US Soccer Referee Abuse Policy (RAP)

umeweall

umeweall

SILVER
For anyone interested in the new RAP policy introduced by US Soccer on Mar. 1, 2025, I have created two videos.

One video is for referees, and the other is for coaches and league board members. I researched through all of the
material put out by US Soccer, and CNRA, to gather information for the videos.

Hopefully this new policy will help curb dissent directed toward referees by the new dosage of heavy penalties created.
We have been losing too many referees due to dissent directed toward them at fields, and it has corroded the game
environment.

My first cousin is the red queen, from Alice & Wonderland. Whenever I see some one going after a youth referee, I mimic
my cousin 'off with their head'!

Referee Video

Coaches & Board Member Video
 
For the youth games: First, you have to get the referees to actually deal with the bad behavior and report it to the leagues. Then the leagues and clubs need to enforce these new US Soccer penalties. it would be nice if they published the offender’s identity and their punishments. The biggest problem is that coaches and managers do not control their spectators.
 
Reporting bad to the public will never happen, but I will say that a good organization should let their referee association board members know what action was taken for any abuse. This is what I consider as 'working together'. This would be just to let the referee association know that reports of abuse were being handled, and to be aware of needed penalty enforcement measures.

As for spectators, that is a VERY sore point for me. We operate under the system where the coach is responsible for their spectators. Talk to the coach, to ask them to control their spectator(s). Spectator does not behave, coach gets ejected. Well, gee, that solved the problem, the coach is gone and the spectator is potentially still there, acting a fool. Same procedure directed toward assistant coach, and then what? Both coaches gone, spectator still there, smiling. Game abandoned, kids loose out. There are adult males who don't want to hear a coach tell them to be quiet, and there is nothing the coach can do about that. I spoke to IFAB about this and they stated that the IFAB rules will NEVER cover spectators. They stated that it was directly up to the competing organization to specify what can be done with spectators, and the door is wide open. The problem is that many organizations act like they are scared to death to put rules into place affecting spectators.
 
umeweall said:
Reporting bad to the public will never happen, but I will say that a good organization should let their referee association board members know what action was taken for any abuse. This is what I consider as 'working together'. This would be just to let the referee association know that reports of abuse were being handled, and to be aware of needed penalty enforcement measures.

As for spectators, that is a VERY sore point for me. We operate under the system where the coach is responsible for their spectators. Talk to the coach, to ask them to control their spectator(s). Spectator does not behave, coach gets ejected. Well, gee, that solved the problem, the coach is gone and the spectator is potentially still there, acting a fool. Same procedure directed toward assistant coach, and then what? Both coaches gone, spectator still there, smiling. Game abandoned, kids loose out. There are adult males who don't want to hear a coach tell them to be quiet, and there is nothing the coach can do about that. I spoke to IFAB about this and they stated that the IFAB rules will NEVER cover spectators. They stated that it was directly up to the competing organization to specify what can be done with spectators, and the door is wide open. The problem is that many organizations act like they are scared to death to put rules into place affecting spectators.
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The problem is the Ifab rules apply to the professional game too and the clubs don’t want to be responsible for the fans. See the Spanish gay slur world. The rules are driven by the pro game. Not the youth one.
 
Yep, IFAB stated that their rules are most for professional games and do not directly address issues in youth matches, and never will, and that this is declared in their constitution. They expect youth organizations to craft any extra needed rules to operate their games.
 
I don't think we'll really see how this affects the game until tournaments, or the fall season. My son's team is playing in the SoCal spring league, for example, and it's pretty casual; there are bad calls as usual, and some normal level of complaining, but there doesn't seem to be much attention paid to strict new rule enforcement.

Example: In the game today, there were two calls for pushing on players who were shielding the ball, and got pushed in the back in the process; the calls were on the players who were shielding, and both calls were absurdly terrible. The coach even yelled about the foul called being literally impossible (he pushed the player with his back by standing still?), but the ref just shrugged it off. To be fair, they seemed like purposefully bad pity calls based on player size and skill difference, but those were still objectively terrible calls. None of the parents really said anything loudly, though, because it wasn't a close game, and the league isn't intended to be that competitive (it's mainly just scrimmages). If those had been game-altering calls in a tournament, though, there would have undoubtedly been more audible verbal criticism from the parents of at least those specific awful calls. At that point, I guess we'll see how strict the enforcement will be.

