The Ref Stop

Has anyone ever actually been 'Reported?'

RegalRef

Politically Incorrect
Had two games today, first went fine, and second did on the whole too, but it had one of those teams who just moan and moan and moan. And foul.

It ended with 9 yellows and two reds, all but one yellow for the horrible away team in red.

Match control not helped by a second minute penalty against Red, but it was a stonewall and no doubt, but it set the tone for the moaning.

Anyway, after the final whistle unsurprisingly very few handshakes from red. Go to retrieve my flag from red manager and at least offer a handshake (which in fairness was accepted) and as I walk across towards him he's whispering with the captain.

As I shake managers hand captain asks my full name and says he will be reporting me to the county (I assume because I dared to challenge their unacceptable behaviour) but he never actually said what for.

Now I seriously doubt they will as nobody even wrote it down, my card report tells its own story and they would only need to contact the home manager who would confirm they behaved disgracefully (he even spent 10 minutes in the car park afterwards telling me he was embarrassed by their behaviour as they are representing the same league) to see whatever is alleged is untrue.

I just wonder if anybody had ever been contacted by their county following up one of these 'reports' and what came of it if they did?
 
The Ref Stop
Dear county,

The big bad referee was very nasty and didn't let us take the Michael. He gave us lots if cards, and not even the good kind I get on my birthday!! Please tell him off and stop him refereeing

From Steve,

Captain of Joe Bloggs FC

In all seriousness I've been 'reported' twice... Neither of which saw the light of day
 
A player shouted he was going to report me once. Good luck what's your name, here's a caution for dissent.
 
I've been told I was to be 'reported' once. Never heard anything of it.

Unless there are some really serious allegations being made by either team about you, for instance racist/homophobic comments or some other serious misconduct on your behalf, then I would expect the County FA would have your back 100% of the time. I imagine that 80% of the time the teams won't report what they say they are going to, and the other 20% that do will have been heard at County FA countless times before.
 
I have been told I was going to be reported many times over the last few years. Always the same response from me.

"feel free"

Never hear anything more about it.

I wouldn't lose any sleep mate. Not the last time you will hear this kind of nonsense.
 
I was once told I was being reported, all because I blew the full time whistle... How dare I!!! Nothing came of it, I rang the refs sec. to explain the situation and he said that if I'd been reported, the manager didn't have a leg to stand on.
 
Yeah I would imagine so.

At half time the red manager asked for a 'word'.

'Ref, you won't get as much stick from the teams if you make instant decisions instead of waiting a couple of seconds'

I said 'let me remind you I'm only getting stick from one team - yours, and that's because they are behaving like animals, which you seem to think is acceptable.Control your players and teach them some respect before you try to give me 'advice''.

What a knob.

One of his players slid in to score a goal in the second half and dislocated his shoulder.He jumped up holding it and ran off the pitch, red manager shouts 'eh, thanks for your concern ref, he's dislocated his shoulder.'

Christ knows what I was supposed to do about it.

Kept him quiet for 10 minutes though while he made him a sling :D
 
Every ref will get this from time to time - threats to report to league or county. Never actually happens in most cases as it entails sitting down and writing a letter which takes more time and intelligence than shouting something at the ref.
I do know of a case when somebody did actually make a complaint about a colleague of mine many years ago, for similar circumstances to yours regalref. As letter alleged vendetta by ref in trying to get team fined a lot, and questioned his integrity, reply from county FA was a misconduct charge for club resulting in fine for the team and warning as to future behaviour.
So regal ref take with a massive pinch of salt and do not allow yourself one momment of worry over comment made to you.
 
Oh I'm not worried - the fact the score ended up 6-2 and the card count was ridiculous should tell its own story.

Failing that they only need to speak to the home manager.

Although I do like the thought of them making a report and getting an extra misconduct report....
 
I usually tell them who at County they need to talk to if they want to report me, and that they can find the misconduct forms online to fill them out.

Ignore it. This is sour grapes. As long as you put your cards in, you referee according lotg for mandatory stuff and you DON'T have a vendetta against any club then you're pretty much bulletproof from disciplinary action.

Edit: don't punch folks or swear at them in front of witnesses either!
 
Lost count of how many junior managers have said they will report me because I refuse to let them get away with taking the Michael. I know referees who offer to ring the discipline department right there and then. (Not that they'd get through with it being a weekend but that's not the point) and apparently it's surprising how quick they back down.

Basically do your paperwork and forget about it. Most of the time the manager will get home and probably realise how much of an idiot he has been and move on.
 
I got reported two seasons ago following an U17 match, and to be fair it was fair enough. It didn't help that the manager reporting me was a Level 1 ref (I kid you not!) and he said he was obligated as I had made a huge mistake in Law which cost his team the win.

Basically i awarded a free kick for a handball and then disallowed the subsequent goal as I had convinced myself it should have been indirect. I just lost all reasoning and made a mistake.

