Advice needed

[The Gump]

Some of the L7s and L6s I have seen struggle are those that just won't talk to the players. One of the worst things you can do as a referee is ignore players, if they ask you what a decision was for calmly answer them. If they don't accept that then you shouldn't have an ongoing debate about it and can shut that down with something like "you asked a question and I gave you the answer, we aren't having a debate about it".

100%. I tend to find (with exceptions of course!) that explaining ambiguous/not clear and obvious decisions pre-empts most of the grief - even when they don't agree they at least understand. At younger age groups (U12 to U16) I find very brief explanations of the Law (eg "I got the ball", "He's pushed (ie touched) me in the back!" or why something was or wasn't offside can help too, as many (except players that are also referees) know the Laws even less than adults!

 

[RustyRef]

100%. I tend to find (with exceptions of course!) that explaining ambiguous/not clear and obvious decisions pre-empts most of the grief - even when they don't agree they at least understand. At younger age groups (U12 to U16) I find very brief explanations of the Law (eg "I got the ball", "He's pushed (ie touched) me in the back!" or why something was or wasn't offside can help too, as many (except players that are also referees) know the Laws even less than adults!

The top level referee to watch for this is John Brooks. He's nowhere near as pally with the players as some of the other SG1 referees area, if they question something he seems to quickly answer then very quickly closes down any further discussion on it.