A&H

Change of cards in friendlies

Happened to me yesterday, am not shy in admitting. 30 secs in, pass back to goalie is short, striker gets there first, goes round keeper, keeper almost comically grabs strikers waist and pulls him down, in almost a playful way. Even before I got whistle to mouth I have both sets of players going "dont ref" and so on.....thing was, I was not going to.
I gave pen, scored, no issues.
Home team 3-0 up at break, everybody is fine. Away team changed the entire team at ht.. And before you know it, its 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, (the away teams 2nd half team was like streets ahead of the first half team). The home team are tired, fustrated, I have already jumped in quick a few times to defuse things, warned a few of the more aggressive players are not taking kindly to the drubbing, and yip, 15 mins to go, one of them has had enough and boots an away team player as he skips past him, not a single person could or would doubt it was a red card. And yip I did it. Red card....
And you can guess what happens next........"what about the goalie in the first minute" and its coming from everybody...

ok so saw out the remaining time, course manager wants a word at the end.....he has no issues with the red shown to his player but is now wondering why I never showed red to the gk...

hindsight is a wonderful thing of course. I had an uncomfortable last 15 because my actions in the first 30 secs came back to haunt me. Its not just simple enough to say you should have sent the gk off and things would have been straighforward because nobody can predict what happens next. You can only manage whats in front of you in the way you best feel is suitable at the time.
Give the buggers anything and they'll use it against you, friendly or no friendly. I'll have a bunch of friendlies lined up in August so your post is a good primer
 
The Referee Store
Had it finished the way it began and home team won 7-0 then nobody would even remember the gk, but, the unexpected A Team comimg on for the second half changed things a bit.
I dont believe in a Sunday pub league friendly anybody is turning up to see the referee demonstrate his ability to apply the LOTG
They are there to play a practise match. Keeping within reasonable distance of the laws
Sending off the gk serves no purpose to anybody in this case
Sending off an out of control dangerous play keeps other players safe.
Am not asking anybody to follow my example in this case
Its merely an example of what can happen in a friendly if you dont do the correct thing in law
And i certainly dont need lectured as to what I should have done!
 
Had it finished the way it began and home team won 7-0 then nobody would even remember the gk, but, the unexpected A Team comimg on for the second half changed things a bit.
I dont believe in a Sunday pub league friendly anybody is turning up to see the referee demonstrate his ability to apply the LOTG
They are there to play a practise match. Keeping within reasonable distance of the laws
Sending off the gk serves no purpose to anybody in this case
Sending off an out of control dangerous play keeps other players safe.
Am not asking anybody to follow my example in this case
Its merely an example of what can happen in a friendly if you dont do the correct thing in law
And i certainly dont need lectured as to what I should have done!

This is kind of my point. The key thing about preseason isn't results, it's fitness. If someone gets smacked or someone is throwing in knee high challenges with their studs showing then fine, straight red. But if a defender attempts to win the ball as the last man and accidentally brings the player down for DOGSO, does anyone really benefit from sending him off? Even for the team with 11 players still on the pitch, they don't get a proper preseason match, they don't gain any points from the victory and as referees, we have to stand around in one half of the pitch basically watching a possession based training exercise
 
This is kind of my point. The key thing about preseason isn't results, it's fitness. If someone gets smacked or someone is throwing in knee high challenges with their studs showing then fine, straight red. But if a defender attempts to win the ball as the last man and accidentally brings the player down for DOGSO, does anyone really benefit from sending him off? Even for the team with 11 players still on the pitch, they don't get a proper preseason match, they don't gain any points from the victory and as referees, we have to stand around in one half of the pitch basically watching a possession based training exercise



No doubt somebody will add, the flip side to the debate is where better than preseason for a team to adapt to losing the goalie in the first minute?
 
Although a few games into my refereeing career ive only done friendly games and have probably had three incidents that warranted a yellow card but haven't issued any.

I would try my best to keep it 11v11 and if someone committed a red card offense for Violent Conduct or Serious Foul Play i think id ask the manager to take him off and cool him down but allow a sub.

I dont think id ever send anyone off for deliberate hand ball or stopping obvious goal scoring opportunity
 
I will say to the captains and managers that I will try to manage things, but I can't manage the unmanageable. If someone accidentally trips and opponent thus denying a promising attack they might escape a card that they would probably get during the season (just like they all did in the World Cup ..!). But if someone does SFP, VC, etc, the cards will be coming out just as they would be during the season.

