Question Number: 30503

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 6/11/2016

RE: U5 and up to high school High School

mary Ramirez-de-Arellano of damascus, MD United States asks...

I struggle with carding players. I recognize that I 'should' card more for the enjoyment of and safety within the game. I know this is a struggle for me partly because I struggle with confrontation. I realize that I have to rid myself of this in order to be a good referee. Do you have any tips for me. I have never heard nor seen anyone talk about this, but I bet I am not the only reticent referee out here. Thanks for your consideration of my issue.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Mary
If you said that you struggle with sending off players I would understand that yet not with cautions. All a caution does is tell the player that her behaviour is not acceptable and a repeat will not be tolerated. It should not be seen as confrontational just stating an opinion on the manner of a challenge or a players behaviour
Now we also know that referees have differing attitude to cautions. One only has to look at the stats for cards for any competition and one will see that not all referees are equal. In the English Premier League the average is around 3.15 per game. Andre Mariner is the highest at 3.5 while Lee Mason in the lowest at 2.5. That does not tell us the whole story though. In some of our Leagues some referees issue too many cautions and others do not caution when they should.
Now my advice is to look back at your game and look at each incident of note. Some cards will be mandatory while others will be discretionary. Now look at the reasons why you did not card? Was it a questionable card for a minor incident. Did the player expect a caution. Was it the mechanism of cautioning that caused the non issue.
As to confrontation my advice is to not look at it as that. You award free kicks for perhaps debatable fouls. That is confrontation of a sort is it not. Also on cards I do not engage very much with the players. Most know that what they have done is a caution or may be depending on the circumstances. I simply just show the card as a matter of fact and take the details. It is no big deal really for the player and most do not see it as confrontation. Another way is to consider it a duty to control the game. Let us say that a player recklessly kicks an opponent and does not get a caution. That sends out a message that kicking is acceptable or that the referee is soft on recklessness. Players might then take retribution themselves or say the same player kicks another player harder and breaks her leg. Imagine how you might feel about not putting out a marker as to the unacceptable first challenge. Confrontation would be the least of your concerns at that time. So cautions are part of the game and required as a duty. It is not personal, the referee just happens to be doing what is expected.
I show this video quite a bit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1waQJ3dC5ro
There is no doubt that it is a red card. Referee Uriah Rennie shows the card as a matter of fact. It is not confrontational just doing what is expected under the Laws.
Final point is that at the very young age groups I do not use cards as there is little need to do so.