Question Number: 30433

League Specific 5/19/2016

Mike of Cypress, CA USA asks...

What do think of this? The organizers of a large tournament came before a meeting of our local ref association and told the referees " who would be working the tournament " to avoid giving red cards or dismissing coaches or spectators during the competition. The reason? Red cards and dismissals upset people, cause them to spread negative opinions about the tournament, and may discourage them from signing up for the tournament the next year. They didnt prohibit red cards/dismissals, but told the referees to avoid them as much as possible.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mike
Not a very good idea. Now there is nothing wrong with tournament organisers asking referees to adopt more common sense or being less sticklers about sanctions. We speculated that in the last World Cup in Brazil referees were *advised* to caution less and that was certainly borne out during the games. For instance in South Africa 2010 the ejection rate was 0.3 and cautions 4.2 per game whereas in Brazil 2014 it had fallen to 0.2 for ejections and 2.8 for cautions. In Germany WC 2006 it was 0.4 and 5.7 respectively. I have little doubt that the reductions of over 50% in cautions since 2006 was attributable to referees being *counselled* by FIFA Referee Dept on this rather than teams being cleaner or fairer. It certainly compromised certain games. Brazil v Colombia was a game that surprised me with the lack of cautions and some of the actions by players . There were 54 fouls and 4 cautions of which one was preventing GK release. It was the game where Neymar got his spine damaged.
Now I would take the advice with a pinch of salt. If I need to deal with situations I do so under the law. Safety and the proper playing of the game is key rather that having teams and players free reign due to policy. I would also hope that the organisers would have similar words with teams / coaches that they should be adopting Fair Play rules which then necessitates referees having to make fewer disciplinary decisions.
I might add that if enough referees do not like this approach and attitude with referees not supported then many referees may chose to not sign up. In my early days of refereeing I did un-sanctioned tournaments. I quickly learned that refs were not supported by the organisers nor by officialdom so I gave those up.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Maybe they're 'advising' the wrong set of people. Advise the players and coaches to not commit misconduct, and there won't be cards given!

If I was given that 'instruction' I'd wonder if the tournament organizers were going to back up my decisions or second guess me. Maybe the refs won't sign up for the tournament next year.

Answer provided by Referee Jason Wright

Hi Mike,
Pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with the culture of the game if you ask me. The organisers don't see that there's any problem with how people react. Apparently if somebody gets sent off it's the referee's fault, not the individual's!

Disgusting approach, only serves to perpetuate this culture of abuse and removal of personal responsibility for one's actions.

I certainly wouldn't expect any support from the organisers over refereeing concerns, including abuse or assult - from your words they've made it clear that having as many people as possible sign up is their only concern.

Perhaps they'll find that such an approach actually reduces numbers - tournaments that quickly get a reputation for poor discipline and appalling player/spectator conduct often see teams leaving in droves. Especially if they have a hard time attracting decent referees as well.

I'd advise any referee to ignore such advise and do their job like any other match.