Just after a bit of a straw poll here, I know it's subjective but I'm interested in what other refs think as I've not had this happen before.
Level 6 ref going up to 5 this season.
I'm quite chatty on the pitch, giving players an idea of if the things they are doing are likely to result in a free kick at some point (e.g arms in the back but not pushing, I'll tell the player to watch their arms because if they push it's gonna be a foul, good tackle but make sure you play the ball or its gonna be a free kick etc). Most teams and managers like it and its part of my game, especially with younger age groups (I don't do it so much with the adults).
U18s Girls game. 0-0. Good game, end to end, two well matched teams. Corner to the Red team, second half. I usually (especially at this level) give an instruction to the players in the box, keep your arms down, hands to yourself, no pushing or pulling shirts etc. Red player is on the keeper, and a Blue player is jostling with her (all ok so far). So I'm watching these two, and I say 'no pushing' as I do 99% of the time for corners in grassroots games. They carry on barging into each other quite aggressively, so I blow the whistle and tell the two players to stop it, expecting the usual innocent shrugs and pointing, but the blue defender says "God, you're wasting time, why don't you shut the **** up".
So now I pull the girl out of the box and call the captain over. Blue player carries on "for ****s sake ref" and "this is boring". The captain tells me that it's my fault for "interfering". I tell them both to shut up and listen to me, which is met with "you can't talk to us like that".
So - Yellow card and sin bin for 'dissent' for the blue player, or red card for 'Foul and abusive language'?
Level 6 ref going up to 5 this season.
I'm quite chatty on the pitch, giving players an idea of if the things they are doing are likely to result in a free kick at some point (e.g arms in the back but not pushing, I'll tell the player to watch their arms because if they push it's gonna be a foul, good tackle but make sure you play the ball or its gonna be a free kick etc). Most teams and managers like it and its part of my game, especially with younger age groups (I don't do it so much with the adults).
U18s Girls game. 0-0. Good game, end to end, two well matched teams. Corner to the Red team, second half. I usually (especially at this level) give an instruction to the players in the box, keep your arms down, hands to yourself, no pushing or pulling shirts etc. Red player is on the keeper, and a Blue player is jostling with her (all ok so far). So I'm watching these two, and I say 'no pushing' as I do 99% of the time for corners in grassroots games. They carry on barging into each other quite aggressively, so I blow the whistle and tell the two players to stop it, expecting the usual innocent shrugs and pointing, but the blue defender says "God, you're wasting time, why don't you shut the **** up".
So now I pull the girl out of the box and call the captain over. Blue player carries on "for ****s sake ref" and "this is boring". The captain tells me that it's my fault for "interfering". I tell them both to shut up and listen to me, which is met with "you can't talk to us like that".
So - Yellow card and sin bin for 'dissent' for the blue player, or red card for 'Foul and abusive language'?