I mentioned this before, but I sent a player off in a pre-season friendly between two step 3 teams for a shocking tackle. Home team manager was jumping up and down about it until he saw the red card, but was then jumping up and down even more when I wouldn't let the away team replace the sent off player with a sub. It was my fault for ruining their pre-season training by making them play against ten ….. :(
 
Although a few games into my refereeing career ive only done friendly games and have probably had three incidents that warranted a yellow card but haven't issued any.

I would try my best to keep it 11v11 and if someone committed a red card offense for Violent Conduct or Serious Foul Play i think id ask the manager to take him off and cool him down but allow a sub.

I dont think id ever send anyone off for deliberate hand ball or stopping obvious goal scoring opportunity



The fear is one defender at one end punches the ball over the bar, then the other team can do it, and before long we have a farce.
Am making no excuses based on time played, or that it was the gk, for mine yesterday, I just made a judgement call that sending off the gk achieves nothing and the only loser out of the situation at that moment in time, would have been me.
Its also the reply I gave the coach at the end, that I understood his issue, but, has his gk had brought someone down the same way, he too would not have seen red, and had an opponent kicked one of his players the way his player kicked theirs, he also would have seen red
 
I know where you're coming from, but if you ask your county they'll (probably) tell you to treat it as a league match with the exception of substitutions. (There's no harm in asking them though if you'd like.)



Sounds like a damned if you, damned if you don't scenario really. Send off the keeper and they'd be having you for ruining the game probably!
No, that was the player that infringed dem laws........
 
My worst card flurry was in a friendly, 3 reds and 3 yellows all to one team, most in separate incidents... l don’t accept rabbit punches to the back of someone’s ear, or a rake down a calf. If I ruined a friendly then...... look,,,,, face.,,,,,, not bothered! :rolleyes:
 
I can totally see where Ciley is coming from. That's one of the reasons I don't like friendlies.

You can't win either way. You send the keeper off and you get "but it's only a friendly, ref !!". You leave him and the opposition will say "you can't send our lad off, because you let their keeper stay on ?". Give me a league or cup match, any day !
 
Are you ever more lenient in friendlies with cards at all? Obviously not for things like VC, dissent etc but for example, if there's a DOGSO outside the box from a legitimate attempt to play the ball which would be a straight red,, are you ever inclined to change this to a yellow dependent on circumstance such as time of the match or scoreline?

Lenient? I'm stricter!!

My reasoning is that because the game doesn't matter, there's less excuse for emotional responses to things.
So if a player is going to arc up at me, or start something with an opponent, or starts trying to hurt people over a game that literally doesn't matter at all, then they can just buggar right off.

I might be lenient on the more unintentional, technical offences - such as a purely, innocent, careless DOGSO scenario...where I can.

I have, in the past, allowed substituted sent off players to be replaced if both teams agree (though I'm not advocating for anybody else to do that).

But especially for aggression or dissent....I'm harsher. Even less need for it than any other time.

On another note, when I'm doing a pre-season friendly, I take that opportunity to talk to the captains/managers/players before the game about any significant law changes, directives or approaches. Educate them before the season.
 
Last edited:
Lenient? I'm stricter!!

My reasoning is that because the game doesn't matter, there's less excuse for emotional responses to things.
So if a player is going to arc up at me, or start something with an opponent, or starts trying to hurt people over a game that literally doesn't matter at all, then they can just buggar right off.

I might be lenient on the more unintentional, technical offences - such as a purely, innocent, careless DOGSO scenario...where I can.

I have, in the past, allowed substituted players to be replaced if both teams agree (though I'm not advocating for anybody else to do that).

But especially for aggression or dissent....I'm harsher. Even less need for it than any other time.

On another note, when I'm doing a pre-season friendly, I take that opportunity to talk to the captains/managers/players before the game about any significant law changes, directives or approaches. Educate them before the season.



That was and is my logic, esp in my origiansl post. A comical playful everybody laughing, inc the striker, nobody hurt, dogso. Pen. End of
But later on guy in other side hacking everything that moves, big diff. We are now talking injuries, retaliation etc. Its a bye bye from me
His own manager shouted at him at one point, and he screamed back " you know me, I dont do friendlies"

I had to double check that I did not have Roy Keane himself on my pitch

All the more reason for my showing him the red, afterall he told the whole world that he treating it like WC final!
 
Something else I hadn't considered, great point that.


I say stuff like "do me a favour and save your tantrum for when it maters"
And "whats the point in you doing this training exercise if you carry on the way you are and your sitting supended for the first three games?"
And also "its your teams practise match, well, its mine too"

Just a few things that might sink into their head
 
I would say that in a friendly, given the choice, I will avoid booking. But where it is a clear cut-and-dry "must book" situation, then he goes into the book accordingly.
 
Back
Top