Not nearly as many as should... It was hilarious when I played Over 30 as a goalkeeper. As the crew came out, I'd step to the center backs and tell them if we should play a high line or not. On a rare occasion, I wouldn't recognize the AR and I'd tell them to be careful and 5 minutes in I'd make adjustments.
Was AR1 once for a boys U16 premier game. At halftime I overhear the HC of the home team, a former Newcastle United player say to his team - "Go ahead and trap them, the referee's been spot on every time". My chest swelled up a bit.
I was an AR in a game, older age group (full-size field) and the coach yelled out to his players to not try the offside trap any more, because he's not going to call it. Maybe if they had executed it correctly a time or two ...
Sometimes teams get used to trapping sloppy forwards and can’t believe it when they play a team that knows how to time their runs properly
There was a referee turned HS coach who, before he built his program up a bit, was very shorthanded. He would run the most suicidal offside trap you'd ever see, just as a why not try something type strategy. He'd usually call it off if they fell behind by 5 or 6, but one time I was CR and he just kept it going the whole game and took like a 10-0 shellacking. After the game I asked him what he was thinking, and he pointed at my AR2 gasping for breath just out of ear shot and said "Chuck keeps skipping the (non-mandatory at that time) physical fitness test. Someone should make him run once in a while."
I'll stick this here since it technically fits (it's about text messages I saw). Last week I had an AR assignment on a HS playoff game. I get a text about three hours before the game. CR asked everyone to show up in pants and a polo. Keep in mind this is a weekday and all of us probably have a 45-60 minute drive to the match. Well, if that's what you want, I'll throw my shorts on under my dress pants before I leave work and keep my dress shirt on. Today I get a text from a different CR about another playoff game on Monday (I'm assigned as 4O). He tells us to wear black polo, black tracksuit. At least there's a reasonable amount of time to prepare an outfit this time. Personally I've never bothered buying any of the OSI polos or warm-up gear (which, as USSF gear, arguably aren't even a perfect fit for a HS game). I appreciate a desire to be professional, but it seems to me that showing up in anything other than your normal ref gear is a bit over the top for any youth or HS game, or any level where you aren't guaranteed your own locker room. I also think it's kind of weird that I've done 35 playoff games prior to this season, and this is the first year any refs have seen fit to coordinate outfits.
Another example of huge referee egos, and what a surprise, it’s from high school. The only time you should need to coordinate apparel before a match is if it’s either a. Provided by the association to every ref for specific situations or b. Required to be mandatory apparel in the league handbook. So now refs can just make demands of random apparel they want their crew to have? What if a ref in your crew doesn’t have a black track suit? What if he doesn’t have an appropriate polo shirt?
The dissent isn’t needed, but I’m with the kid on principle here. He signed up for a full game of soccer, he has a right to not be short-changed on time. We don’t know why he wanted more time. Sports (especially at youth level) are/should be about more than just winning or losing. Maybe goal difference matters. Maybe he doesn’t get much playing time and wanted to get as many minutes of experience as he could. Maybe his grandma was at the game and he wanted to try to score in front of her. At the professional level, players might have performance incentives in their contracts that they’re trying to hit. We don’t know why a player might want a full game. Even if the rest of the team doesn’t want to keep playing, one player might want to, and they do have a right to that time. I really don’t get why it’s so normalized to cut the game short in our sport, cuz that’s what we’re doing when we are chopping off added time. Someone is paying for a full game of soccer, they deserve the right to have a full game.
It used to be pretty common for refs in low level games where I was on the line to end the game a few minutes before scheduled time for reasons like temps in the 40s or just wanting to go home. Not that long ago, just before COVID. A coach might yell at them and they'd just shrug. It was infuriating that these guys were ahead of me on the pecking order, I lost my centering privileges with my main assigner a few years into my career (hence my user name). The one guy who did it routinely is now a state designated mentor, though he doesn't do it anymore.
