Today I was the CR for a U13G match with Blue & White. The ball was down in the White end. White player has her arms out away from her body and the cross comes in and strikes her arm. I really didn’t hesitate to blow the whistle and point to the spot (player was in the area). The current gospel from USSF adds the criteria of the player using their arms to “make themself bigger” when determining whether a handling is intentional. While the White player did not move her arm to the ball, in my opinion she used her arms to make herself bigger, cutting off passing lanes around her. As we’re setting up for the penalty to be taken, the AR on that side calls me over. When I get there, he doesn’t ask something like “what did you see?” or “why did you feel that was handling?”. Oh no. He poceeds to assert “that was a bang-bang play, that’s not handling”. I tried to explain what I saw, but I don’t think it mattered. He simply responded with “you’re wrong!”. I felt his volume and tone allowed his opinion to be heard by the nearest bench, but even if it wasn’t it was clear by the way he turned away from me in a huff that he clearly disagreed. Fortunately there was little or no protest of the call. At halftime, I tried to tell him that I have no problem with him disagreeing with a call but a sideline conference - especially right before the taking of a PK - wasn’t the time or place. He wouldn’t hear it. He was too busy taking it personally that I didn’t agree with him.
Now maybe it’s just me but I really think it’s not the place of an AR to tell the CR that he is wrong. At least as long as the CR takes the correct action based on what he saw. I have no problem with an AR saying he saw things differently, or to say that he would have called/handled a given play differently, but I think to say the CR is flat wrong amounts to the AR trying to call the match for the CR. And either way, I strongly feel that that conversation should never happen during a match or in front of players/coaches/spectators. The CR faces enough challenges managing a match without an AR throwing him under the bus.
Assistant referees. . .whether you saw things differenly or wouldn’t have called it that way or if the referee is just plain stepping in it, don’t forget that it’s not your call to make. Now in that conference, you can discuss what each of you saw and what you think the right answer is, then the CR can choose to use the info from the AR or not to use it. But - nothing personal - the final decision belongs to the CR and the CR alone.
Now. . .I totally appreciate an AR who helps the CR from stepping in a steaming pile. After all, an Assistant Referee is there to assist the referee. But that wasn’t the case in my particular match. Because I (as the CR) saw things differently (I’d also waved him down on one offside call earlier), he decided to take things personally and turn himself into an Insistent Referee.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:12 am
A player can say what ever they want close to me and not public, same goes for my AR’s, make it public and your going to get an ear full at half or after the game.
Close situation last night. I have a 4A boys game which is not all that physical but of course there is a few bumps and grinds. I told my AR’s before the match that I was going to let them play a little tonight and to follow my lead or the tone of the match when they call fouls. 3 minutes left in the match and my AR (who I have never worked with before) starts waving his flag like a wild man over a normal shoulder to shoulder bump with both players coming in on it. If I call this I am going to get eaten alive because it would be so grossly inconsistent with the previous 77 minutes of the game. I wave him down and signal play on…. (I actually struggled with this in my head for the next 30 seconds because I really like to back my AR’s up on thier calls) The game ends and we all meet at center field. Before I can say something my other AR lights up the AR that made the call. Telling him 1. I as the center was very close to play and could easily make that call if I wanted. 2. It was inconsitent with my other calls and he should match my calls 3. who did he plan on calling it against since they both came in hard.
I actually felt bad for the guy after my other AR got done with him….
September 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Alex,
Good to hear from you again. In a word - Exactly! I could care less that my AR questioned the call or even that he disagreed with it. That’s all well and good. But a sideline conference is neither the time or the place to tell me so. And loud enough that other people could hear - or - making his disagreement visible for others to see is NEVER the way to express it.
If I’m an AR, I handle it differently. The sideline conference would have gone something like this -
AR (me): Are you sure that handling was intentional? What did you see?
CR: She didn’t move her arms, but made herself bigger to cut off passing lanes.
AR (me): I didn’t see it that way, but if that’s what you saw then we have a PK.
It would have taken 2 seconds, the CR would have known I disagreed, and the referee team still looks united and is able to sell the call.
If my incident would have happened at a very high-level match you can bet your game fee that the coaches and spectators would have picked up that the AR and I weren’t on the same page and used it every chance they got. What bothered me the most was that the AR in question was a guy I’d worked well with before and generally thought reasonably highly of. Not anymore, I guess.