A&H

Stay safe everyone.

wazztie16

wazztie16

Level 4 Referee
Level 4 Referee
Numerous weather warnings in place tonight and tomorrow, including a red warning for wind for the North West.

Take care everyone, if your games are still on.

Stay safe!
 
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Too windy imo and in opinion past down thro the eras and ranks is, when you consider the game to be farcical

subject to any safety considerations, structural etc
 
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Did a contrib game in London and as we did the pitch inspection the roof of the stand came down onto the pitch about twenty yards away.

I have also had driving rain and gale force winds from end to end. The ball wouldn't stay on the pitch and one team couldn't see because it hurt when you opened your eyes

The first one never started. The second one was abandoned. On both occasions there was total agreement with the decision because the first was dangerous and the second really wasn't enjoyable. Neither team could score because the ball was never on the pitch for more than a few seconds. There was also a lot of stuff being blown across the pitch. As soon as I blew there was an almost universal cry of "thank f**k for that!" followed by players running for the dressing rooms.
 
Primary consideration is player safety. Is there is a risk that stuff could get blown down onto the pitch and the players that jeopardises their safety, whether that be trees, parts of stands etc. That's the major factor at play here. If you believe there is a risk based on the conditions, then game either isn't starting OR it's being abandoned.

Second consideration is the actual ability of the game to be played, if it's so windy for example that the ball won't stay still to take a dead all restart like a goalkick or a freekick, then it's pretty difficult to adhere to the laws of the game in terms of restarts (whole grey area around having players lie down with their finger on top of the ball to hold it still aside).

Also the consideration is also the level you are officiating at as well - if it's an U8's game in miserable conditions like that you may have a lower threshold for the the second consideration than if it's a Step 3 game (where you get a safety briefing in any case).
 
Agree with Justy. In my coaching days, many of the players on my u10 team were actually crying because of the cold and they couldn't feel their fingers. Their health was at risk and the referee continued to play. I was not impressed.

An interesting one maybe that's has cropped up recently for me is playing on a pitch that is not dangerous, but due to the heavy rain its cutting up really bad. I told the groundsman during half time of the second of three games I was ref'ing on it that it was getting destroyed. I told him as it was not actually dangerous, I wouldn't make a call myself but if the home team wanted and the away team agreed, we would not play the third match.
The third match went ahead and the pitch is now in terrible condition with no chance of improvement until March.
 
Macca said:
Agree with Justy. In my coaching days, many of the players on my u10 team were actually crying because of the cold and they couldn't feel their fingers. Their health was at risk and the referee continued to play. I was not impressed.

An interesting one maybe that's has cropped up recently for me is playing on a pitch that is not dangerous, but due to the heavy rain its cutting up really bad. I told the groundsman during half time of the second of three games I was ref'ing on it that it was getting destroyed. I told him as it was not actually dangerous, I wouldn't make a call myself but if the home team wanted and the away team agreed, we would not play the third match.
The third match went ahead and the pitch is now in terrible condition with no chance of improvement until March.
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i had your pitch example on a semi pro park, heavy rain, soaked, but, perfectly safe,
it resulted in three months of no home game by time I had finished, but, absolutely no concern to the match official, as a person and football fan, i felt their frustration, but, we cannot let these external factors cloud our judgement.
Council park, their call, owned park, my call.
 
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markref said:
Did a contrib game in London and as we did the pitch inspection the roof of the stand came down onto the pitch about twenty yards away.

I have also had driving rain and gale force winds from end to end. The ball wouldn't stay on the pitch and one team couldn't see because it hurt when you opened your eyes

The first one never started. The second one was abandoned. On both occasions there was total agreement with the decision because the first was dangerous and the second really wasn't enjoyable. Neither team could score because the ball was never on the pitch for more than a few seconds. There was also a lot of stuff being blown across the pitch. As soon as I blew there was an almost universal cry of "thank f**k for that!" followed by players running for the dressing rooms.
Click to expand...

I had the same with part of the stand roof coming off. I was already considering a postponement as the ball wouldn't stay still, once that happened I really didn't need to sell the decision, there were no protests at all. At that level it isn't just about player safety, you have to consider the paying spectators, and if part of the ground is falling down there is clearly a safety issue.

I also abandoned a women's game due to driving rain and hail. The players didn't want to carry on, I couldn't see a thing, so I took them back into the changing rooms and asked the captains and managers if they wanted to wait to see if it died down or abandon. Everyone said abandon, and realistically we could have only delayed for 15 minutes or so as it would be too dark.
 
wazztie16 said:
if your games are still on.
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First game, so windy it was a farce. Players were calling for full time 10 minutes into the second half. It was freezing, no one enjoyed it.

Second game got on valley, so no wind at all and was rather nice.
 
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