SoCal Soccer Attitude Change

[baldref]

Not to justify the yelling, but were these new refs new to youth club soccer as well? My kids been playing for 8 years and there has been yelling the whole time. I would assume that most youth players that ref have been playing so they should have been exposed to it already. Kind of like taking a job at a hospital and then quitting cause you didn't realize you had to work around sick people...

who

I'm not condoning abusive parent/coach behavior (I don't know why its necessary to issue the caveat when I talk about refs) but I think its too easy to solely blame parents/coaches for ref attrition. I can't speak for older teams but at the 9v9 level many of the refs are ill prepared for the game both in terms of temperament and knowledge of the game (particularly league rules). This year during league the reffing has just been short of atrocious. This example is indicative of what we have seen this year: A couple kids are in a 50/50 battle and the other coach yells "Call a foul" the ref thinks for a few seconds and looks at the other coach and says "You want a foul? Fine I'll call a foul on your team" and precedes to give us free kick from the refs position on the field.

I'm not giving refs a free pass but these ref associations do refs no favors by sending out refs that are not sufficiently trained (in both laws and game management). This problem is only compounded by the lack of supervision of these refs. Ultimately, "club" (aka expensive rec) soccer is a victim of its own success and its just numbers game and its not possible to find enough qualified refs, competent coaches and non-psycho parents.

its a shame you get such horrible treatment. If I were you I'd get my kids away from this atrociousness and have them play baseball or softball
Im ashamed to be a soccer referee based on your non bias opinion of us

 

[Just a Parent]

I guess my main problems with the refs here is we have a different definition definition of the terms such as abuse and disrespect. I get that it is tough for some people to handle what I would call rude or obnoxious spectators. I would recommend that if you are one of those sensitive types you avoid jobs like referee, cop, military, etc . Parents get passionate about their keep kids. I would rather see a passionate fan willing to be a little abusive,etc that a bunch of disinterested opera goers who just sit there and stone faced watch the game. Sticks and stones break bones, words don't. I am raising my kids to be warriors/survivors so yelling is gonna go in one ear and out the door other for them. Probably why when their coaches have gotten upset with team my daughters teammates are all upset and she is smiling about how silly he sounded chewing them out. Toughen up people.

Disrespect? Who gives a hoot? Least of all not a referee. But referee abuse? That's a different breed of animal. I suggest you read up on it. You will be surprised what it means.

 

[Just a Parent]

I'm not condoning abusive parent/coach behavior (I don't know why its necessary to issue the caveat when I talk about refs) but I think its too easy to solely blame parents/coaches for ref attrition. I can't speak for older teams but at the 9v9 level many of the refs are ill prepared for the game both in terms of temperament and knowledge of the game (particularly league rules). This year during league the reffing has just been short of atrocious. This example is indicative of what we have seen this year: A couple kids are in a 50/50 battle and the other coach yells "Call a foul" the ref thinks for a few seconds and looks at the other coach and says "You want a foul? Fine I'll call a foul on your team" and precedes to give us free kick from the refs position on the field.

If the referee actually did this, I say, kudos. He properly enforced the LOTG. By calling it atrocious you just demonstrated your own ignorance of the laws of the game and blame the referee for doing his job. The person whose job you should be calling atrocious is the coach, not the referee.

 

[watfly]

This level of ref attrition doesn't benefit anyone but most importantly it doesn't benefit the kids. There needs to be accountability across the board. Name calling doesn't resolve anything.