A&H

At what age do you really start using captains?

DaveMac

DaveMac

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Level 7 Referee
I ref a lot of youth football, right from proper mini stuff up to u21's. I was wondering what everyone's opinion is on using captains. I agree with using the stepped approach with players. But at what age do you think it's appropriate to drag the skipper in when you have a chat. Most younger ages it seems pointless as the captain is essentially there just for the coin toss.
 
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id say around the under 16's (so 15 year olds) they are preoparing to leave school, thuink they are an adult etc - so get treated like one
 
Never. If I can't deal with the player directly, and the rest of the team hasn't picked up on the fact that the teammate is dragging along that line, well, what more can a "captain" actually do or say?
 
Guys !!!!! to be honest I would say as a rough average in 7 years probably no more than 5%-10% at best of captains have been any proper help to me during a game

So I will say NEVER as an answer to the above Question .......
 
AlexF said:
Never. If I can't deal with the player directly, and the rest of the team hasn't picked up on the fact that the teammate is dragging along that line, well, what more can a "captain" actually do or say?
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Beezer said:
Guys !!!!! to be honest I would say as a rough average in 7 years probably no more than 5%-10% at best of captains have been any proper help to me during a game

So I will say NEVER as an answer to the above Question .......
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I'm assuming that neither of you would like to referee at 4 or above then?
One of the competencies, in referring to stepped approach, lays out in black & white that the captain must be used in this process.
 
i always involve the captains...it isnt my job to keep them on the pitch, but i will allow the captain an oppotunity to keep them on the pitch
 
I suppose Dan if you reffing at a higher standard, the Captains standard and knowledge of his role and responsibility should be better

But in general your grass roots Captain...... No !!!!

stepped approach is used on a regular basis , but Captains have either no grip on their players ...or more often than not no grip of themselves
 
@Beezer : Here in Canada, the "captain" is merely considered another player. When you hit the national level games (low level pro, semi-pro things... much like the top of the English non-league or maybe even the very bottom of the football league), then captains may come into play. From what I understand, the same tends to apply south of us in the US. A captain is just a player with no more privilege than any other player on the team... except that they get to go up for some coin tosses.

It's definitely interesting how different cultures use things in different manners. You'd think that here in Canada captains would be a big thing, as in hockey and lacrosse (the two "big" sports here), everything goes through the captain (even conversations with the coaches). But their game rules and such are structured in such a way that the captain is an important position on the field of play. In soccer/football? Not so much. A captain is the guy that does the coin toss and nothing more (by the Laws).
 
Correct......Alex ...No special treatment but as Dan says..... there is a stepped approach to disciplining players by involving the Captain in the warning process ..mainly to help the referee get his point across

I tend to find though,at grass roots level a large majority of captains are just the player calls what end to kick ....

You can normally tell when you give your pre match speech to them about Studs up ,controlled tackles ,dissent and swearing etc ..to pass the message to the players

He runs off and shouts "" F...kn come on boys get in hard and lets beet these ars... h es "

Wonder why we bother sometimes :rolleyes:
 
Beezer said:
Correct......Alex ...No special treatment but as Dan says..... there is a stepped approach to disciplining players by involving the Captain in the warning process ..mainly to help the referee get his point across
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Yah, I get that -- just pointing out that the involvement of captains (here in Canada) is "covered" in the initial referee courses, then completely ignored until you hit those "national level" games. And indeed, recommended against involving them.

That's partly why I like forums such as this one -- predominantly based in one country, but have involvement from people around the world. You get such an interesting cross-section of people and methodologies. This allows you learn a lot about how the game is dealt with in a variety of cultures and environments.
 
Just to play devils advocate, are some people on this thread doing the captain a disservice by not involving them? Should we be going into a game assuming the captain is some dumb dumb who can just about call heads or tails. Surely by deciding you'll never involve them you might be missing out on a chance to avoid carding a player by cutting out the skippers possible influence?
 
just to throw this in there...

the captain of the home team i had last week in the Southend Sunday League was awesome...a model leader, his players listened to him, no aggressiveness in his tone ata ll or is play, just calm and calculated - stopped id say around 3 of his players being booked by intervening before i had to and 1 from being sent off!

i would love to name and praise him and the team here if it wasnt against forum rules...was a pleasure to referee hima nd the team in general
 
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We referees tend to generalise a lot. Of course there are great captains out there, just like most teams are actually fair, try to play football and treat referees well (comparatively). The brain has a way of remembering the strongest experiences, which often are bad experiences!!
 
I know .........!!! Thanks for the mild therapy though...... Much appreciated ...:confused:
 
Supermonkey said:
No worries.

invoice sent.... :D
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i used to have multiple personality disorder but my psychiatrist cured me and only charged me £50 per person

Charlie Jones said:
just to throw this in there...

the captain of the home team i had last week in the Southend Sunday League was awesome...a model leader, his players listened to him, no aggressiveness in his tone ata ll or is play, just calm and calculated - stopped id say around 3 of his players being booked by intervening before i had to and 1 from being sent off!

i would love to name and praise him and the team here if it wasnt against forum rules...was a pleasure to referee hima nd the team in general
Click to expand...

in the schools u16 game i refereed this week, i actually said to a player that i was booking for dissent and who had continued to be mouthy after being told that he was being cautioned, that if it hadn't been for his captain, who had intervened and shut him up just before i lost my patience, that he would have been sent off
 
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