(There was also some very obvious, loud, and repeated swearing from one specific player, and no action taken from the officials, so the concern about uneven and arbitrary rule enforcement is probably going to be the most significant gripe come fall, I would imagine.)
 
sigmabody said:
I don't think we'll really see how this affects the game until tournaments, or the fall season. My son's team is playing in the SoCal spring league, for example, and it's pretty casual; there are bad calls as usual, and some normal level of complaining, but there doesn't seem to be much attention paid to strict new rule enforcement.

Example: In the game today, there were two calls for pushing on players who were shielding the ball, and got pushed in the back in the process; the calls were on the players who were shielding, and both calls were absurdly terrible. The coach even yelled about the foul called being literally impossible (he pushed the player with his back by standing still?), but the ref just shrugged it off. To be fair, they seemed like purposefully bad pity calls based on player size and skill difference, but those were still objectively terrible calls. None of the parents really said anything loudly, though, because it wasn't a close game, and the league isn't intended to be that competitive (it's mainly just scrimmages). If those had been game-altering calls in a tournament, though, there would have undoubtedly been more audible verbal criticism from the parents of at least those specific awful calls. At that point, I guess we'll see how strict the enforcement will be.

(There was also some very obvious, loud, and repeated swearing from one specific player, and no action taken from the officials, so the concern about uneven and arbitrary rule enforcement is probably going to be the most significant gripe come fall, I would imagine.)
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Yes, game intensity does affect everything. On the flip side, I have seen U8 games, where parents go ballistic, like it is an Olympic game being played. I agree that there is going to be a while before many youth referees are in 'tune' with what needs to be done. Many of them are afraid to make a penalty call, due to reactions from coaches spectators. They would much rather just 'get the game over', and be done with it. A big factor that affects that is if they have 'mentors' at the field backing them up. We run a group of mentors at our fields, every weekend. When they know they have this backup, they have shown themselves more willing to stick their neck out and make the calls. They also know that with the mentors there, and if it is seen that they are not making calls, they will get asked by the mentor as to what the problem is. They are being evaluated by mentors every weekend, and to get better games (higher paying), they have to demonstrate that they can handle the stress/job functions of doing more challenging games. One thing is made absolutely clear, if they can't function in a recreational game setting, they will never get assigned a competitive game. This becomes a motivator for a lot of them, as they want to work the higher paying games. Forgot to mention that the mentors also help with sideline control, if needed.

As for tournaments, all age groups, yes it is amazing as to how the atmosphere changes when a 'tournament' happens. Everything counts, everything is looked at like it is a critical event. Everything is expected to be 100% correct for all calls made, as it can affect standings. It is typically expected that things will be more 'rowdy', especially with teams that are running close in points, or don't like each other. The assignment of center referees is looked at more closely by the assignor.
 
I certainly agree that it will take some guts to make some of the calls mandated by the new policy, that's for sure. Imagine you have a very passionate and angry parent yelling at you, and you know that carding said parent will trigger the league's mandatory 6 game suspension for his kid, who has otherwise done nothing wrong on the field. Furthermore, let's say you know that the club has a policy to drop and blacklist any player who is suspended for ref abuse (as I'm sure clubs will), and other clubs will pay attention to that as well, so carding the verbally abusive parent will effectively end that player's soccer career. You can imagine how much time, money, effort, and passion that parent has invested in his kid, and you consider what he might do if that happens, and he thinks in his rage that you are responsible for grave injury to his child and he has nothing else to lose.

Yeah... not sure I would card the parent in that scenario, personally. But like I said, we won't really see the effects until we get to the perceived high pressure games, where entire soccer careers are effectively on the line. That's the thing about massively harsh binary penalties: they tend to push people to their breaking points immediately, with no time or mechanism to "calm down" (which is why they are rare, in most venues).
 
sigmabody said:
I certainly agree that it will take some guts to make some of the calls mandated by the new policy, that's for sure. Imagine you have a very passionate and angry parent yelling at you, and you know that carding said parent will trigger the league's mandatory 6 game suspension for his kid, who has otherwise done nothing wrong on the field. Furthermore, let's say you know that the club has a policy to drop and blacklist any player who is suspended for ref abuse (as I'm sure clubs will), and other clubs will pay attention to that as well, so carding the verbally abusive parent will effectively end that player's soccer career. You can imagine how much time, money, effort, and passion that parent has invested in his kid, and you consider what he might do if that happens, and he thinks in his rage that you are responsible for grave injury to his child and he has nothing else to lose.

