Making the 'big calls', then dealing with the anger

Games 17-18, 2020-21

Referee training courses often emphasise that we “must have the courage to make the big decisions”. That is, making calls at crucial points of a game that we know are going to be very unpopular. This happened to me twice at the weekend, and both times my whistle prompted a whole world of pain and unhappiness. Both involved penalties that influenced the outcome of each game. I am happy with both calls, as I was perfectly placed to see both offences. I’m less happy with the aggressive, choleric consequences and what they say about the human ability to accept unhappy truths:

 

Saturday night: Boys U19 league game. The away team is leading 1-0 with four minutes to go, but the home team equalises on a breakaway. The away team is claiming a foul in the build-up, but there was no foul in the build-up, their central defender was merely outmuscled by the goal scorer. Two minutes later, the home team’s captain is tripped in the box, five yards from where I’m standing. It’s not a hard foul, just a clumsy one, but it’s an irrefutable one. I point to the spot.

Away team players surround me, yelling. I send them sharply away. After the penalty’s converted, they do the same, but then realise they don’t have long to try and claw the goal back, so they disperse quickly. Upon the final whistle, though (the score remains 2-1), the collective tantrum is so loud, unpleasant and insult-heavy that I red-card their number 14, who had already seen yellow for dissent in the 66^th. minute. 

A group of away team parents had been allowed to attend a supposedly spectator-free game, as long as they stood far behind one goal while socially distancing. By full-time, though, one of them has made his way around the field in order to catch me on my way to the changing-room...

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.