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In your opinion: (I)DFK for goalkeeper? Ceremonial IDFK? Goal?

I'll be honest, this surprises me. I cycle, run a decent 5K, and the occasional half marathon, and I think my fitness for the higher standard >U16 games would be insufficient without that training. Maybe I don't conserve energy that well during games.

Sounds like a tricky one, but do you really need to rush into the decision? You could blow up and say you want to speak to the CAR to clarify the flag. Explain that in your view the attacker was not interfering and you have seen a hand ball. I've been in situations like this where I don't...

Thanks for the observations and personal anecdote. I take your point about the moment of truth. I have refereed games where not stamping on dissent/aggressive attitudes compromised my performance, lost me respect, and made the end of matches a nightmare. But even if I'd spoken to the initial...

Yes, I wasn't too far away from double figures, to be honest. Which is absolutely unprecedented for me, or more precisely this league. Struggling to remember how many players are in the book, and how we should restart, is not an experience I've had before really. Since I have refereed games in...

Yeah, it hadn't quite reached the PI stage. I think I made the right calls here. Obviously, when you have already given a few, there's sometimes that spoken/unspoken pressure to punish every foul alike. It's not an unreasonable reading of the situation. I generally have a high tolerance of...

Thank you for the responses. 1) This was just a reference to a couple of players who were on bookings and committed 1/2 other careless fouls. The mood had become low tolerance of anything, so in the circumstances they were possibly fortunate. 2) Mostly it was the aftermath of an innocuous foul...

Well, that was eventful. A few days ago I thanked my referee secretary for the season's work and informed him that, due to a new job, I would have to reduce my Saturday refereeing significantly from next September. With the penultimate match of the season scheduled at the ground where I seem to...

The way I described it sounds reasonable, but you probably had to be there. It was one where the keeper had had control, fumbled it, and in the process of trying to regain that control had the ball kicked away from him, but not actually kicked out of his hand in my view.

Another thought experiment about keepers that occurred to me the other day when watching a match: if a keeper catches the ball and in his hurry to begin a counterattack stumbles and collides with an innocently retreating attacker in the area, is there any reason that a penalty is not the right...

I still find this aspect of law difficult. I agree that the Austin challenge is a foul for reasons already mentioned. However, with respect to an alternative scenario, I awarded a goal earlier this season, which on reflection I should have disallowed according to the latest wording. A keeper...

This is a horrible incident. I have refereed on a league where the general sense was of (potentially dangerous) hostility, and I made the decision to withdraw after a few games. Life is just too short to put yourself at risk in this way. I believe (perhaps optimistically) that there is a...

Brave from Oliver and correct; I would have had to be there, but I can imagine not deeming that blatant enough to change the course of the tie in the final minutes. On the subject of penalties, why is nobody talking about the Robertson/Sterling penalty shouts from yesterday? Neither time does...

I don't think you handled this badly; maybe mentioning that you believed it was a head injury would have ended the advantage debate, and a caution (if warranted) might well have done the same. Sometimes a coach can escape a warning if he/she is the sort of person who responds without aggression...

I am not in favour of VAR, except for ball in and out of play, but this seemed a fairly smooth application of the new system. You will inevitably see more penalties awarded because, as has been suggested, the presence of a foul (i.e. looking for that single detail) will take precedence over the...

To the OP, don't be too critical of yourself. Accept you were unlucky to have a tough decision to make with big consequences either way very late in the game. Referees, managers and players always move on, as emotion finds another outlet. Regarding handball, I think there would be forensic...

As soon as I learnt about confirmation bias, I started seeing it everywhere. But in all seriousness, I think both are examples of confirmation bias. The only difference is that one error derives from the extrapolation of general to specific, the other that of specific to general.

Don't disagree with your view, but the CAR system in a lot of counties is so entrenched that it's here to stay. You wouldn't necessarily sanction the idea if proposed now, but one can make the best of a situation that still probably helps more than harms.

Sometimes their tone can be irritating, but no referee worth his/her salt should be riled by sarcasm. 90% are good to work with, and I do my very best to shoulder the burden of the decision when players of the CAR's team complain about an offside.

Thanks for the advice. I have had enough experience with the characters on this team to know that early warnings have worked well in the past. I agree it's perhaps also easier to sell 50/50 decisions when you have built up that authority. As regards promotion, yes, I'm aware I need adult...