Yeah... not sure I would card the parent in that scenario, personally. But like I said, we won't really see the effects until we get to the perceived high pressure games, where entire soccer careers are effectively on the line. That's the thing about massively harsh binary penalties: they tend to push people to their breaking points immediately, with no time or mechanism to "calm down" (which is why they are rare, in most venues).
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Yep, the sins of the parents can definitely affect their kids, unfortunately. I sorta like what the Utah Youth Soccer Association has stated they will do on spectator referee abuse. If a teams' spectators are identified as being an 'issue', the spectators could be banned from the team's games for the remainder of the season. Imagine that, a game being played without spectator 'input'.

When I was chief of umpires, for little league baseball, I once ejected BOTH spectator stands of people. I told them to go to the sidewalk, outside of the field. They had kept going at each other, for two innings, and had been warned. I stopped the game, told them all to leave, and restarted the game. The coach of one team walked past home plate, back to the dugout, and stated just loud enough for me to hear 'this is BS'. I told him to keep going to the sidewalk. The game continued without any further issues. The players did not miss the parents not being there, as they were too busy playing and having fun in the dugouts.
 
sigmabody said:
I certainly agree that it will take some guts to make some of the calls mandated by the new policy, that's for sure. Imagine you have a very passionate and angry parent yelling at you, and you know that carding said parent will trigger the league's mandatory 6 game suspension for his kid, who has otherwise done nothing wrong on the field. Furthermore, let's say you know that the club has a policy to drop and blacklist any player who is suspended for ref abuse (as I'm sure clubs will), and other clubs will pay attention to that as well, so carding the verbally abusive parent will effectively end that player's soccer career. You can imagine how much time, money, effort, and passion that parent has invested in his kid, and you consider what he might do if that happens, and he thinks in his rage that you are responsible for grave injury to his child and he has nothing else to lose.

Yeah... not sure I would card the parent in that scenario, personally. But like I said, we won't really see the effects until we get to the perceived high pressure games, where entire soccer careers are effectively on the line. That's the thing about massively harsh binary penalties: they tend to push people to their breaking points immediately, with no time or mechanism to "calm down" (which is why they are rare, in most venues).
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Oh, forgot. A parent being suspended does not necessarily mean that the ability of the player to continue playing is over. The parent can drop them off and come back to get them for games/practices, have them ride with someone to the games/practices, or wait in the car for them. In all would depend on if the parent was thinking about the best interests of their child, and how much they supported what their child wanted to do. However, that is the 'rational' approach, too often the 'heat of the moment' reaction can take over, which is bad for everyone.
 
umeweall said:
Oh, forgot. A parent being suspended does not necessarily mean that the ability of the player to continue playing is over. The parent can drop them off and come back to get them for games/practices, have them ride with someone to the games/practices, or wait in the car for them. In all would depend on if the parent was thinking about the best interests of their child, and how much they supported what their child wanted to do. However, that is the 'rational' approach, too often the 'heat of the moment' reaction can take over, which is bad for everyone.
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Specific leagues have implemented this rule (ie: a suspension of the parent means the kid is suspended also); I believe this is the case in some of the leagues my kid plays in, but I don't remember what the league specific enhanced penalties are. I recall reading that the minimum for any type of abuse in that league is 6 games (and that includes just saying a call was bad, fyi, which is included in "abuse"). That's why I was saying that, if the rules were enforced literally and uniformly, there would be no more club soccer in a year or so, at all.

That said, I'm certain the league(s) and US Soccer are somewhat counting on uneven and arbitrary enforcement, with "interpretations" of the letter of the rules. That's worse of course (imho), since a bad ref can now selectively target people, and a corrupt ref is much more damaging, but again, that's the nature of binary rules and penalties which go "straight to 100".

But, as mentioned elsewhere, my personal frustration is tempered somewhat because I'm almost off this death treadmill, and my kid probably isn't going to play club soccer beyond this year in any case (he'll probably still play in HS, as he's good enough, but probably not club). We don't have the money to pay to win, and he's not good enough to be valued by a club for more than my money. He also does other sports too, none of which are implementing anything close to these asinine new policies (as written; as implemented is still TBD). If, for example, I get sent off for muttering about how one of our players got pushed in the back and got called for the foul (see above, as I certainly did in that game, along with every other parent and the coach), I'll probably just have my kid walk away from soccer entirely. Bad policies, massive punitive escalations, refusing to address underlying issues, amplifying people's anger... these things don't tend to end well, and pretty sure I don't want to be in the middle of that situation if/when it explodes.
 
