Mystery Train
GOLD
Long post about a minor issue, but it's been nagging at me, so humor me here. My youngest is in AYSO and I did the ref training to be a parent AR for U10, and the instructors trained us to communicate only with hand signals and discouraged calling out to the center ref for any reason. They said it was "unprofessional." Which I thought was funny since we're all unpaid volunteers. They didn't see the humor. But I found it interesting that they also advised the CRs and ARs to not talk to the coaches and players during the games or answer questions about calls or how much time is left, etc. Coming from more of a football and basketball background, where there is quite a bit of chatter between the refs themselves, with players, and with coaches during a game, I found this odd. Most of the chatter in those sports is not arguing, but clarifications on calls or just more information being shared. I get why soccer refs don't want to converse with coaches and players in game (in the other sports there are stoppages and time outs, so there is more opportunity for it) but it seems like soccer refs miss opportunities to clear things up and make the game go more smoothly by not ever communicating verbally. I got the impression from the training (and it seems to match what I've seen in my older DD's club and HS games) that ideally soccer refs are silent and do not interact or talk with players or coaches or even each other during the game. Again, this seems to be a cultural difference between soccer and other sports where there is lots of talk.
So a few weekends ago, I saw a weird situation where this wall of referee silence ended up causing a melt-down for one team's sideline. A girl on the other team was carrying a well-earned yellow card from a dangerous challenge early in the game. Later, she fouls another player from behind. This second foul was a bit clumsy, and definitely a foul, but not particularly hard or rough. The ref calls the foul but does not show a caution. Which even our sideline agreed was correct. Then he says something to the player and gestures for her to get off the field, pointing to the sideline. The girl shrugs and begins to jog over to her bench area. The coach is dumbfounded because a second yellow has not been shown. He tells the girl to stay on the field. The girl turns around and heads back. The ref sees this and sprints over to her and shows yellow #2 and then red card. When the player is sent off and talks to the coach and the parents, the other side goes apoplectic. Eventually one of the parents is thrown out for making a scene. On our side, we have no idea what has happened but it was disastrous for our opponents. Later, my player explained what really happened: The second foul was not a caution, but the ref noticed that the girl was wearing earrings and told her to go take them out. The coach didn't get this message and told her to go back. The ref then gave a second caution to the girl for not leaving the field to remove her earrings, thinking she was disobeying him. The parents and the coach went nuts, and everything devolved from there. I don't know why the ref didn't just go over to the coach and explain why he was sending the player to the sideline? Or just clear it up and let the girl take out her earrings and come back? But he refused to even talk to the coach. It just looked like a huge miscommunication to me, and when I had gotten the ref training, it made me realize that this must be a cultural thing in soccer refereeing. And maybe not a good one.
What do you veteran refs think? Am I way off base?
So a few weekends ago, I saw a weird situation where this wall of referee silence ended up causing a melt-down for one team's sideline. A girl on the other team was carrying a well-earned yellow card from a dangerous challenge early in the game. Later, she fouls another player from behind. This second foul was a bit clumsy, and definitely a foul, but not particularly hard or rough. The ref calls the foul but does not show a caution. Which even our sideline agreed was correct. Then he says something to the player and gestures for her to get off the field, pointing to the sideline. The girl shrugs and begins to jog over to her bench area. The coach is dumbfounded because a second yellow has not been shown. He tells the girl to stay on the field. The girl turns around and heads back. The ref sees this and sprints over to her and shows yellow #2 and then red card. When the player is sent off and talks to the coach and the parents, the other side goes apoplectic. Eventually one of the parents is thrown out for making a scene. On our side, we have no idea what has happened but it was disastrous for our opponents. Later, my player explained what really happened: The second foul was not a caution, but the ref noticed that the girl was wearing earrings and told her to go take them out. The coach didn't get this message and told her to go back. The ref then gave a second caution to the girl for not leaving the field to remove her earrings, thinking she was disobeying him. The parents and the coach went nuts, and everything devolved from there. I don't know why the ref didn't just go over to the coach and explain why he was sending the player to the sideline? Or just clear it up and let the girl take out her earrings and come back? But he refused to even talk to the coach. It just looked like a huge miscommunication to me, and when I had gotten the ref training, it made me realize that this must be a cultural thing in soccer refereeing. And maybe not a good one.
What do you veteran refs think? Am I way off base?