A&H

Junior/Youth Couple of questions

SLI39

Well-Known Member
U15 match
Despite the forecast, the temperature did not fall low enough to jeopardise this late morning match, although the pitch did deteriorate mud-wise in the second half.
Generally comfortable--a disputed free kick led to the away team's equaliser, but in the end the home side won with a degree of comfort.

Two minor calls:

1) Foul on halfway line; I have blown and am on the scene; team with FK ask me quietly if they can take it quickly and I indicate that they can play when they're ready; player puts ball down and attempts to find his striker with a through ball; blocked unintentionally by opponent probably just shy of 10 yards away, and we play on; no complaints.
I know this scenario has been covered frequently on this forum, but did I handle this correctly? First of all, does your proximity to the situation of the foul make you more likely to take the ceremonial option so as not to confuse the offending side? And secondly, in terms of a retake and caution, are we simply looking for an attempt to stop the progress of the ball within a 10-yard radius? In this case, the player taking the FK just made a mistake, but am I right in thinking that, if a player retreats slowly (but not ridiculously so) and happens to get in the way, we are to play on?

2) Handling a confrontation between two players--this was one incident in a match without much grief. The away team were chasing a goal to make the match interesting, and I deemed an attacker, in his eagerness, to have fouled a defender in the area. The two came together, heads close but not touching, and exchanged pushes. I was yards away and stopped it from escalating with the whistle. If this had been a game of a certain temperature, I know that these players would have been booked for AA. I just felt, in the context, it was something I could handle with a quiet word to both of them (both were responsive). However, I did wonder whether raising your hands to an opponent is considered more or less a mandatory caution.

Advice is appreciated, as always.
Thanks
 
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The Referee Store
1) Think about whether your position is implying a ceremonial restart (also, it's much less critical in this area of the park). If you've run over, standing at the ball, start talking to players then you've made it ceremonial. If you just happen to be close by anyway and they want it quick, they can have it.
The player who blocked the ball - you say accidental? Then so be it. If he moves towards the path of the ball before it's kicked, it's a caution. After, it's fine - with the quick kick they've accepted his position). As you say, retreating slowly (but not ridiculously so) is fine. Sounds like you've handled this appropriately

2) I'm personally probably quicker to card at this age than adults if anything (largely because cards at adults can make things worse. I tend to prefer to hold players accountable), but I can accept a harsh word with both. Just depends how aggressive it is. I do believe, though, that the new LOTG try to be tougher on this sort of behaviour, but that hasn't been reflected at the top levels.
 
1- no issue with your decision, sounds like the ball was effectively passed to him- play on

2- in these situations I would drag the players and their captains in for a very public warning, speak to the captains and ask them to impress on their teammates the need to cut out the bullsh1t. If they have already had a chat earlier on the cards come out to play.

It sounds like you had both situations under control so however you handled situation 2 is fine if the end result was the calming of the flashpoint- did the players involved have any further spats after this?
 
2) I'm personally probably quicker to card at this age than adults if anything (largely because cards at adults can make things worse.
This is a view point of interest to me. I recently had a game - it was a bad one in terms of discipline = 2 reds 8 yellows.
Early on in the game were two, not quite mass cons, but handbags which I decided to manage by stepped approach initially. The second ended up in cards as it continued after the chat.

Upon reflection, I actually thought that had I had the game again the first set of handbags would have been cautioned as I felt that possibly this would have given me greater match control, without suggesting that I didnt have control.

Two things to add here is they weren't local teams nor was I aware of any ill feelings between the 2 clubs, had I been aware of it then maybe I would have cautioned straight up to "get a grip" of the game early on.

In terms of OP this was at OA.

That said the level of discipline from both teams throughout was generally quite poor so a change in early sanctions might have only served to increase the number of reds.
 
Thanks for the replies. I am reassured that I didn't get anything wildly wrong here.
As you say, it is often a question of timing. If the flare-up had happened in the first half and/or I was trying to establish particular authority because of player behaviour, I wouldn't have hesitated with the cautions. An area I could improve is cautioning earlier so as to ward off poor discipline. The public word with the captains at this age can be attempted (and invariably the manager will substitute the player concerned), but I have refereed enough to remain healthily sceptical of that option.
As it was, this game was drawing to a close, and neither had any tension been building from my point of view nor did I hear anything more from either player in the remaining minutes.
 
