A&H

Spirit of the Game?

IslandReferee

Active Member
Aloha everyone, I know its been a while for me on here. Been busy with the Spring season and none the less there have been no issues. I am the assignor, admin and first and foremost a referee. I have been thinking about the SOTG a lot lately and wanted to post up for some comments. We are a very small community here with a small number of teams and players so sometimes the league mixes girls teams playing against boys teams. Now some of these are highly competitive and some are lopsided, to say the least. I personally love seeing the girls smashing the boys but I have daughters so I am biased. I have done two lopsided ones two weeks in a row on the U12 level. Note that the girl's team was the same in both of these matches with an inexperienced coach and team.

First game was a blow out, the boys were crushing the girls so finally the coach of the boys stepped up a bit and tried to control the onslaught. It helped to a certain extent but never the less it was a serious rout. I tried to manage the match as best as I could, helping the coach to encourage crosses for all goals and passing back to the keeper. It did not really help much because a couple of the boys went out for blood and it was a sad showing on the SOTG. Yes I know that it is an unwritten rule, it is not mentioned much in the book but I try to incorporate it in all levels of the game. Some more than others depending on the age group and skill level.

The second game was yesterday and it was so much fun. I had the most fun as a referee for a long time. Girls against boys, same age group but the coach of the boy's team along with his boys should be commended for playing a match incorporating the SOTG. They played short, they were passing the ball back. After it was 10 to 2 they started scoring with only volleys, ect ,etc. I also encouraged the girls to keep playing hard, they actually scored a few nice goals, stressing the fact that we are here to have fun and the boys jumped right on board and were having a blast. I was doing the same along with my two youth AR's and it was so nice to witness.

Now sometimes I still, even after running so many matches see a lot of new things on the pitch, sometimes I am not sure if I am doing the right thing but I feel in my gut that this was the right approach. There was nothing on the line in these games besides adding to their scoring total. I believe there is no written rule about the SOTG but all be darn if I am not going to incorporate it into my matches I referee if I see fit whenever I can.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated and thanks for doing all that you do here!

Aloha
 
The Referee Store
Nothing at all you can do.

You are there to ensure fair play. 1-0 or 100-0, thats how the cookie crumbles

It actual works two ways, I have seen a better team offering, or simply. reducing their numbers in a bid to give the other team a chance, however that is deemed even worse, as you really rubbing it in.

Yes sotg and all that but its a sport, and, everybodys in it to, win

Stephen Hendry did not become the ultimate machine by letting opponents come back from 12 frames down, nor Andy Murray and so on.
 
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