I saw a championship game forfeited in AYSO last year because a psycho dad couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for my kid’s game to start next. Heard someone yelling and getting closer. It was his daughter berating him, “You f’d it up, you f’d it up.” The son came out in his uniform later with the rest of the team and could barely look his dad in the eye. The dad looked like he was trying to figure out a way to blame someone else for his lack of self-control.

Gave me a small window into these situations. I’m fully on board with a sideline warning, then forfeits. Teams with a history should get a verbal warning before the game kicks. If you could bottle how that dad felt in his car and dose every psycho with it ahead of time, you’d have far fewer issues.
 
One of the things which bothers me a lot about modern discourse (and not accusing anyone here of this per se, just a general observation) is people's use a straw-man fallacies, and/or arguing points based on extreme characterizations or examples. In general, I think it's much more productive (in terms of finding common ground) to focus on points of actual difference, while acknowledging the points of agreement.

To wit, I'm opposed to referee abuse in general. I don't support physical abuse or harassment, and I don't support irate individual parents or players berating an official, using slurs, or the like. I don't think anyone here supports that behavior. So let's set that aside as a point of consensus.

The points of debate are:
- Should US Soccer do anything about bad officiating, or only punish complaining about it?
- Should the criteria for "ref abuse" include complaining about individual calls and/or player safety on the field (as it does currently), or is that over-criminalizing criticisms which can serve a valid purpose in improving the quality of officiating?
- Should the penalties be so harsh as to (in some cases) be career ending for players, or should there be a more graduated ramp up (and thus allow for "cooling off", and/or improvement in behavior over time)?
- Should the leagues penalize the players and teams for the actions of parents?
- Should the onus be on the clubs and coaches to mitigate complaints from their parents, or should officials be directly punishing players and teams based on spectator behavior?
- Is only silencing dissent the appropriate policy for deterring ref abuse?
- Is there a place for questioning calls by officials in youth soccer?

As I see it, those are the points of concern and debate regarding these changes. Not that debate on this forum will change anything, of course... but want to be clear on the points which are contentious, vs the points (like the desire to deter ref abuse in general) which are not.
 
umeweall said:
Reporting bad to the public will never happen, but I will say that a good organization should let their referee association board members know what action was taken for any abuse. This is what I consider as 'working together'. This would be just to let the referee association know that reports of abuse were being handled, and to be aware of needed penalty enforcement measures.

As for spectators, that is a VERY sore point for me. We operate under the system where the coach is responsible for their spectators. Talk to the coach, to ask them to control their spectator(s). Spectator does not behave, coach gets ejected. Well, gee, that solved the problem, the coach is gone and the spectator is potentially still there, acting a fool. Same procedure directed toward assistant coach, and then what? Both coaches gone, spectator still there, smiling. Game abandoned, kids loose out. There are adult males who don't want to hear a coach tell them to be quiet, and there is nothing the coach can do about that. I spoke to IFAB about this and they stated that the IFAB rules will NEVER cover spectators. They stated that it was directly up to the competing organization to specify what can be done with spectators, and the door is wide open. The problem is that many organizations act like they are scared to death to put rules into place affecting spectators.
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Here's where I disagree with you. If a coach gets tossed, as a parent, I'm going to beat the living shit out of that parent the next time they harp on a referee. It's not fair to the coach but the other option is to toss the parent and kid off the team... which isn't fair to the kid.

Specator won't be smiling on my sideline if it happens more than once and there will be a line of us waiting to take a shot. That's not what we pay for.

 
sigmabody said:
Specific leagues have implemented this rule (ie: a suspension of the parent means the kid is suspended also); I believe this is the case in some of the leagues my kid plays in, but I don't remember what the league specific enhanced penalties are. I recall reading that the minimum for any type of abuse in that league is 6 games (and that includes just saying a call was bad, fyi, which is included in "abuse"). That's why I was saying that, if the rules were enforced literally and uniformly, there would be no more club soccer in a year or so, at all.

That said, I'm certain the league(s) and US Soccer are somewhat counting on uneven and arbitrary enforcement, with "interpretations" of the letter of the rules. That's worse of course (imho), since a bad ref can now selectively target people, and a corrupt ref is much more damaging, but again, that's the nature of binary rules and penalties which go "straight to 100".

