Coach and Team Personal Misconduct -
Law 12 Continued
Just like players coaches and team officials can be issued Yellow and Red Cards. They can also be given a Formal Warning before you give them a yellow card. Below are all the of offenses that a coach can be issued misconduct for per the Laws of The Game. We will also give a few other tools to use during games that will help with situations involve coaches and even parents in the youth game.
Always approach coaches in a calm manner. If you come to a coach yelling it will only escalate the encounter.
Steps you can try and take with a coach before it goes too far.
When the ball goes out of play take a moment to talk with the coach
Tell the coach “I know you may disagree with my calls but you cannot talk to me that way.”
“Coach if you keep talking to me this way you could end up with a card”
As a AR or 4th Official - “I hear what you’re saying, the referee is closer than both of us and had a good view of the play.”
During a soccer game coaches will become excited and show emotion during the highs and lows of the game. As referee’s it is important that we understand, and allow, a little bit of emotion. It’s why we love the game of soccer to start with. However, we must know the difference between a moment of emotion or frustration after a big moment in the game or a big decision by the referee and continued dissent or inappropriate comments towards a referee. When it crosses the line into dissent or inappropriate comments we must take action using the laws of the game. Below are some examples of each
A moment of emotion or frustration
Coach says “That’s a handball”, “Hey ref that’s a foul” “Offside!” in a quick and easy manner and goes back to coaching their team
“Ref, I think that their player missed the ball and kicked my player” said in a respectful way and they go back to coaching
An open positive conversation with a coach can be helpful to the game. Sometimes a coach just wants to know what you saw and move on. That is okay to talk with them, quickly, about what you saw.
Dissent or inappropriate comments towards a referee
Yellow Card / Cautions
Aggressive yelling at the referee
Continual yelling at the referee
Kicking a water bottle or other items on the sideline when upset with a call
constantly telling the referee they’re wrong
approaching the referee from a long distance to yell at you
A long drawn out conversation where the coach is not respecting you is not okay. Give the coach your explanation and move back to the game.
Red Card / Send Offs
Coming onto the field from their bench to dissent towards the referee.
Cursing at the referee
Being Physically aggressive towards the referee.
Touching the referee
Dealing with Parents
If a parent is becoming inappropriate do not approach them as a referee. Stop the game, go the coach for that team’s parent (if you don’t know bring both coaches together) and tell them that the game will not re-start until that parent stops (or leaves if necessary). If it continues you can tell them to remove the parent. ALWAYS CONTACT YOUR ASSIGNOR IF YOU HAVE TO DO THIS, EVEN IF YOU THINK IT IS MINOR. Your assignor is here to help you and deal with these types of problems.