Managing teen aggression, ignorant coaches, and morons behind the goal

Games 8-10, 2020-21

I've reffed two boys' U19 games over the past few days - one cup tie, and one league game - and have finally come to realise that these games will never be quiet. I took a friend to the first game and said to him, "The chances of there being no cards tonight are about one per cent." As a former player in the east German youth system, he was not at all fazed by the intensity of the game, and thought the seven yellow cards plus one five-minute time penalty and a red card were just about right.

Putting 22 adolescent boys on a limited rectangle of ground and letting them all compete at the same time for a single round leather ball is never going to lead to group yoga and 90 minutes of wellness therapy. As the sole controlling factor, the referee has to reckon in advance with high testosterone levels and inevitable frustration, aggression and foul play. The trick is always finding the balance between lenience and punishment, as well as hitting the right tone when it comes to keeping the players in check and focused on the game.

In these two games, I was gifted ideal situations in the first half that allowed me to assert my authority - both times, two opponents squared up to each other following a battle for the ball and exchanged words...

Want to read more? Click here to order Reffing Hell: Stuck In The Middle Of A Game Gone Wrong by Ian Plenderleith (Halcyon Publishing), published on August 8, 2022.