Question Number: 30361

Other 4/28/2016

RE: Competitive Other

Matt of Bristow, VA 20136 asks...

This question is a follow up to question 30347

Not a question but a comment.

In addition to the assignor, there may be club/league Director of Referees or similar position whose job it is to help the referees develop. Even if not, it wouldn't hurt to mention the issue to the League/Club administrator in charge of the rec program. They may also be able to communicate with the referee and possibly in a more effective manner.

Also, I wouldn't do this for judgment calls, but depending on the situation; it may be possible to tactfully point out errors in the application of the LOG such as awarding an IDFK for a throw-in directly to the referee after the match. It would depend on the senior referee's ability to provide that feedback in a tactful, private manner; but if the feedback could be given in a truly developmental spirit and not in a 'we just lost and you screwed up these calls' spirit, the immediacy of the feedback would outweigh the jumping of the chain-of-command.

Lastly, in any event, the referee should check himself before he does anything. I referee in at least 10 different leagues all with nuanced differences in their laws. It would be easy for an experienced referee observing a rec match to be unaware of a local rule and therefore be incorrect in his critique of the match officials.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Matt
Thanks for your comments which are helpful. All sound advice

Answer provided by Referee MrRef

Hello Matt,
it is good to explore all options to get good information into the hands of those that can use it. If we were all reasonable one could ask a simple question and get a fair response. It is an unfortunate aspect of competitive sports that emotions colour actions and how we interact. How much understanding, knowledge, experience or compassion one might have it is easy to overlook alterations if one is uninformed. Given the new rewrite I suspect this confusion on something's will be a pain for the interim. We need to reteach many aspects, although a new approach is in the works for the new referees, us older ones who think we might know more than we do, must relearn a few things or suffer similar misunderstandings. Many thanks for your input and concern!
from our pitch to your pitch in the spirit of fair play