I did a 2 day festival last weekend which included girls U14 and boys U11s and boys U12. There were 7 refs for the weekend, 2 senior refs I was one of them and 5 very young refs. We had 1 11 year old sent off for saying F******g C*** to a ref. Several of the young refs being abused by coaches so myself and the other elder ref had to watch games to keep coaches in check. Coaches complaining that because offside goals were ruled out it meant there teams were in tears. Accusing CARs of cheating. Dissent from the boys was bordering on cards being used and the elder and stronger younger refs were asking for offending players to be subbed. It showed that the actions of the coaches who were prepared to dispute every call and abuse the refs had the the worst behaived players. It was meant to be a fun weekend but the win at all costs attitude of coaches and parents meant the kids were under so much pressure and so if lost would blame the refs with the coaches blatantly saying we lost because of the ref. There were some nice teams and coaches and the girls were very pleasant and a joy to watch the coaches were a bit petty over some admin issues due to one team not turning up with enough players but the attitude of the boys games were pretty toxic. Its a shame that something which should of been fun for the kids was made into a high pressure situation which had kids in tears.