Unfortunately, it hasn't. I heard it the other day in a game. Goalkeeper was complaining an opponent played the ball on the ground. There was no one within 15 yards of the opponent who was on the ground after falling over his own feet. The ball came near him (but no other players did) so he kicked the ball with his feet before he got up.
I still get it occasionally. Usually, the same person complaining about it will also have a complaint about a "high kick" foul, when the kick in question is nowhere near another player.
Not in our area. I'm astonished that guys who would never call this in a USSF sanctioned match are whistling this in high school games since they picked up these bad habits of incorrectly whistling PIADM from others and can't help themselves. When I bring it up at halftime, you get a shocked look as if they just saw an alien.
Last week, I did the end of season tournament for what is called the "Unified League". These are High School co-ed teams where half of the kids on the field are special needs, and the other half are mentors. Great opportunity to give these kids a chance to be on a school team and learn some of the lessons of sports. For the third year in a row for this event, it's mid-60s and mostly sunny. In Michigan. When it could *easily* be 37 and raining. First game, both teams come out in green t-shirts, one with yellow lettering, the other with white. Zero point zero percent chance that I'm going to make someone change shirts. Game is reasonably even (I think we ended up 8-6). At one point, a parent behind me asks "Who's winning?" "Green". The, on reflection, I change my answer: "No, Blue is definitely winning today." Since I was wearing the blue ref shirt.
O-50 men, 1st division (of three). One sided game, 1st place v. next to last. Losing team took their goal differential for the season from -10 to -15. Second half, a player from the winning team takes what he apparently thought was a shot, no one near him, from about 15 yards inside the touchline and 25 from the goal line on the left side of the field. His attempt sails wide right, a lot wide right, and crosses the goal line at about 15 feet up. His teammate turns to me and says, "Give him a card, ref."
U14 B ... "Hey ref, can you check the ball?" "Sure, what's wrong?" "I don't know ... it's too grippy. When I try to make a move it just sticks to my foot." "Hmm. Clearly the ball's fault." "Yea."
I'm pretty sure that in my teenage years I had a similar conversation with a referee trying to convince him that the ball was defective as it clearly wouldn't fit in the goal (based on our forwards missing time after time.)
Doing a u10 game yesterday. The goalkeeper lost his shoe while diving for a ball that went out for a goal kick anyway. The kid was having trouble putting it back on because he was wearing goalkeeper gloves that were too big for him. I had the coach come out and try to help him, but she was having problems with his shoe as well. She finally decided to substitute a different player in at goalkeeper so she could take him off the field to work on his shoe and we could get the game going. When the new goalkeeper got in, he put the ball down and immediately took the goal kick. However, his coach was still on the field (She was halfway between the penalty area and the touchline) and I hadn't blown the whistle to restart play. I stopped play with my whistle and said, "No one was ready. Let's do that again." One of the defenders said, "Let's hit rewind" and made a motion like he was using a remote to rewind a movie. He even made a buzzing sound as he was doing it. That gave me a chuckle.
Girls HSV. We ask the requisite question of the coach "will they be legally and properly equipped" and get the normal "absolutely" response. As the players come out to midfield one at a time for introductions, one is wearing a very large clear acrylic ear barbell style piercing. Its probably 1.5" long across the ear. We remind her that she has to take that out. "Oh its ok ref. Its clear."
And you made her take it out? It clearly wasn't clashing with her outfit. What's wrong with your fashion sense?
"I can't take it out, it doesn't come off" Followed by her taking it off when you say "sorry, then you can't play"
Or later on when the same player you told to take it out before the game comes onto the field wearing it anyway. Yellow card. And then you get told you’re a jerk
Boys HS game ... as they're running out during pre game announcements #12 White has a huge necklace on. "Hey #12, remember to take off the necklace before we start." "Sure, no problem, got it." Before kick off we check and yup, no necklace on #12. 1st half ensues. #12 plays a good chunk of the 40 minutes. Halftime comes and goes, we start the second half. About two minutes in before a throw in AR2 says over comms, "check that kid on the 40 yard line, I think he has jewelry." You'll never guess who's wearing a big necklace. Again. I am 100% confident he didn't play with it on in the 1st half, given the size there's no way we missed it. THE KID PUT THE NECKLACE BACK ON AT HALFTIME. Never seen that before. As I go over to give the coach a YC he's shaking his head. Got the sense this wasn't the first time. Good grief.
Reading this reminded me of a NCAA D1 Women's game this past fall. Mid-major conference game, Mid-October; the teams had played something like 13-15 matches before this. One of the away team's captains is wearing a plastic ear stud on the upper part of her ear (google is saying "helix"). I catch it while we're at midfield for anthem/introductions. Me: "Hey, [Number whatever], just a reminder that the earring needs to come out before we kick off." Her: "Oh, no. It's fine ref. It's plastic and it's not dangerous." Me (confused): "The law says no jewelry. That's jewelry. It needs to go?" She then acted confused that I was actually enforcing it, but agreed and took it out before kickoff. Her teammates' body language showed surprise too. I'm a little concerned I was one of the first referees to enforce that against her that season....
And you know that after the game she was telling her teammate or coach or friends or just thinking to herself “that jerk ref made me take out my earring, no one else did, what an ego on that guy” And you also know for a damn fact that if a ref allowed a player to play with any illegal equipment like earrings, or other visible piercings, or a hard cast, or a hard knee brace (which I have also had to disallow a player from playing with, one of those stabilization knee braces with uncovered metal brackets on the sides, and of course I was the a-hole for making her miss the game when “every other ref has let me play with it”), and the player either gets injured due to it or injured someone else with it, it’s YOUR ass that’s getting sued because “you knowingly let a player play with illegal equipment”