What to do when ref tells players before the game that he has bad eyesight?

No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.
 
No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.

Nothing new. Happens every weekend. Move on.
 
If the coach has a problem with it, he can speak to his age group coordinator, if they have one, or other league official responsible for his age group, letting the league work it. If it is a parent, they talk to the coach, and the coach then decides if it was/is a problem, and handles it accordingly. I agree with Eagle33, this form of item can happen. This can also happen with a referee that is younger, and has no eye sight issues, but is having a general bad day.
 
No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.

Since I didn't ref this past weekend, it was not me. I have said numerous times that I may screw up your name and number because I cannot see the writing. I am wearing glasses when I say this. The glasses I wear on the field are for distance only since I really don't need to be able to see at reading distance. My normal glasses are bifocal, but they bug me while on the field since there is distortion in the lens when I have to look to the side or down and that is distracting and may cause me to miss something.
 
No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.
I guess you should pull the team and forfeit the game. Stop blaming the refs and play. Pretty soon there wont' be enough refs for all the games. I can see a day when the number of teams allowed is governed by the number of refs available and the number of refs is not increasing at the same rate as teams.
 
No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.


you’re quite the Whiney one aren’t ya....
 
No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.

U10 = 7v7. 7v7 = about 12 girls per team. 12 girls per team = 24 parents x 2 teams = 48 potential new referees, most of whom should be under the age of 40, so fairly mobile. Congrats please share the following link with your parents and the other team's manager: https://www.calsouth.com/en/referees/how-to-be/

My glasses are for distance and the optometrist set the prescription high for distance, which means my close up vision sucks when wearing the glasses and I have to take off my glasses to read the little words on the paper.

At the end of the day, its U10. Playing 7v7 on an 80' field (max is 65x45) ... blame the club that put the game on a mega field. Parents concerned that the kids played the ball a 1 outside the line, parents should blame the parents for not understanding that is ulittle soccer and all that really matters is the kids had fun.
 
The nerve of that overweight guy with the bad eyesight to get out there on a weekend to try and stay active by allowing 9 year olds to play soccer.
What a waste of $40 in ref fees. We should have just stayed home and had the kids play Fortnite.
And why in the heck would he try to teach the kids how to do a throw in (Not really his place, but I’ve seen it before). I hope he didn’t also try to explain to the kids what an indirect free kick is.
 
So it's just for fun because it's U10? Can't the same be said for a U18 game? When is this magical crossing made from ulittle soccer over to u-important soccer? At the end of the day it's not a big deal and it was more entertainment than anything else because it was not a tight game. But the ref is getting paid just like a u-older game.
 
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No joke. Single ref GU10 game yesterday on a long field (~80 yards) and while ref is checking in girls before game he tells them that his eyesight is bad and to bear with him. To top it off the ref is older, overweight and not very mobile. Needless to say the game was a bit comical with girls dribbling a full yard or two outside the lines and players stopping play while others continued. A few other oddities occurred with ref stopping game and berating parent for giving his daughter tactical info (dad was telling daughter to "go to the ball") and ref stopping game to give demonstration of how to do a throw-in to girls who all knew how to properly throw-in.

Was this in OC? We had a ref last year that sounds identical to this ref. Although he didn't announce before the game that he was going to do a crappy job. He waited until half time to tell us that "his eyes can't keep up with the speed of the game". However, it wasn't comical at all, we had 3 players cleated above the waist by their keeper with the last to the face of our forward which knocked him out of the game. No calls all three times, because the ref claimed he didn't see it.

I love the excuse that if you don't like it you should become a ref. So if my steak is overcooked, I shouldn't complain and instead become a chef, or if I get a bad haircut, I should shut up and go to cosmetology school? Talk about absurd rationalizations and red herrings to excuse the behavior of a bad ref. Now I know why there is a lack of accountability. News flash...99% of everything that happens in your life is not a big deal in the grand scheme things, but that should never be an excuse to do a half ass job on work you are paid to do. Could you imagine if we all approached our jobs (that aren't life or death) with that ref's attitude and told our customers before providing the service that your going to provide really shitty service to them today. Have we really lowered the bar that far?
 
The alternative is not having the game. That alternative is going to become a reality, mainly due to attitudes such as the last two posts. I'm truly going to miss doing games, big time. But I truly will never miss armchair quarterback knowitall douchebags who wish rainbows and unicorns were reffing their 10 year old daughter's games.....
 
A few years ago while in AYSO, I was the center referee for a Boys U12 game and the AR told me he was color blind. That was something I didn’t expect. He did tell me to don’t worry if I correct a call that he made due to this. But at least he was up front with it and there was really no problems. But it was different....
 
