A&H

Recognising Fouls

J

JoeyR1708

New Member
Hi,
I’m still new to refereeing and one thing that I’m struggling with is foul recognition. On my initial course foul recognition in my opinion wasn’t something that we covered very well.

Can you give me some tips on how to decide if a challenge is a foul and maybe some examples of common fouls you’ve experienced?

Thank you!🙂
 
The Referee Store
I'm a year in now and I would say that I found the same thing. I can't offer any top tips I'm afraid. I think it just comes down to getting games under your belt and also watching other referees on games.

I would add that at the start my foul tolerance was probably too high, perhaps due to being too cautious, but is dropping down a bit now.
 
Hard to do on paper . . .

Start with, in your opinion, did a player do something that was unfair or unsafe towards another player--that's really what all of the specific fouls are designed to address.

In a challenge for the ball, significant contact with an opponent without or before getting to the ball is usually a foul

A player who is playing the opponent rather than playing the ball is likely committing a foul.

Doing games and watching games with a good referee at the level you are reffing are the best ways to learn. And if you can get an experienced ref to watch you, that can give you some insight into what you aren't seeing/recognizing.
 
Yeah, I think Socal has the key point right. It's a little more complicated that this, but for a beginner ref working at grassroots level, working off the basis of ball first = no foul and player first = foul will get you 95% of the way in judging on-the-ground challenges.

The remaining 5% are the ones where the level of force/risk is so high that it needs to be a foul (and probably a card) regardless of contact - the sign for those is that if you're sucking air in through your teeth at a challenge, you probably need to be blowing that air out into your whistle!

For upper-body fouls, don't be fooled by the shouts of "hands in the back ref" that you'll hear a lot of. A player using their hands to judge where an opponent is while they watch the ball is fully legal - what you're looking for as a ref is a clear pushing/pulling motion (straightening/bending of the elbow), or a holding offence, which will either result in the shirt stretching or a limb being clearly grabbed.

For all of these upper-body offences in particular, being in a side-on position makes it so much easier to judge. At an absolute minimum, you should work on being side-on for any long goal kicks or free kicks taken by the GK, as those will be static set pieces and you can position yourself correctly before allowing play to start. Remember as well, if the ball is being crossed in from wide or a corner, "side on" is actually likely to be vertically up the pitch from the drop zone, so adjust your position accordingly.

Final point - when you make a decision, make it with confidence. I wonder why it is you feel your foul recognition isn't good? If it's because you're getting a lot of "negative feedback" from players, it could well be that you're making good calls but not portraying confidence in the decision?

New referees will often give away a lack of confidence by doing a half-hearted whistle or point when they're not sure about a call. But for any experienced referee it's the opposite - you'll notice it's always the 50/50 calls that get a big strong whistle, a firm direction signal and in some cases, high energy running to the spot of the foul. Again, for a new referee, I'd recommend on trying to get a consistent decision-making style. With a bit more experience you can allow variation, but the most important thing is portraying confidence in every decision, even if you don't feel it.
 
Whenever I have been mentoring, I found that those referees who have played the game longer or at a higher level had better foul recognition.

My tip is to get into a team and play. Another tip is watch games and judge challenges as you see them and compare your judgement to that of the referee. If the referee is a high level ref then he is very likely to be 'more right' than you are. This would give you some foul recognition practice without having to make a call.
 
There's been a few recommendations to watch other referees, if you wanted to do this there's load of full matches on youtube so you can see some of the best referees in the world. Of course you don't have the pressure of being out on the green stuff with everyone looking at you but sometimes that's useful.
 
Tom_R said:
There's been a few recommendations to watch other referees, if you wanted to do this there's load of full matches on youtube so you can see some of the best referees in the world. Of course you don't have the pressure of being out on the green stuff with everyone looking at you but sometimes that's useful.
Click to expand...
Although that is of course helpful, might be worth going to some non league games, as you can often view those from the persepctive of the referee - ie once and at ground level.

As others have said no substitute for experience and we are all different - there are no right and wrongs a lot of the time.

As you progress and get to some lines, you'll often find your self in conflict with your colleague in the middle, sometimes its the position, but sometimes its just opinion.

Again as you progress, although you will see on here some say a game is a game, in real life what a 14 year old would call a foul and genuinely disadvantage them isn't what an OA or even U17/18 would expect to be given.

Summary - its not easy! ;)
 
GraemeS said:
Yeah, I think Socal has the key point right. It's a little more complicated that this, but for a beginner ref working at grassroots level, working off the basis of ball first = no foul and player first = foul will get you 95% of the way in judging on-the-ground challenges.

