Question Number: 27840

Other 10/1/2013

RE: Adult

terry youll of newcastle, tyne and wear England asks...

This question is a follow up to question 27827

Does a club HAVE to accept any referee allotted to them or can they have a situation that they will not be given a certain ref?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Terry
Generally a club has to accept the referee allocated to the game unless there is good reason such as a conflict of interest etc.
The club can request a change but that may not be entertained by the match assignors.
Remember as well that the referee might not want to do certain games becuase of the abuse received.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Some competitions allow teams to 'blackball' refs in advance - I've heard of this most often in high schools in the US.

Other than that, a team can ask the assignor that they not see a certain referee again, but there is no guarantee that request will be acted upon. However, a good ref assignor will work to get refs best suited for the games, given the restrictions of the number of games and the number of refs available.

If a ref you don't like shows up at the field, the team has the choice to play the game or forfeit - with all the complications and penalties that involves.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Coaches all over the world ask Referee Assignors not to assign certain referees to future matches. This has been going on since there have been referee assignors. Sometimes the coach will have a legitimate reason and the assignor will honor the request. The reality is there are so few referees that sometimes a referee will end up at a game he or she wasn't supposed to.

But once at the field, there's little you can do. The teams and referee crew are there. Your team can refuse to play and open a can of worms I doubt you really want to. Best to play the match and put in another request for future matches.