But, as mentioned elsewhere, my personal frustration is tempered somewhat because I'm almost off this death treadmill, and my kid probably isn't going to play club soccer beyond this year in any case (he'll probably still play in HS, as he's good enough, but probably not club). We don't have the money to pay to win, and he's not good enough to be valued by a club for more than my money. He also does other sports too, none of which are implementing anything close to these asinine new policies (as written; as implemented is still TBD). If, for example, I get sent off for muttering about how one of our players got pushed in the back and got called for the foul (see above, as I certainly did in that game, along with every other parent and the coach), I'll probably just have my kid walk away from soccer entirely. Bad policies, massive punitive escalations, refusing to address underlying issues, amplifying people's anger... these things don't tend to end well, and pretty sure I don't want to be in the middle of that situation if/when it explodes.
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Can't say that I agree with suspending a kid, if a parent gets suspended. That is penalizing a child, for their parents actions. Not right. That is over-reaching, rule wise.
 
Orca10 said:
I saw a championship game forfeited in AYSO last year because a psycho dad couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for my kid’s game to start next. Heard someone yelling and getting closer. It was his daughter berating him, “You f’d it up, you f’d it up.” The son came out in his uniform later with the rest of the team and could barely look his dad in the eye. The dad looked like he was trying to figure out a way to blame someone else for his lack of self-control.

Gave me a small window into these situations. I’m fully on board with a sideline warning, then forfeits. Teams with a history should get a verbal warning before the game kicks. If you could bottle how that dad felt in his car and dose every psycho with it ahead of time, you’d have far fewer issues.
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Agreed, unfortunately the 'adults' don't consider the ramifications of their actions and as to how it affects their children at the field. I saw a father once yelling at the coach, and then walked onto the field and told is daughter, the goalkeeper 'let's go'. The daughter was OK, up to that point, but then started crying hysterically. I found out that the issue was that the FATHER wanted his daughter to be playing more on the field, to score goals, but the daughter was apparently happy to play in goal. Since the dad did not get 'his way', she was not going to play!! Bet the ride home was fun!
 
Slobodan said:
Here's where I disagree with you. If a coach gets tossed, as a parent, I'm going to beat the living shit out of that parent the next time they harp on a referee. It's not fair to the coach but the other option is to toss the parent and kid off the team... which isn't fair to the kid.

Specator won't be smiling on my sideline if it happens more than once and there will be a line of us waiting to take a shot. That's not what we pay for.

Click to expand...
No, I do NOT believe that a coach should be tossed, due to an out of control parent, who will not listen to the coach. I feel that this rule needs to be revised, but it is what we have. I have, in the past, ignored the 'standard', and told people to leave the field, as they had crossed the line.
 
umeweall said:
Can't say that I agree with suspending a kid, if a parent gets suspended. That is penalizing a child, for their parents actions. Not right. That is over-reaching, rule wise.
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Careful; you're in danger of sharing my opinion on the matter. From the current SoCal League handbook, 2025/26 season:
PARENTS/SPECTATORS that verbally or physically assault any venue staff or SOCAL league staff at any SOCAL event will have their player banned from participating in the League for the remainder of the season (including State Cup).
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"Verbal assault" isn't defined, except indirectly later in the context of "verbal abuse", which is inclusive of "foul... or insulting language". So at least in the letter of the policy, if you tell a ref he/she made a bad call, your kid could be gone for the rest of the season. That's the main part of the policy I have an issue with, for reference.
 
umeweall said:
No, I do NOT believe that a coach should be tossed, due to an out of control parent, who will not listen to the coach. I feel that this rule needs to be revised, but it is what we have. I have, in the past, ignored the 'standard', and told people to leave the field, as they had crossed the line.
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Making a parent leave the field doesn't solve the problem. Short term it does, but they're right back out there next game. That's why they had to do something different. If a row of parents know the coach is going to get tossed, the social pressure there is entirely different because now you're embarrassing the coach and club... not just that parent and player. Pay for play parents don't like what can happen if a coach gets tossed.
 
Slobodan said:
Here's where I disagree with you. If a coach gets tossed, as a parent, I'm going to beat the living shit out of that parent the next time they harp on a referee. It's not fair to the coach but the other option is to toss the parent and kid off the team... which isn't fair to the kid.

Specator won't be smiling on my sideline if it happens more than once and there will be a line of us waiting to take a shot. That's not what we pay for.

Click to expand...
Violence begets violence, as we have all seen in our lives.
 
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