I use to ref and I gave my fair share of cards, but.... Now I am helping out with a JUCO soccer team while in college. We had a ref who gave out eight yellow cards in our match today. I understand trying to get control, but this was insane. I think maybe one of them was deserving. I even got in on the action. Here is the story: Our defender was running to a ball and an attacker kicked the ball around like 10 yards ahead with no one there. The attacker runs on the defender. The ref shouted play on. Well, they did not get an advantage out of it so he called back and left them take a direct free kick for obstruction. I told him that obstruction is indirect and he gave me a yellow. The head coach got a yellow card for asking what a player did when the player got a yellow card for challenging the keeper for a 50/50 ball. Twice the ref gave out two cards without even putting his card back in his pocket. The captain for the other team got a card for asking the ref what a player did wrong. I think there comes a time when ref like this needs to step back and realize he is giving too many cards. I understand wanting to keep control, but this was excesive.
The ref is part of the playing conditions of the match. He obviously did not like back talk or dissent. Even I figured that out from your post. I remaine puzzled at the coaches being handed cards but I assume they were showed as they usually are except we only show them to players. Cards are to be shown when needed, to make a point and should serve a purpose. A referee makes his own bed, his match, his decision, his reputation. Excessive showing of cards could be a result of lost match control , could be a lack of player discipline, could be not excessive at all. I have refereed matches with more cards than eight yellow, try 7 red and 11 yellow. Over officious official? Simply do not argue, record and report in as matter of fact and polite manner the things that occur to league officials. Some of us are easier to approach than others get used to it and adapt. You might check out the thread entiltled "How did I handle this (long)?
I referred (Level 7) so I am not completely out of the loop here. Like I said I issued cards when I thought someone was deserving. When a ref uses too many cards he loses respect. He loses even more respect when he issues cards for disagreeing with a technical rule. I did not even raise my voice. I do think that some refs are on a power trip when they step on to the field. They have to issue cards just because they heard one little comment. The match was never out of control, the guy called every touch foul. Also, I got my card in like the first minute of the game, so I am pretty sure it was premeditated. He was reported to the proper authorities. I think he became some obsessed with giving cards that he made terrible calls because he was focused somewhere else. For example, a shot was taken and our keeper tipped the ball out of bounds. I yelled at our keeper “good save”. He called a goal kick. Why did he miss it? He was looking at our bench.
Sadly this is true, another possible explanation is that some people are simply poor officials. Maybe this sad soul was simply in over his head.
The referee may have decided to approach the game with a very firm grip, for whatever reason - maybe the two teams have a reputation, maybe that's simply his style. However, once he sets the tone of the match he's committed to carrying that through (at least, to a certain extent). Otherwise, he's criticised for inconsistency. It sounds like, rightly or wrongly, he cracked down hard at the start and was forced to follow through on that heavy-handed approach. Comments like this do not do the well-thought-out nature of the rest of your post justice. That does kind of beg the question, why did he feel the need to be watching the bench? One thing that puzzles me is that 3+ cautions were given out for dissent. Now, maybe they were justified and maybe they weren't - but if this was my team, the instant the referee gives a soft card for dissent I get them all to shut up straight away. I don't understand why the players and coaches didn't just get the point - I'd crucify my guys if they didn't use their common sense and just keep mum with a referee like this. Like someone said, the referee is part of the playing conditions. The players need to adapt to that.
Cautions become somewhat meaningless to the players after so many are issued. Some referees use cards as their only means of communication, which is obviously a mistake. On the few occassions that I've felt control start to slip away, I've found that stopping the game and having a short, respectful discussion with the captains has always worked to maintain order. If that fails, maybe a send off is what it will take to get the players attention. I think the most cautions that I've ever given in a game is four, and that was while doing a game between a team of US soldiers and a team of Mexican day laborers in which racial tensions were very high.