You can tell it is not competitive because there is 1 referee. There is no way a referee is going to be able to tell out of bounds AND be in the best position for plays in in the middle of the field. It is a fools errand to try and get every out of bounds call right. Just play to the whistle (duh), the out of bounds line is just a formality. Just a literal line in sand.

You also don't need to be that fit to do a 7v7 game. If he literally does not leave the center circle all game, he will still be closer to play than most fit referees doing a U19 game.
 
You can tell it is not competitive because there is 1 referee. There is no way a referee is going to be able to tell out of bounds AND be in the best position for plays in in the middle of the field. It is a fools errand to try and get every out of bounds call right. Just play to the whistle (duh), the out of bounds line is just a formality. Just a literal line in sand.

You also don't need to be that fit to do a 7v7 game. If he literally does not leave the center circle all game, he will still be closer to play than most fit referees doing a U19 game.
no offense, but you say some weird crap.....
 
no offense, but you say some weird crap.....
Well, based on your previous posts, I can tell you are pretty legalistic (not meant as an insult), so I am assuming the phrase that struck you as the most weird would be "the out of bounds line is just a formality".

There are two philosophies to refereeing. You can either view yourself as the defender of the LOTG, or as the peacekeeper. The defender of the LOTG does the game of "Soccer" justice. He follows all the rules, even if both teams are not aware of one particular law, the referee does not care, he enforces them. This is a good refereeing philosophy for most games, especially the competitive games that determine futures.

Then there is the refereeing as a peacekeeper. What you do in this style is you imagine that the two teams are just having a scrimmage or pick up game with each other without a referee. You then call whatever both teams think need to be called and are there in case the teams cannot agree on what the result should be.
For example, two unskilled girls are running side by side, there is fair contact and one girl falls down and sprains her wrist because she doesn't know how to fall properly. Under the LOTG, this is not a foul. However, everyone on the injured girls team think it is a foul, what's more, the girl that bumped her down thinks it was a foul and her whole team thinks she committed a foul. You are now in a situation where everyone on the pitch except you thinks there was a foul.

At that point, you should just call the foul and betray the game of soccer because it is clear that the parents and teams want to play something, but that something is not soccer. This strategy is best for the uLittles and the Adult League games (for opposite reasons of course).

My point is that most uLittle games are just organized pick up games. I have played a lot of pick up soccer where you call your own fouls and you only do a throw in if the ball went significantly past the boundary line. No one cares or has the patience to call out of bounds when it is out for a half second, we just want to keep playing. Whether the ball was 6 inches to one side of a line or the other means very little, because the line is just an arbitrary boundary that exists just to add a little order so we aren't dribbling through the bushes.
It is like the 25mph speed limit. It is just a line in the sand. If you go 26mph, it doesn't mean you are all of a sudden immoral and endangering neighborhoods. In the same reasoning just because a 16 or 96 year old is driving 16mph in a 25 zone is not inherently less dangerous to neighborhoods.
 
So it's just for fun because it's U10? Can't the same be said for a U18 game? When is this magical crossing made from ulittle soccer over to u-important soccer? At the end of the day it's not a big deal and it was more entertainment than anything else because it was not a tight game. But the ref is getting paid just like a u-older game.
Even in a U18 game. Imagine the 2nd to last defender is at the top of the penalty area arc and all of a sudden a midfielder shoots a screamer from 30 yards out. It hits the top crossbar, it bounces down and in around the goal line somewhere, and then it bounces out.

It is physically impossible for an AR 18 yards away to beat the ball and be on the goal line at the time he needs to make the judgement of in or out of the goal. The "competitiveness" of the game would demand to know the factual answer, was it a goal or not? But there is not way to tell. I have had this happen to me several times before, and if the coach complains, I just tell him that if it bothers him, he should find and pay for a league that has goal line technology.

What I mean is that it is illogical to blame the AR or referee for messing up the competitive integrity because of their situation. If you want to know if the ball enters the goal, get goal line technology, if you want more accurate offside calls, pay for trained AR's, if you want more accurate ball out of bounds calls, train honest club linesmen. If you want any of these things and more, pay for more than 1 referee. We don't set your competitiveness level, you do. There is no magical crossing from ulittle to uimportant soccer, there is just magical green paper. I'm sure there are U9 leagues out there that pay for 3 referees, they just cost a little more.
 
There are two philosophies to refereeing. You can either view yourself as the defender of the LOTG, or as the peacekeeper. The defender of the LOTG does the game of "Soccer" justice. He follows all the rules, even if both teams are not aware of one particular law, the referee does not care, he enforces them. This is a good refereeing philosophy for most games, especially the competitive games that determine futures.
The refs should always call a game according to the LOTG regardless of age or what parents might think. If only the ref knows the rule then he/she can quickly tell everybody else what call was made and carry on. A ref not using the LOTG to call a game only results in further confusion down the road.
 
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