A&H

Coach Dismissal

K

KieranG1505

New Member
Level 4 Referee
As this is to be reported and dealt with I shall maintain vagueness but be clear in incident.

Being a regular referee in the Adult leagues, I feel like I have come to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that adult football is 10x easier to officiate than youth football. Not because of the players but because of the sheer amount of poor behaviour in coaching teams and parent spectators. So now that’s out of the way, today I took part in a Tournament in which my team of three was allocated the u15 age group. In around 14 games, the three of us had issued 5 red cards and 4 yellow cards. 3 of the reds going to managers for offensive, insulting and abusive language (and with a high tolerance level this was not a decision made hastily).

There was one particular incident which completely threw me. A knock out game of 2 halves of 10 minutes had ended scoreless and was due to go straight to penalties, now the competition rules states clearly that 3 penalties will be taken. The manager politely asked me how many penalties will be taken to which I responded. The mood suddenly shifts, “this isn’t f*cking under 11s” “this is a f*cking disgrace”. My immediate decision was to respond to him and say that his attitude and language being used were not acceptable and any more he’d receive a sanction. Whilst talking to their players (may I note, again, under 15s in pre season, 14 year olds!) they said “you think you’re a big boy? I’d love to run into you in the real world” and given his response I decided to dismiss him from the field and request his immediate removal from Tournament organisers. Whilst being shown the red card he shouted “I’ll see you in the car park after”. He was then escorted out of the area.

Now there are a number of factors to consider which may have influenced his anger;

- 2 of his players were cautioned for very very poor challenges (borderline red) which he was clearly in disagreement with.
- I had dismissed him from the field of play previously in the prior season.

Honestly concerns me that his behaviour continues to exist and appears to be increasing within the beautiful game.
 
The Referee Store
On this, what happens after you send off the manager of a youth side? Is the game then abandoned if there is no other club rep?
 
Last season i generally covered U13-U15 age bracket, i probably refereed in 70 ish games.

I sent two boys off as they were trading punches with each other, i think i had to ask up to 10 parents-managers to leave the area.

Kids generally ok, its the parents and coaches that are idiots (not all)
 
Big Cat said:
In my experience, OA far exceeds youth in terms of difficulty. Tournaments are similar to friendlies in that they're a bad idea
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I'd agree but I suppose it depends on what you find difficult. In terms of football, youth is a stroll in the park, quite literally.
But junior football brings its own challenges. Coaches and parents, particularly parents, can be a nightmare. Never caused me a problem but I wasn't young when I started and had 6 years customer services under my belt. I imagine for younger and less experienced they may find this harder than actually reffing a game hence the perceived opposite of your claim
 
First of all, you made absolutely the right decision to remove him. At that age, and at any age, players and spectators should not be subjected to foul or abusive language. If we don't take the initiative to stamp it out, it will not get done.

I should note that neither of your two considerations at the end of the post are, in fact, considerations in this incident. Even if his players had maintained a sterling level of sportsmanship and his past behaviour was exemplary, the incident should be sanctioned appropriately. Allow the FA and tournament organizers to deal with past behaviour when they decide on his additional punishment.
 
As soon as he said those threatening words, you should abandon and report to the competition organisers and local FA as soon as realistically possible.

You're only one person, above all you have a right to referee without the threat of harm or any sort of implication of it.

Make sure you look after number 1 first (that's yourself).
 
Some tournaments are not affliated, so Lord knows where that leaves the ref. There are no team sheets. The ref encounters lots of teams, none of which can be afforded normal game prep. Who knows who anybody is. The games are sorta played without proper rules. Your positioning gets badly messed up by ball in/out of play. Half a day or a full day is wiped out. You're shagged by the time you start getting abused. I could go on...
On the contrary, clubs depend upon them, so i ref my son's club tournament and that's it
 
Big Cat said:
Some tournaments are not affliated, so Lord knows where that leaves the ref. There are no team sheets. The ref encounters lots of teams, none of which can be afforded normal game prep. Who knows who anybody is. The games are sorta played without proper rules. Your positioning gets badly messed up by ball in/out of play. Half a day or a full day is wiped out. You're shagged by the time you start getting abused. I could go on...
On the contrary, clubs depend upon them, so i ref my son's club tournament and that's it
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Unaffiliated football leaves the ref between a rock and a hard place.

Any players cautioned or sent off will not have anything done to them by the FA, so no suspensions or fines etc.

There is backup for the referee if they were threatened or assaulted from the FA.

And refereeing unaffiliated games could end up with eh referee getting charged.
 
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