2) I'm personally probably quicker to card at this age than adults if anything (largely because cards at adults can make things worse. I tend to prefer to hold players accountable)

What an absolute cop out!

Where do you even begin to draw the line with this sort of approach......"oh, he's just punched him...better not get my cards out in case I make things worse...."?

Yeah....taking control of the game and putting all 22 players on notice that that sort of behaviour is not acceptable is "making things worse" as opposed to having a quick word with offenders, not cautioning, thereby potentially allowing other players to think that they can indulge in some AA without getting cautioned....oh, but hang on, this time one of them decides to go a little bit further and swing a punch....now can the cards come out?
All utterly preventable had you just cautioned for the first lot of AA......
 
Foul on halfway line; I have blown and am on the scene; team with FK ask me quietly if they can take it quickly and I indicate that they can play when they're ready;
Building on the above replies, the most critical thing here is the area of the pitch (and hence you were right to do as you did). Anywhere near a Penalty Area, where ceremonial has become, rightly or wrongly, the accepted norm, then your presence right on the scene automatically infers that it will be 'on the whistle'. Elsewhere on the pitch no one would be surprised at a quick kick being taken, even if you're right by the ball, so long as you're not stopping play to sanction / talk to a player.
 
1. The team awarded a free kick are entitled to take it when ever they want, unless you tell them otherwise or if the restart is already on the whistle!
(Get ready for lots of disagreement)
2. Only you can judge whether you made the right call here, hands up and pushing does sound like AA, but I was not there.......
 
Where do you even begin to draw the line with this sort of approach......"oh, he's just punched him...better not get my cards out in case I make things worse...."?
..
Good to see you're back to your old self. When you start off like that, I'm not even going to bother with the rest of your paragraph nor dignify it with a response.
 
Now, now play nicely.........
You know that is not going to happen. It has to go to the next level - the "naughty stepped approach". :moon::dummy:

They have to sit on the bottom step of the stairs and are banned from the internet for 24 hours...
 
But what I don't understand is the lack of response to the bait I laid so carefully in my response to the OP. :(
 
To go back to the original post.....

1. I absolutely don't think that the presence of the referee implies ceremonial. I tend to encourage teams to ask for permission to go quick when it's around the box - and it would somewhat ruin the point of going quickly if they had to yell across the pitch to ask permission! What I will do when asked is say "yep, when you're ready" and immediately back off/get into a position to view the drop zone - I'm certainly not hanging around at that point.

2. You say you had a "quiet word" - I think this might be the only slight problem here. I think it's fair to not issue cards if it was an isolated incident, but I would definitely make a very clear point of pulling both players aside and giving them a visible bollocking. You want to make it clear both to those players and their team-mates that this behaviour was unacceptable and they're very lucky to get away without cards. A quiet word could negatively affect your match control if another situation flares up and you have to get the cards out as it will look inconsistent.
 
Anywhere near a Penalty Area, where ceremonial has become, rightly or wrongly, the accepted norm, then your presence right on the scene automatically infers that it will be 'on the whistle'. .

Not in my games it doesn't. I always tell both teams before the game that they always have the right to a quick free kick (without asking) UNLESS I have indicated that it will be on the whistle (caution, injury, sub). I have never had a problem. On the few occasions teams have scored from quick free kicks, someone has always said "we were warned about that..."
 
Not in my games it doesn't. I always tell both teams before the game that they always have the right to a quick free kick (without asking) UNLESS I have indicated that it will be on the whistle (caution, injury, sub). I have never had a problem. On the few occasions teams have scored from quick free kicks, someone has always said "we were warned about that..."
Always said that? I doubt it very much. For many of the other users of the forum, please do not follow this advice in British/European football as it is ill advised and will create match control issues on a regular basis.
 
Of course it will if you're encouraging referees to do the wrong thing as a group....only spreads misunderstanding of the law.

there are plenty of people refereeing in the UK who don't categorically deny a QFK simply because something interesting might actually happen as a result, so I don't think that's really advice you can give.
 
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