Question Number: 17345

Other 10/16/2007

RE: Select Under 15

John McCain of Semmes, Alabama USA asks...

This question is a follow up to question 17258

I agree with your answer regarding how a coach (or anyone else for that matter) who disagrees with a call should behave. The nature of soccer is that there will be MANY bad calls / no calls in a match depending on where you are sitting. I can remember watching a match where a parent beside me complained about a throw in. This parent said that the ball clearly bounced off an opposing player. I said sure it did, but the ref was shielded from that. The last thing the ref saw was our player kick it. The ref can only call what he/she sees.

While MOST refs do not tell the coach how to coach, this is not universal. I've seen refs tell coaches they were yelling tactical instructions too loudly (!), that they were being mean, and otherwise going beyond their duties.

Point is, we are all human, enjoy the show.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Keep in mind that there's not an unbiased coach or parent on this planet. While coaches frequently yell "call it both ways" what they mean is "Call it MY way". The referee overall does a good job in most matches and makes far fewer mistakes than do the players. I had a parent yell at me last weekend that "everyone here but you saw that handball". Of course, the ball had been kicked into a players hand with no action on her part. Classic example of the ball playing the hand. Now, everyone there thought it was a missed call but it wasn't.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi John,
can we clone you and have you coach everyone? Reasonable people sometimes they are all too scarce! Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Esse Baharmast from the US was appointed to the World Cup, and he called a foul. No one else saw the foul. It didn't appear on any of the replays. He was thoroughly vilified in the press. Then, 3 days later, a still photo from a journalist appeared, showing a blatant shirt pull. Gee, sometimes the guy in the middle really does get it right!

The following questions were asked as a follow up to the above question...

See Question: 17379