A&H

Spitting

I

Ian Topping

New Member
Reffed my first youth game this morning, very different to open age ,u15's , local derby, previous bad history , what could go wrong :meh:

1st half not that bad , couple of niggles here n there, cb for the away team complains to me about high elbows from big big cf . All going on behind of course. Had a word with them both told them I was watching, cut it out. HT 0-1

2nd half starts ok ,home team come out pumped , press hard, score 1-1. Both teams go full throttle for 10 mins, not really any fouls but few sloppy challenges, big cf hits a shot , deflects for a corner off same cb , blow for corner no big deal . 3 seconds later the CB is screaming at me "ref ref he's spat at me" comes to show me spit in his hair. Got heated very very fast , 20 players all pushing ,shoving , shouting, parents are going ballistic, health and safety cries etc,coaches are on the pitch trying to calm it down, was blowing to try n calm the situation , was trying to get cf separate . One last extra extra loud blow and it stopped . Got everyone's attention . Explained that the match was on the verge of being postponed , pulled the coaches explained I haven't seen the incident , the match goes on if we all calm down and play football .
Anyway , the match finished 3-1 ,no other incidents, but a few disgruntled parents. Stayed for 10 mins to watch for any aftermath but all ok.
Could I of handled this any better ?
Cheers guys
 
The Referee Store
Probably not a lot more you could have done. If you didn't see it you can't act on it, so you just need to calm everyone down which it sounds like you managed to do.
 
Given that you managed to get through the rest of the match incident-free, I think you handled it about as well as it possible. If you don't see something, you can't give it - and that applies to everything from a little shirt pull to spitting.

You don't mention giving any cards out for the melee, did you get caught up in the middle of it? If it happens again, just focus on getting out of there as soon as you realise things are kicking off, you can't make any decisions from the middle of a brawl.
 
No cards.. Nobody stood out tbh, no punches that I seen just pushing and shoving. Kept stepping back to keep all in view. I hate spitting with a passion . But I didn't see it, he probably did do it by the reactions but then again the cf could easily wipe spit in his own hair .
All in a day's work I guess .
 
"Just pushing and shoving".......Adopting an aggressive attitude?

Depending on force used and bodily area pushed or shoved.....Violent Conduct?

Would've found a caution for each side just on principle alone after a mass confrontation.
 
Hmm......you noted in reference to a couple of things that 'you didn't see it'. I would ask the question - how is your positioning?
Positioning rules are only ever a guideline and the wise referee will change things to suit every match. If you know there's a bit of a niggle between the sweeper and the strikers, then change your positioning so you can be a bit wider when the sweeper gets the ball and the striker of concern is approaching, so you can watch them for a moment longer while keeper the drop zone in your periphery. If you get the impression that there's one particular type of event occurring at a corner and your position can't see it, then perhaps go to the 'wrong' position - it's not the wrong position, it's just poorer for every other match!
The players are saying the CB is throwing elbows and you didn't see it - did you consider that the players could be right? Did you do anything to monitor this? If the CB is throwing elbows then it's in 4 possible scenarios

- challenges (aerial or on ground, you should be adopting a fairly side-on view)

- late challenges (this comes down to positioning - WHERE is play going to go, WHERE can I go to get the best view of it, GO!. Often, it's advisable to watch the players for a moment after the ball has been released in case there is a late challenge. You may need to adjust your positioning to get wider or deeper so you can keep this challenge and the area the ball is heading to in your periphery)

- completely behind the ball. Again, you can go a bit wider or deeper to keep the player in your periphery and keep glancing back.

- Waiting for the ball (eg corner kick). Again, positioning. Keep him in view and remain roughly side-on.

I firmly believe that if players are raising a concern about something you're missing then sure, 95% of the time it's nothing - but maybe, just maybe, you actually are missing something and you should adjust your positioning to monitor the player in question. If nothing else, the complaints have alerted you to the possibility of retaliation from one of those team members as well, so you're monitoring both players.
Same with the corner - how did you miss the spitting? Where were you standing at the corner - and if this CB had been highlighted as a concern, did you consider whether it's wise to allow him to be out of your view at a corner kick?

I'm surprised you couldn't find a reason to caution somebody in a large melee at an U/15 match. SOMEBODY started it. SOMEBODY made it worse. SOMEBODY was more heated than everybody else.

Being a local derby would probably give you even more reason to consider all of the above.

You are right that you can't do anything about the spit - so what if there's spit on the back of his hair? A player could simply have coughed and it came out by accident - heck it could have been his own teammate behind him!

As for the threat of abandonment - some will disagree with me, but when it's just a bunch of handbags I don't see any reason to be considering abandonment. There's no ongoing threat to the player's safety here. Again, I find it strange that you considered it serious enough to threaten abandonment but not serious enough to caution anybody. If the same incident blew up again and you abandoned it I would struggle to accept the justification there.

Youths will blow up quick - at this age a fair few players are looking to test their aggro. I tend to think a firm hand on aggression keeps these games in check. If anything I'm probably less tolerant of aggression and similar things at this age than older players.
 
On one hand I hear the OP, but the Capn makes a good point. Stepped approach. And with individual players rather than the group. We have to focus on what we can see and that means individual players - and warnings, cautions and dismissals as appropriate.
That said you obviously got match control back so well done. But what I am thinking here is that warning all the players is possibly disadvantageous to those that are innocent and therefore advantageous to the naughty ones!
 
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