CR. The CR's explanation? She allowed the throw-in restart, because she changed her mind about the foul, and after all, she really didn't blow the whistle THAT loud anyway!
Dumbest thing I ever did as a referee was to accept a U10 solo assignment. No, wait, that's one of those things you do for the good of the game. The call I made during that game was the dumbest thing I did. First few minues of the game with Purple attacking White's goal and a white player clears the ball to a teammate at least 10 yards offside. Easy call - white coach is first stunned by the whistle, then outraged by the call, "WHAT, ARE YOU BLIND OR JUST AN IDIOT?!" Being given a choice sets me back for just a second, but then I decide I don't like either choice, "Coach, you're in the book for a caution. INDIRECT FREE ..... kick ....... for ..... CRYIN' OUT LOUD. Why does purple have their defender playing behind their keeper when they have the ball at the other end of the field?! Geez, why didn't I just choose 'b'? Not much else to do except start with a drop ball. But, let the caution stand. My impression was that the chance to brag about the best caution he ever took for the team might distract him from the fact that I'd stopped a breakaway against the strangest defensive alignment I'd ever seen, especially since purple was most likely going to get a thorough pummeling. Wrong on both accounts. Seems part of purple's defensive problems were due to the fact that they didn't play much defense. They wound up winning 5-2. The white coach put in a complaint against my officiating ability, claiming his team had been playing great up until that point (3 minutes) and my blown call totally changed the momentum against his team, leading to their defeat.
We were playing last year in a high school game and i crossed a ball up the field behind there last defender and the winger on my team ran the ball down and buries a shot in the upper corner. Then the ref blows the wistle for offsides since the two of us were the captains we asked the ref how he could have possibly made that call and his answer was and i remember this very clearly beause i had never heard anything so ignorant when refing soccer................. " I was going by the sound " confused we both look at each other and i ask the ref, "What sounds, your suppose to be watching the play!" " Please dont question me I know what I heard and if theres any more mouthing off from either of you I will give each of you a card" At half one of our teams parents was coming back to our side and heard the ref talking to parents from the other side " Jesus those two are some of the loudest mouthed kids i have ever heard i really wanna get rid of wanna them" Well we beat the team 6-2
I'm not quite sure why a center referee would say something like this, but this would not be an ignorant thing for an AR to say, at all. About the only way for the AR to get the really close calls right is take his eye off of the play on the ball at least at the last instant and track the second to last defender while waiting for the sound of the ball being kicked (the center ref has primary resonsibility for the play on the ball, with the AR assisting whenever he can). Granted, this technique does have its problems when encountering the occasional winger who can run faster the speed of sound But it is effective AR technique when refereeing mere mortals.
Here's the situation. During pool play in a local tournament, CR awards a correct PK, I'm on the line so I move in on the end line to watch the goalkeeper. Everything is going well, he clears the area and we get ready for the kick. He blows his whistle, the attacker takes the kick and the goalie dives and stops the ball but it rebounds back out. The attacker then plays the ball again, the CR blows his whistle and awards an IFK for the defense. I look at him, he looks at me and I can see the light go off in his head that the keeper touched the ball so it was legal for the attacker to play it. He does correctly award a drop ball and luckily for us the attacking team did end up winning, but to this day I remind him of that PK when we meet up to referee matches.
I'm in a rec league with very inexperienced refs, but the same pair work most of the games. So in our third match, within the first minute a player on the opposing team slightly bumps me as we compete for a header. The ref blows the whistle, and I figure that they're just calling things tight early for some reason. So to my surprise, the ref then comes over and cards the player who was adjudged to have fouled me. He asks what the card is for, and the ref tells him that last game he was out of control until he got carded, and the card settled him down. So he's getting a yellow early so that he's under control the entire match this time. At this point I figure that this is unfair, but since I certainly don't want to get on this ref's bad side myself, the most I can do is to pretend I'm not sure what the call was and politely ask him what the reason was for the caution, in the hopes that he'll realize there isn't one in the middle of explaining to me what happened. He answers that he cautioned the player for persistent infringement. The player now, somewhat less than politely, asks how he can be carded for PI when this was the first whistle of the game. So the ref tells him that he's reconsidered, and will not caution him for PI. However, he will caution him for dissent.
Our games only have two refs usually, they position themselves on the sidelines and are basically AR's but they also blow fouls in their respective ends of the field. Last year, I had a ref that would often show up for our co-ed rec games. He would more often than not be cought watching a different game from the one he was supposed to be reffing. Many times there would be a obvious foul like someone handling the ball with his or her hands, or someone would be way offside and I would look over at him to see if he was going to blow his whistle and would see that he was watching the game next to ours. Apparantly us unskilled heathens are too boring for him to watch. On more than one occasion he stopped the game in the middle of the first or second half to go pray on the sideline. It would coincide with dusk so I assume he needed to pray at that time, and while I respect that, I feel he shouldn't be taking any games that might conflict with his religious practices. Thankfully I haven't seen him at any matches this year. We also have several refs that NEVER blow their whistle, if the ball goes out, they simply make the required gesture, if there's a foul, more often than not they simply do nothing. There's been many games where there were absolutely no fouls called. No offense to any refs on this board, I am not one myself, but I often say that we would be better off without any refs at all. We being my co-rec league, not we as in everyone. I realise there are a lot of good refs out there, we just don't happen to have any. People tend to play a little cleaner and are far more honest about if the ball came off them or they played it with their hands if we're self reffing in my opinion. This is not to say that I don't appreciate a good ref, or a good performance by one of the overall poor refs occasionally, these instances are just way too few and far between. We have another ref that has recently taken to an annoying habit. If he's reffing the game on the field furthest from the restrooms and his game is at halftime or has ended he will walk right through the game between his field and the bathroom, the game is in progress mind you, the players have to play around this "extra" ref.