Question Number: 14291

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/27/2006

RE: championship high school level High School

Dorina of madison, nj usa asks...

My son was playing in a high school game and was on the ground injured. He landed on his back and hip on the hard cold end of the season ground. He was injured and upset and crying and still on the ground.
Behind him he heard "GET UP!" and thought it was some player from the other team. His instant (bad) reaction was to respond with "F@#$ off". He was promptly red carded and sent off the field.
---It wasn't a player he answered, it was the ref.
**My question is...Is that what a ref should say to a player on the ground? Isn't a referee supposed to maintain order for the sake of SAFETY??? My son knows better than to use ANY language on the field, but when you are in pain and someone is telling you to "GET UP!" .....
What would you do as a ref?
Cursing is wrong towards anyone or anything on the field in my book and I think in most rule books too! Oh one more thing...is the "punishment" for cursing "on the field" the same as cursing AT the ref?
(just for reference, I have NO problem with my son being carded for cursing on the field...He got grounded for the week at home too! I just don't think this ref had the safety and well being of the players as his first objective as a ref)

Answer provided by Referee Ben Mueller

The referee had no choice. Your son's language was offensive and insulting which is a red card offense. I always evaluate the circumstance as to WHY the language was said. With that said, even if the player was hurt I would send them off if they said that to me. Whether or not the referee had the right to order your son up is another story. A lot of times referees tell players to get up during game if they think they are exaggerating fall. I usually choose not to intervene. Sorry you and your son had to experience this.

Answer provided by Referee Nathan Lacy

I have a slightly different take than my colleague. I believe that the referee's first concern should be the safety of the players. Accordingly, unless there was a pattern of events indicating that the player (your son in this case) was feigning injury and such I would err on the side of checking the player's condition. However, this is a lesson that I learned through situations such as the one described and being judgemental myself. Perhaps the referee was hasty in ascertaining that your son should just get up and will hopefully learn a lesson regarding the concern that we as referees need to convey regarding the safety of players. With regards to the foul language there are a couple of ways to look at this one. One would be in alignment with what Ref Mueller has stated above in that the language is totally uncalled for and deserving of a send off. Personally, if I were to recognize that the player did not realize that they were addressing me (I was, let's say, behind the player outside of the field of vision) and that they may have felt they were simply yelling back at a teammate then I would probably choose to have a serious face-to-face chat with a yellow card attached for some lesser infraction. There are refs who will argue this with me and I respect their differing opinion. However, if I believe that I have added to the situation and helped create the adverse event then I feel it incumbent upon me to find a way to deal with the situation that does not catastrophically affect the player and their team. This, however, requires that the referee have experience, maturity, and a security in their ability to correctly evaluate the situation so that they can come to a reasonable decision that serves justice. Also realize that these are events that happen very rapidly and the ref must make a rapid decision and does not have the benefit of sitting back and thinking about it like we are. Again, these are my thougthts and I know there are others that would argue this with me and I respect their differing opinion. All the best,

Answer provided by Referee Chuck Fleischer

Donna what you have just read comes from two referees, one at the beginning of his career and the other at the height of his. Notice the two ways of addressing the same problem.

I have to side with both because both are correct in their manner of tending to what happened. Ref Mueller looks at what happened as your son slammed the door on his fate, why we don't know. Ref Lacy asks why did he do what he just did and tries to see if what he [the referee] did caused what happened.

Both referees dealt with the problem, it went away and didn't happen again. In one case your son was in the shower muttering to himself about what he just did and in the other your son is wondering why he is still on the field and thanking his lucky stars he can still play. In the first case he won't do it again because he is going to suffer some kind of ban besides the one you presented. In the other he is going to go out of his way to make life pleasant for the referee who cut him a little slack.

Both matches are going to continue, one without someone who had a momentary lapse in judgement and is now contrite. The other with the same player who had the same lapse in judgement and is now there and might even help the referee in match control.

Who can say who is right?

I am reminded of speaking to a player/coach from Grosshoflein, Austria last summer. He was sent off because of an outburst after missing a goal he thought he should have made. The same disgusting word, beginning with the sixth letter of the alphabet, was used. It was loud enough the referee got out the red sled and Gigi went, straight away, to the locker room. Gigi didn't understand why because he was just cursing himself...

I tried to work him into a position where he could see why the referee did what he did. First off I explained we all miss a goal every now and then, it is especially bad when the shot from the goal area goes out for a throw-in and the words used there are dug from the deepest hole possible and are usually said loud enough to make us feel better. He agreed! When I asked who else heard, he didn't understand...

I had him, what if some of the local footballers who were just learning The Game heard? What if they saw the referee allowed you to say what you did? What would you do as a coach during club youth training days if one of your U-8's said the same thing you did? His expression changed -- he just realized as a footballer he has an obligation to conduct himself as a gentleman on the pitch, especially in front of the youngest spectators. They must see what it is to play The Game.

At that moment we had arrived at the point in Gigi's education where he began to understand what it is to be the referee. The referee has an obligation to The Game and not just to the player. The referee must look at things as the previous two panelists did and determine a course of action to take and they have exactly no time to come up with a solution if they hit the pocket and come out with a card instead of their notebook. The Law says administer the discipline and show the card. Common sense and experience allows us time to think a bit and have a wee chat with whoever it is who said whatever he said. Time is an ally for the referee and time tends to calm things. He can figure out it is his fault as Ref Lacy seems to allude. The referee can, quite legally, do anything he thinks necessary including getting in the ear of the player and using the exact same words ripping him a new one! If the referee does that and the player is beaten into the grass and never in his career utters the same language AND no one else in the stadium heard what either said, justice is done!!! No discipline other than the butt chewing is necessary. Then we arrive at Ref Lacy and what he did, and Ref Mueller and what he did.

Bottom line, was it Public, Personal and Provocative? Was what was said something intolerable, objectionable or was it something easily dealt with at the personal level. Only the referee at the pointy end of the spear is going to know what needs to be done at that instant. The player is wise never to allow a humming bird brain overload an alligator mouth because doing so always puts him in a position where someone else is going to get involved and that someone else has a red and a yellow card.

Regards,