Question Number: 27119

Law 5 - The Referee 1/21/2013

RE: Rec Adult

Mike of Lebanon, CT USA asks...

I have been a ref for 6 years and have reffed about 300 games including high school, premier, and state cup games. This winter doing my usual indoor reffing, I got assigned some adult men's games for the first time. It did not go well. In fact out of the 6 games, 2 were complete diasters: numerous fouls, loud dissent, dives, and general lack of any respect on the player's part for my reffing. I gave several yellows only to be told I was 'card happy' by the players. One game ended with a player cursing and then giving me the middle finger. Yes, I ejected him.

My question: it seeems that something about my ref style obviously set these guys off. For those of you who have done these sort of games, what is that extra 'something' you bring to keep such a game in control? In the meantime, I told the facility assignor no more men's games, and I am happily back doing U10 through high school games with no issues whatsoever.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mike
Sorry to hear about your experiences. Sad to say but unfortunately it does go with the territory.
As regards the issue of cards referees have to do what is required by the Law. The gesture you describe was most definitely an ejection and players know that.
As regards the 'something' extra that can be difficult to articulate. The best suggestion I can make is 'presence' which comes from everything from demeanour, professional look, use of the whistle, referee knowledge etc, in general what message is the referee giving out to the players etc. even before a ball is kicked.
Refereeing is an exercise in human relations. It is about selling to the players the referee's philosophy and management style. I would say most referees have difficulty early on trying to 'control' games and I suppose its about earning respect and by letting the players know what will be tolerated and what will not.
My advice is to pick one of the 'better' referees in your area and go and watch his performance. How did he look, how did he deal with players, how did he deal with situations. Also it is worthwhile reading about the subject and there is some excellent material out there with some online
Finally I might add, your expectations may have been too high. All games are different and we all have had games that have had multiple fouls, dives and a poor attitude towards the referee. Older refs have what I call Rhino Skin and are battle hardened so that they deal with these situations as part of the game. If players want leniency then they play accordingly. Step out of line and the sanction is administered.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Mike,

I've been refereeing Futsal for about a fifth of the time I've been refereeing outdoor - and I've now quit Futsal (on all but the odd occasion). I've had more serious incidents occur against myself in a few short years of Futsal than I have in many more years of outdoor - so I share your pain.

Some regions and centres seem to be better than others - there were centres I refused to referee at due to multiple serious incidents.

Refereeing Futsal is very different to outdoors - not just in terms of how to judge the fouls, but even the way you need to approach the players.

In my experience - and it may not necessarily work in your area - I had to learn to talk to the players a lot more, even after the match. I found that being approachable helps, though you also need to know how to avoid a discussion turning into an argument, and when to say 'okay, you've had your say, I've had mine, it's time to move on'. Overall though I found that the respect seems to be a lot lower - and this may be where the difficulty in the jump to men is coming in; I generally find youth players easier to manage than adults for a variety of reasons. As you move up to the older ages, being able to recognise a foul and when to apply the cards doesn't seem to be enough any more.

I think part of the reason is that outdoor players are subject to something higher - they're responsible to their club (and often have a bit of club pride), who are responsible to the league. Most Futsal players (here at least) aren't answerable to anybody except the centre - and if that centre kicks them out they don't care, they'll just go down the road to another.

I