The remaining 5% are the ones where the level of force/risk is so high that it needs to be a foul (and probably a card) regardless of contact - the sign for those is that if you're sucking air in through your teeth at a challenge, you probably need to be blowing that air out into your whistle!

For upper-body fouls, don't be fooled by the shouts of "hands in the back ref" that you'll hear a lot of. A player using their hands to judge where an opponent is while they watch the ball is fully legal - what you're looking for as a ref is a clear pushing/pulling motion (straightening/bending of the elbow), or a holding offence, which will either result in the shirt stretching or a limb being clearly grabbed.

For all of these upper-body offences in particular, being in a side-on position makes it so much easier to judge. At an absolute minimum, you should work on being side-on for any long goal kicks or free kicks taken by the GK, as those will be static set pieces and you can position yourself correctly before allowing play to start. Remember as well, if the ball is being crossed in from wide or a corner, "side on" is actually likely to be vertically up the pitch from the drop zone, so adjust your position accordingly.

Final point - when you make a decision, make it with confidence. I wonder why it is you feel your foul recognition isn't good? If it's because you're getting a lot of "negative feedback" from players, it could well be that you're making good calls but not portraying confidence in the decision?

New referees will often give away a lack of confidence by doing a half-hearted whistle or point when they're not sure about a call. But for any experienced referee it's the opposite - you'll notice it's always the 50/50 calls that get a big strong whistle, a firm direction signal and in some cases, high energy running to the spot of the foul. Again, for a new referee, I'd recommend on trying to get a consistent decision-making style. With a bit more experience you can allow variation, but the most important thing is portraying confidence in every decision, even if you don't feel it.
Click to expand...
Thanks Graeme.

I think you are right in terms of the reason why I feel my foul recognition isn't good is probably a lack of confidence. I do get a lot of the "hands in the back ref" shouts and I did send somebody off in a cup game as I was stood on the edge of the box, a throw in came into the box and I saw a push right in front of me. I couldn't have had a better view of it. I saw the hands in the back but then when the ball came in I saw the arm extend and push the forward in the back so blew for a penalty. I had one of the offending side's players come up to me and hand me his glasses and said "I think you need to have these on the rest of the match you blind ****". This for me was above and beyond a sin-bin which is why he got the red.

That incident alone knocked my confidence a little bit but also I have a lot of the time players are trying to call the fouls and I'm not giving them and when you're going through a match and it's constant "How many more ref?" when a challenge is put in but also I feel like there are sometimes when its a got the ball but also got most of the player at the same time, I'm calling the fouls but then they're saying "I got the ball!" And I'm stood there like "Well you've also got pretty much all of the player too!".

I do want to really go far with refereeing but I know I need to make sure I get this confidence up too!
 
If you have some standard replies it can help:

For me it’s fair, it was shoulder to shoulder.
Tiny contact, not enough for me.
Sorry I didn’t see it, you know I try to see everything.
Yes, you got the ball, but also the player.
This time it’s a careless foul for me.
Basic foul, no big deal.

… develop your own responses that you can rely on - keep it short - don’t threaten or box yourself in.

Honesty can also help sometimes… these are difficult decisions… I want to let you play… you’ve caught him and he’s lost the ball… it seems small but if you go and score from here I’m in trouble!
 
santa sangria said:
If you have some standard replies it can help:

For me it’s fair, it was shoulder to shoulder.
Tiny contact, not enough for me.
Sorry I didn’t see it, you know I try to see everything.
Yes, you got the ball, but also the player.
This time it’s a careless foul for me.
Basic foul, no big deal.

… develop your own responses that you can rely on - keep it short - don’t threaten or box yourself in.

Honesty can also help sometimes… these are difficult decisions… I want to let you play… you’ve caught him and he’s lost the ball… it seems small but if you go and score from here I’m in trouble!
Click to expand...
Adding another standard reply - "normal football contact player, there's no foul/nothing there" (on a coming together, for example).

Let them know you've seen it, but don't give them a big talk about it.

Players appreciate that you've seen something and can justify why it's not a foul etc.
 
As others have said, a lot of the art of foul recognition is the product of experience.

However in addition to what has already been mentioned, I think it could also be helpful take a close look at (and spend some time considering) the wording in the laws.

For instance, was the challenge careless, defined as:

... when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is needed.
Click to expand...

Was it reckless, which is:
... when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned.
Click to expand...

Or finally, did it involve the use of excessive force:
... when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off
Click to expand...
 
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