I got an email from County FA with a copy of the report and was asked to submit a written response which I did ( admitting full responsibility and explaining the reasons for the error, which were a bit crap but related to reffing too many games that weekend and losing concentration). I got a written reprimand but no further action was taken

Last year I bumped into the manager/ref at our promotion day (he was now an instructor) and we had a good laugh about it.
 
Had two games today, first went fine, and second did on the whole too, but it had one of those teams who just moan and moan and moan. And foul.

It ended with 9 yellows and two reds, all but one yellow for the horrible away team in red.

Match control not helped by a second minute penalty against Red, but it was a stonewall and no doubt, but it set the tone for the moaning.

Anyway, after the final whistle unsurprisingly very few handshakes from red. Go to retrieve my flag from red manager and at least offer a handshake (which in fairness was accepted) and as I walk across towards him he's whispering with the captain.

As I shake managers hand captain asks my full name and says he will be reporting me to the county (I assume because I dared to challenge their unacceptable behaviour) but he never actually said what for.

Now I seriously doubt they will as nobody even wrote it down, my card report tells its own story and they would only need to contact the home manager who would confirm they behaved disgracefully (he even spent 10 minutes in the car park afterwards telling me he was embarrassed by their behaviour as they are representing the same league) to see whatever is alleged is untrue.

I just wonder if anybody had ever been contacted by their county following up one of these 'reports' and what came of it if they did?
I have been reported and charged but the case was not proven. I have been reported and the report went nowhere.

If you have a close working relationship with your appointing officer, then s/he will usually defend you. Most teams "reports" consist of referees not giving the decision at key times in favour of the complainant.
 
It happened to me once and I'm actually so glad it happened because it was hilarious !...
Away team lost 14-1 (ironically their only goal was from a soft penalty) but on the whole the manager was quiet and seem like a guy who's trying his best to run a poor team. Final whistle goes, I get a "referee that was very poor, I shall be reporting you to the FA". I've never been so confused. There was nothing to give all game !
Two days later I get a letter... "Blah blah he was poor" then it went on to describe how I was "best friends" with the home manager - I had never met the man before, or since. It went on to say how he watched me I back to said home managers house for my Sunday dinner ???!!!
I rang the FA about it and he told me to not bother responding and we had a good laugh about it.
 
I've been reported a few times. Once I was accused of swearing at a youth player. I'm choosing to believe it was an innocent mishearing rather than a malicious lie. The committee trusted me - they asked me the question, then accepted it with no question.

I know that unless the report had substance, they wouldn't even bother notifying the referee about the complaint - most just go in the bin. So for all I know I've had complaints, who knows, who cares. The committee know the nature of most complaints.

If it sounds like the referee genuinely misunderstood the law or did the wrong thing, they'll probably just try to get an assessor or coach out to have a look.
 
In addition to my referee duties, I'm a league administrator here for our local men's league.

We tend to get a couple of reports on refs a month (so, 1 per 30 games or so). We pass all of the reports on to the local Ref Admin, and 90% of them go into the bin, but the other 10% typically lead to either a discussion with the match official or occasionally an assessment.
 
I have been reported and charged but the case was not proven. I have been reported and the report went nowhere.

If you have a close working relationship with your appointing officer, then s/he will usually defend you. Most teams "reports" consist of referees not giving the decision at key times in favour of the complainant.

Brian, would you mind saying what you were charged with or the allegation?

Obviously completely understand if not, your prerogative.

I would imagine the report can only be for giving almost every foul etc against the away team. But that's only because they were constantly fouling the home team.

Even the players on the blue team were telling me they'd never seen anything like it and asked jokingly if I was enjoying myself.

The only time I could have even had the opportunity of any favouritism was about 15 minutes into second half when red takes out blue from behind, blue gets up angrily and mass confrontation ensues.

After it calmed down both the original players were bought in one by one and given a caution for AAA, so both treated the same.
 
To be fair, it is only correct that clubs are able to report a referee. The problem is most clubs who threaten to report referees only do so because decisions go against them. I have been reported on a couple of occasions, and neither time did the case even get to a hearing, but I repeat it is only fair that clubs have this avenue open to them. There may well be an occasion when the referee has behaved in a manner that needs bringing to the attention of the authorities.
 
To be fair, it is only correct that clubs are able to report a referee. The problem is most clubs who threaten to report referees only do so because decisions go against them. I have been reported on a couple of occasions, and neither time did the case even get to a hearing, but I repeat it is only fair that clubs have this avenue open to them. There may well be an occasion when the referee has behaved in a manner that needs bringing to the attention of the authorities.

I get that Frank, and I agree they should have that option, but it would be interesting to hear from anybody who sat on a committee the numbers of reports taken seriously and what they were for, and if it was upheld.

I would imagine these are grouped into two categories - conduct and performance, with conduct being taken very seriously and performance taken with a massive shovel of salt.
 
The only case I know of where the referee was found guilty when reported was when he was reported for threatening a player at the end of the game. The referee in question admitted he did lose it and was subsequently banned.
 
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