A state high school association (NOT TN!) has communicated that next year the referee's jurisdiction will end when the final whistle has blown, not when the referees leave the area of play as suggested in the NFHS rule book. Some referees I know are concerned that this weakens ability to deal with dissent at the precise moment that it may be most likely. What is the opinion of other high school or college referees on this board about the advisability and consequences of such a policy and do you know of any states that deviate from NFHS on this issue?
I should add that most referees tend to agree with the concept of getting out of Dodge quickly after a hotly contested match and turning a deaf ear to most dissent after the final whistle blows, but the point is this policy tends to take a tool away that may be needed in special circumstances.
There should always be a game report option. If something should be reported after the game concludes, there should be an avenue to do that.
Yes, they are asking referees to report incidents to the state association, and it will be their decision regarding consequences. The reason given was that a yellow or red card did not carry any consequence since the game has ended, though they seemed to ignore that typically a red card would carry a one-match suspension. Of course I would report any post match incident warranting a card and I know some states require reporting of all cards. I'm with you, IASocFan, in that anything this serious would be reported either way, but this seems to leave the consequence up to the state association. They did not say this, but if it was done to be more in line with FIFA and USSF procedures, I'm in favor of that. One particular thing I hate about the high school game is significant deviations from FIFA, particularly that a second yellow only warrants disqualification of that player and not going a man down.