When I was a full-time coach, we had a ref pull a stunt where he ended the 1st half 5 minutes early since the crew arrived late (as if that's my problem). I told my players not to leave the field of play...even though we were winning. The look on this guy's face was priceless. It was insulting to me to think he didn't believe (or care) that both coaching staffs wouldn't realize he was skimming time. Yes, he did finish out the half and pissed that this AR's didn't have his back.
I think it depends on the situation. With the OP’s description, it was a game that’s functionally over, and the losing team is short of players with no desire to continue. There’s really no need to prolong the torture. And no one else cared except for this one individual player. There’s nothing wrong with cutting short the stoppage time for this. Because they refuse to stop the clock, or ACCURATELY track exactly how much time is being lost per game. When you lose 10-15 minutes per game with all the injuries, subs, and restart delays, whining about the arbitrary few minutes of stoppage time given is kind of silly
I will say I do think I can accept cutting time short if both coaches want it that way (unless it’s potentially a strategic decision for a goal difference tiebreaker scenario on the last matchday, of course). The coach is a representative for the team, after all, so his opinion could be seen as overriding that of all of his players. I also want to say, I think it is a very slippery slope when it comes to “well the scoreline is out of reach”. Ending the game early at 10-0 is one thing, but it slowly becomes “ending a game at 4-0 is fine” “3-0 is a blowout too” “well, it’s 2-0 and they’re a man up, it’s basically over”, “it’s 2-0 and they’re dominating, nothing good happens in added time so I’ll end the game right now!” I’ve heard refs draw their own line everywhere on that spectrum, including the last example. And at some point it does need to be acknowledged that it becomes grossly unfair at some point in that spectrum to deny the team a full allotment of time to change the result (assuming they want it). If you’re scared of whatever might happen in added time then why are you even refereeing the game at all? The same stuff could happen in minute 87, so by the same logic why not blow the final whistle at 85 instead? The only difference is the lack of plausible deniability, which shouldn’t be how referees think.
I remember having the opposite problem with added time one game. It was several years ago when water breaks first became common. It was a hit day in July for an adult women’s game. Because of the temperature, we had a water breaks. I did add time to the first half because of an injury and the water breaks. However, the only significant stoppage in the second half was the water breaks. During stoppage time, both teams asked how much time was left. They both said that their coaches all had 45 minutes on their watches. I explained that we needed to add 2 minutes for the water breaks. Neither team was interested and both said something like “We’re done” and left the field.
An adult women's game in which both teams said they were done? You were quite wise in not insisting that they play stoppage time .
Sometimes I think I have trouble with positioning and then I realize that even first-division Spanish officials also have that issue.
Alejandro Quintero, same referee from Real Madrid vs Celta, December 7, 2025. This incident starts around 3:12 in the highlights video.
Stay out of zone 14! I’m sure there are players who have heard me telling myself “get out of the way idiot” out loud when I find myself close to it. I’ll sometimes make very awkward jilted movements to avoid it when I get close too
I’m not going to gree with stay out of 14 or stay out of the PA. There are times the R should be in both. But we have to be conscious and aware of why we need to be there and what the players are doing to avoid being in the way. There are lots of times we need to be in 14, fewer in the PA and the PA DB rules create added consequences.
Did that diagram flip at some point? I seem to recall being told to be wary when in "Zone 5", and stay out as much as possible. "Zone 5" was the same area (attacking center just outside the attacking PA).
I wander through Zone 14 all the time. I find the key is to not be standing between the ball and the goal. You never know when the midfielder will wind up a blind shot without looking.
It's not just that. Defensive clears often come out into that zone, and quickly. As an assessor, I'd often see developing refs spend way too much time in 5-8-11-14. Get wider, for a better angle and a better view of your lead AR.
his sentiment is close though. Zone 14 (much like center circle) should be a passing lane. Not somewhere where you hang out or park at. If play goes towards lead AR the fastest way, to opposite side of PA, is through zone 14.