The Ref Stop

Reffing games involving family

The Ref Stop
one said:
Why do they have to provide any referee let alone qualified? It all depends on league rules.

I have two sons both adult now (22 and 24) and I have refereed their games from time to time since U9 and still do, sometimes as appointed and sometimes as a non-official. I try to avoid it if I can. I'd say in one in 10 games I get accused of being biased. It doesn't bother me. I deal with any accusation appropriately a d professionally.

One thing I'd advise is if you are not appointed, don't referee in official kit. I have done it in a bib on my casual track suite. Let the opposition know you are a parent and you are a qualified referee. If there is non one appointed, common sense says you are the best option.
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It comes from the Standard Code of Rules in England that all leagues below step 7 have to adopt. The below is from the adult SCOR but I think youth is the same.

In the event of the non-appearance of the appointed Referee the appointed senior Assistant Referee shall take charge and a substitute Assistant Referee appointed by the competing Teams. In cases where there are no officially appointed Assistant Referees, the Clubs shall agree upon a Referee. An individual thus agreed upon shall, for that game, have the full powers, status and authority of a registered Referee. Individuals under the age of 16 must not participate either as a Referee or Assistant Referee in any open age competition.

Goes without saying that if the home team offer up a qualified referee who isn't neutral the away team are only going to trump that with a qualified referee that is neutral.
 
They had a decent young lad last weekend, much better than the other week.... Needs to pull his socks up though!!! ;)
 
RustyRef said:
It comes from the Standard Code of Rules in England that all leagues below step 7 have to adopt. The below is from the adult SCOR but I think youth is the same.

In the event of the non-appearance of the appointed Referee the appointed senior Assistant Referee shall take charge and a substitute Assistant Referee appointed by the competing Teams. In cases where there are no officially appointed Assistant Referees, the Clubs shall agree upon a Referee. An individual thus agreed upon shall, for that game, have the full powers, status and authority of a registered Referee. Individuals under the age of 16 must not participate either as a Referee or Assistant Referee in any open age competition.

Goes without saying that if the home team offer up a qualified referee who isn't neutral the away team are only going to trump that with a qualified referee that is neutral.
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We have a similar comp rule.

Much of it is common sense so I won't disagree with that. However the point I am making, even with your quoted SCOR, a team (home or away) is not compelled to accept a referee (qualified or not qualified) their opponents offers regardless of if they have one of their own to offer. Of course they would have to justify their decision to the league if the game does not go ahead. All the SCOR requires is "the Clubs shall agree upon a Referee". Nothing about qualified or not, neutral or not etc. Your original post "And if they do object they would need to provide a neutral" implies more than most league rules require.
 
Don't do it.
In my referee branch, we fill out a conflict of interest form at the start of each season, clubs we have an affiliation with or children/family members playing for. We don't get allocated to those clubs, makes life simpler.
 
I have done a few of my daughters games but make sure her coach has informed the opposition coaches and the league. Never had a problem but to be honest I would rather be there as a parent but will fill in as a last resort. Better to have a qualified ref than none at all.
 
Stephen said:
Don't do it.
In my referee branch, we fill out a conflict of interest form at the start of each season, clubs we have an affiliation with or children/family members playing for. We don't get allocated to those clubs, makes life simpler.
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That only works if you have a surplus of referees. If there aren't enough referees to cover all the matches without assigning some that have relatives involved then you can't afford to be so dogmatic about it.

Yes, it's best avoided if possible but it isn't always possible.
 
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It's not just family. We have many club officials who want to be referees but only if they are appointed to their home ground. They have to be there all day or part day for various reasons like attending the canteen, as ground official etc.

There is also the junior referees who play and can only referee were they play due to transport restrictions. Of course half their games are at home ground. Then you'd be refereeing a team from your own club before or after your own game.

It's a fine line between conflict of interest and covering games by qualifies referees. And the closer you are to grassroots the more flexible it gets.
 
one said:
We have a similar comp rule.

Much of it is common sense so I won't disagree with that. However the point I am making, even with your quoted SCOR, a team (home or away) is not compelled to accept a referee (qualified or not qualified) their opponents offers regardless of if they have one of their own to offer. Of course they would have to justify their decision to the league if the game does not go ahead. All the SCOR requires is "the Clubs shall agree upon a Referee". Nothing about qualified or not, neutral or not etc. Your original post "And if they do object they would need to provide a neutral" implies more than most league rules require.
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That's more if it goes to appeal, if one club has refused to play when the other had provided a qualified referee and they couldn't better that then they would without a doubt lose the appeal.
 
RustyRef said:
That's more if it goes to appeal, if one club has refused to play when the other had provided a qualified referee and they couldn't better that then they would without a doubt lose the appeal.
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What would the appeal be for? To get it right, they have not refused to play, they have rejected the offered referee and failed to agree on one. When there is no 'agreed' referee there is no game and they can't be charged with failing to play when there is no game.

Our comp rules state the concequences of failing to agree on a referee; both teams forfeit the points for the game. Each team can speak that.

A team can have legitimate reasons for rejecting a referee even if they can't better it. "He referees our game last time and it ended up with two broken legs, three punch ons and an abandoned game with police attendance. We can't agree with him refereeing on safety reasons."
 
one said:
What would the appeal be for? To get it right, they have not refused to play, they have rejected the offered referee and failed to agree on one. When there is no 'agreed' referee there is no game and they can't be charged with failing to play when there is no game.

Our comp rules state the concequences of failing to agree on a referee; both teams forfeit the points for the game. Each team can speak that.

A team can have legitimate reasons for rejecting a referee even if they can't better it. "He referees our game last time and it ended up with two broken legs, three punch ons and an abandoned game with police attendance. We can't agree with him refereeing on safety reasons."
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Because the rule here is that the game must be played even with no appointed referee (shall agree on a replacement leaves no room for manoeuvre). So if it isn't the league and / or county FA have to pick the bones out of what happened.
 
one said:
What would the appeal be for? To get it right, they have not refused to play, they have rejected the offered referee and failed to agree on one. When there is no 'agreed' referee there is no game and they can't be charged with failing to play when there is no game.

Our comp rules state the concequences of failing to agree on a referee; both teams forfeit the points for the game. Each team can speak that.

A team can have legitimate reasons for rejecting a referee even if they can't better it. "He referees our game last time and it ended up with two broken legs, three punch ons and an abandoned game with police attendance. We can't agree with him refereeing on safety reasons."
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And that was just Sheffields Finest's rap sheet. The players were perfect!!!!!:):):):):):)
 
You give them too much intellectual praise, some of my Neanderthal teams couldn’t tie their own laces!
 
Scotty thats a great post. I say call it as you see it, I have already told my daughter that I would toss her if she was out of line and most players know it . I believe that if you feel that you can call the game as a referee then you call the game as you see it.

I have tossed the commissioners grandkid and also a parent of a prominent so-called player in club league here.

Once I walk over that line to start the match I call it like I see it and do the same and you will be fine and once again great post.

Mahalo, Dave.
 
Mahalo Dave, I did Ref it and all went well, did feel a little awkward when my sons team equalised with the last kick of 2 mins additional time to finish 4 all, but football was the winner 👍
 
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