Into The Book - Episode 12 - September, 2023
2023 Fall CRO Points of Emphasis
Coaching / Technical Area Behavior: We are two years into the Law changes that allow Referees to give formal misconduct to coaches. Warnings, Yellow Cards and Red Cards can all be given to coaches for behaviors listed in the Laws of the Game. We will give examples of some of these behaviors as well as ways in which referees can deal with those behaviors when they arise in your matches.
Updated Offside Interpretation: While the actual Law 11 has not changed a lot over the years the interpretation of Offside has evolved yet again. We will give more examples of how to judge deliberate vs deflection as an Assistant Referee and a Referee with the new interpretation.
Foul Recognition and differentiation: A big argument can be made that this is the most important part of our job as referees. We will spend some time talking about general foul recognition over the season, however, we will mainly focus on developing our ability to decide what type of foul occurred. Was it Careless or Reckless or did it involve excessive force? Could it be SPA or DOGSO? It is important for us a referees to not only be able to make a foul decision but also issue misconduct and protect players when necessary.
Into The Book - Episode 12
Managing Dissent
Video 1 - Technical Area Behavior
Video 2 - Management After a Foul
While watching this video notice the 4th official at mid field and note where the technical area is and where the the coach goes. This behavior cannot be ignored by the referee team. We know many games we work do not have 4th officials. It does not matter if you are the 4th official or AR1 in with an interaction like this with a coach. YOU MUST DEAL WITH IT.
Now let’s ask ourselves what do the Laws of The Game tell us we can do here? Check here with what the laws tell us. Next we must realize we have a potential decision on the field to make, don’t take your eyes off the field to deal with a coach, multi tasking at its best.
Once the play has moved you may address the coach. Clearly leaving the technical area to address the match official means that we are at least at a Yellow Card. The rest is going to depend on what happens in the interaction between you and the coach.
If they are only leaving the confines of their technical area and not dissenting then a Caution and Yellow Card must be shown.
If they are dissenting, outside the technical area, the coach must be sent off.
After the referee calls a foul and issues a Yellow Card to Black #2 his teammate comes running in, from more than 20 yards, in an aggressive manner. He then begins to yell and point at the referee.
Is this a moment of frustration or dissent? - Dissent
The player shows he has made a decision when he runs from distance
His pointing and yelling are both aggressive actions that are geared to bring the authority of the referee into question.
He continues the behavior after the referee singles for him to stop
What happens if you ignore this behavior?
If you choose not to address this behavior with a Yellow Card you’re showing everyone else on the field that this behavior is acceptable. This behavior will move into other parts of the match, high intensity tackles and emotion because the players know that this behavior is acceptable. While refereeing is not about power we must ensure that we don’t allow the respect of the game to be lost.
We need to show the Yellow Card and then bring the emotion of the situation down. Be calm but authoritative and address the situation.