A&H

Explaining your decisions

Mike Spice

New Member
Level 7 Referee
...how often/how much detail do you explain on the pitch when you make a decision?

ie "Blue ball, foul from behind"

Do you "explain" everything? or only when it's unclear?
 
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I usually try and give a few words of explanation but tie it in with a rebuke/warning for the offending player. "Blue player, don't pull his shirt".
The more information you give them the more reasons to argue/contest it with you so I will rarely be drawn into a protracted explanation. If I want to draw a debate to a close I say "you are entitled to your opinion" and move away if I am not already.

A few weeks ago a player asked what the foul was for and I said you kicked him and he said "I did foul him but it was a push, you couldn't even get that right!" Harsh, but sometimes you know there has been a foul but not quite sure exactly what is was.
 
I'm a pretty big talker on the pitch. I've found that, generally, players are (slightly) less difficult if they're put in the picture of how you're thinking. So if there's any doubt regarding what the decision is or why I've given it then I'll be talking. But obviously not if it's crystal clear to everyone. Also find that this is useful for encouraging more banter with the players and then seeing you as human. However there's no right or wrong about it, comes down to an individual's style / preference
 
If there's debate then explain what I've seen quickly. 'Man first then ball' for example.

Offside is the most blatantly obvious one. I explain to both captains that I'm on my own and the Champions League have 5 officials and still get it wrong and that I will always follow my initial gut instinct and if someone's on I'll say who played them on in my opinion. Sets the expectation and avoids me trouble
 
It's a tricky one. The flip side is that explaining your decisions more may also invite more argument from the players, as they're often just going to argue in response. I like to say 'no' or something similar to possible foul claims, but another referee observed that it could be that which is prompting argument.
I remember on particular incident, a player had taken a kick and was off balance then stumbled a few steps backwards. This caused him to clatter into an opponent, who had put his hands up preempting the impact, with the result that the hands were on his back, but tucked close to his body, not pushing, when it was the first player's fault. I tried explaining that to him when he argued the foul, and it just invited further argument, when in hindsight if I had just said 'no foul, get on with it' he probably would have forgotten about it 5 seconds later.

My final season of refereeing I struggled with match control. The interesting this was that it was my first full season after a couple of years of Futsal refereeing (that wasn't the only variable; I had returned to my old stomping ground as well, and the levels of aggression and abuse had increased massively). With Futsal, I was forced to adopt a different approach in match control and talking to players. Sometimes we simply do have to resort to a bit of an authoritarian approach to handle certain situations; just because we may use that on particular incidents doesn't mean that's the overall approach to the game. But sometimes that's the only thing that forces a player to get on with it; reminding them that they're answerable to something bigger and they will be held accountable. In low-level futsal, this doesn't work, it just infuriates the players. So I found I had to be talking to the players a lot more, even take a more appeasing manner. As it turns out this impacted upon how I refereed outdoor, and I don't think it impacted well.
But one particular difference was the increase in talking to players - though as I said, that wasn't the only difference.
The point is, there's a risk that talking to players more may result in more argument. I'm not trying to argue that it will or that it won't, merely to make people aware that it may occur.
Ultimately, match control is a highly personal thing, connected strongly to your own refereeing style and your own personality, charisma and field presence. What works for one referee may not work for another - similarly, what fails for one referee may work really well for another. If you do experiment with this approach, the difficulty is probably in remembering that it's simply part of your toolbox, and learning when not to use it is just as important as learning when/how to use it.
 
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