A&H

Open Age Name & Shame The Bad Players/Teams

Anthony

Anthony

Active Member
Level 5 Referee
I am sure there is a downside to this suggestion but I thought I would ask anyway.

Sometimes as referees we have what we perceive as a poor game often because the teams (players) giving us a hard time. Often this leaves the referee in a poor mental state as they reflect on decisions that may have contributed to the players bad behaviour. Usually the players are to blame and their ill-discipline leads to a downward spiral of control and confidence in the referee. This may ultimately lead to a referee resigning over time sadly as they feel the blame is with them.

When I have personally asked another referee about a particular team that I have had a problem with all too often the other referee will say he had exactly the same issues and we both breathe a sigh of relief that it is not us but the team that is the problem. My suggestion is referees should be able to look up or be informed of teams that are particularly notorious so we can steel ourselves and mentally prepare. The downside is that referees will go to a match with pre-conceived ideas but I would counter that we would be better prepared rather than taken by surprise.

Referees often pride themselves on their own tolerance in the forlorn hope that the player(s) will improve and respect the ongoing patience but we all know through personal experience that we end up wishing we had dealt with the dissent in the first few minutes rather than in the 70th minute.


The professional football leagues publish yellow/red cards by team and I believe the referees secretaries can look up facts and statistics by team. Are they not allowed to publicise these stats to us?
 
The Referee Store
I think I would rather not know disciplinary records of teams that I am to referee, that way I always start from a level playing field. Only fair.
All I ever do is assess where the teams are in the league to see if it is likely to be a key promotion/relegation battle.
 
If the league you officiate in uses the FAs Full Time website, you can see all of the misconduct and run on-screen reports to see the worst offenders (even down to individual player level). I use it all the time.
 
Monotone Whistle said:
If the league you officiate in uses the FAs Full Time website, you can see all of the misconduct and run on-screen reports to see the worst offenders (even down to individual player level). I use it all the time.
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Great shout. Just checked and neither does at least not since 2007.
 
Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as telling people how teams usually behave themselves.
My local sunday league publishes a Respect League. This shows all the teams in the league, together with all cautions and whether for dissent or otherwise and red cards for OFFINABUS or otherwise. Club misconducts are also shown. The figures are amended monthly so individual Referees scores can't be viewed, and we don't actually mark the teams - they are scored depending upon our view of their conduct and marked down for red and yellow cards. However, this can be skewed.
One of the top teams on the league have a poor disciplinary record and so are only allocated certain Referees. After the first month they had three games, one with me (ex L3) one by a current L3 and the other by a L6 who is known to be very strict. He can have issues as a result.
The first two games went without incident because the team knew the referees to be fair but firm when necessary, so played football and didn't give the Referee any trouble that required dealing with. However, the third game kicked off big time. The team had three players sent off - one for assaulting the referee - as well as two club misconduct reports. On the day I saw them they behaved themselves and so didn't cause issues I had to sort out. Obviously that was the same on their second game. After the first two games they were second in the league on the respect scores, but after the third they were bottom by a long way. Any referee looking at the Respect table after the first two games would be caught cold if he did their third game.
In addition, some teams react badly when playing certain others. Incidents that normally aren't worth a mention suddenly become the biggest issue in the world when playing this particular team, and it's not always because of history.
I've had games that should be easy on paper that kick off for no reason that I could see, and games with loads of potential that went like a dream. When doing any game I always do my homework and check league positions, respect table and read any match reports that either team has put on the website so that I am hopefully aware of the potential in a game, but I always try to go in without preconceptions. One player can dramatically affect the way a team behave.
I did a game last season where both (reserve) teams were normally very well behaved but one team gave me loads of grief on the day due to the actions of the home captain. This player was on joint registration with the home first team and a team in a higher league, neither of whom were playing. I don't think he wanted to be playing for the reserves so he started straight from the kick off and didn't stop until I sent him off after half an hour. I was too tolerant and tried to manage him when it really wasn't advisable. I went expecting an easier game and it didn't appear because he worked his team up making it a horrible game to manage. This reminded me why I shouldn't pre-judge a game before I do it.
I try to give the first few free kicks whether I need to or not, to show the team that I'm in charge before easing off once I see they've got the message. Then it's not a surprise if you have to get more fussy if they start playing up. If you try to manage the game straight from the start then the game can easily get away from you and it's hard to recover once it's got to that point.
I'd find out as much as you can before the match but always try to go in as though you know nothing. That way you shouldn't be caught cold.
 
I think it's a terrible idea.

You referee whatever is in front of you on the day, not pre conceived ideas of what you will get.

How many times have you returned to a team who have been a nightmare and they were fine, or vice-versa?

Imagine that was amplified by 10?

And like all review sites, the 10% bad would take 90% of the space.

Equally, if that were the case, it would only be fair to publish card stats by referee for the players to review, then players would be adapting their behaviour to the referee who is doing the same.

What's in front of you on the day is what matters, nothing else.
 
Excellent idea....but break it down into individual players.....

That way you will know who needs to go in the book early to keep them in check.....or off the field!

Teams with poor records tend to have 1 or 2 ringleaders so the earlier they are identified and dealt with, the better.
 
Padfoot said:
That way you will know who needs to go in the book early to keep them in check
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This may just be me being young and naïve as well as still relatively inexperienced but I can't understand this mentality at all. Approach every game with a clean slate and don't to out looking for trouble just to "keep somebody in check" if they deserve a caution by all means issue one but don't go looking for it.
 
jack.prescott said:
This may just be me being young and naïve as well as still relatively inexperienced but I can't understand this mentality at all. Approach every game with a clean slate and don't to out looking for trouble just to "keep somebody in check" if they deserve a caution by all means issue one but don't go looking for it.
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It's not about going looking for it, but rather a heightened awareness of who is liable to cause you problems.

Then when they do something that straddles the line between caution or "management", you can fall on the caution side rather than store problems up for later on.
 
Are you a little angry and misunderstood Padders?

Is there no colour in your black and white world? :ninja::ninja::ninja:
 
im going for a shocker here, but I kind of level with Padfoot ... I mean - I have no doubts premier league referees go out with the likes of Ballotelli, knowing his history, knowing what he is like that they'll have to watch him 'off the ball' as well as on it ... and that goes back to the Keane/Viera days and any notorious player
 
I tend not to look at their standing/discipline, when going to a match, although i now starting to see who the bad teams/players are after i refereed them more than once.
 
I think, for me, that could put me off of the game and let nerves creep in a bit knowing that their are a couple of .nasty' players on the teams ... ignorance is bliss ... go into the match not knowing, deal with it on the day
 
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