SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Abusive Referees

My husband refs-and many times I hear a HUGE moan when he is scheduled with certain other refs, It's really bad when the other guys don't want to do games with some of the refs. He has complained to their assigner to no avail. I've even videotaped one and sent him the tape-still to no avail!My 14 year old daughter if ref'ing now and takes it very seriously. She gets angry at the "old guys who can't see anything in fromt of their faces". We can only hope this younger generation can improve the refs. I know my husband has become really serious since she lets him know EVERY missed call he has ever made.

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Refs don't win or lose games, players do!

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Obviously you weren't at the Camden vs. Chester game last night.

or the Palmetto vs Pendleton game.

I attended a game a few years ago where a ref called offside on a throw-in thus nullifying a goal. A knowledgeable fan questioned the call and the official threatened both the coach and the fan with expulsion.At least they should know the rules before they receive certification!

Dawgfan, how many shots did your kids miss? How many times did one of your players dive at somebody? Our team lost 15 games last year, we had some poorly called games, but no ref ever put one in for us. Again, as an official I have made mistakes, fortunately I don't think any affected the final outcome of the match. But I also think as a fan, coach, player, you should look at the big picture. The game is 80 minutes long. In that time is there something one of your players could have done differently? I get frustrated as well with some of the poor officiating I see. One of our refs on a regular basis was calling the foul when we had advantage. I joked with him about it and he realized that he wasn't letting the play develop. Since then, no problems with that. Last year we had a ref that made one of our players sit out two minutes with a yellow card. It wasn't a horrible foul, but did deserve a yellow. I questioned the referee and he wouldn't back down. I didn't get loud, I didn't go crazy, I remembered it is just a game. I reported it to our area head official and to the SCHSL. Problem was taken care of. We lost the game by one goal, but that ref was not the reason. I don't mean to come across as loving refs, but I just think too often we (myself included) blame them for our shortcomings. Give em a break and simply remember they are people too.

kickittome, the game went to pk's. Our goalie made a diving stop on one of the Chester kicks. The ball went forward. The whistle blew. As the ball hit the ground the spin propelled it back into the goal. Initial call no goal. THe ref's meet & decide it's a goal even after admitting they blew the whistle too quick. This turned out to be the deciding point in the game.
Could our players have done more to win the game? Sure, but to have it taken from them like this is terrible.

so dawgfan,
are you saying that the ball would not have gone in had the whistle not been blown? Could your keeper have gotten back up to stop it? Or was it fast enough it would have gone in anyways....could this just be a point for you to argue the outcome of a game? I would agree that there are some referees that need to get better at what they do. But you are only going to make 50% of the people happy 50% of the time as an official.

I posted this stuff under another topic, but I will post it here again as to how we as referees get rated and ranked here in Illinois. I am by no means saying it is the best way, but at least we are held to some accountability.

I can feel your anguish when it comes to the way that some officials act when they referee a game. There needs to be the understanding that as it pertains to the rules that the official is the head person out there. They are the one with the whistle, and usually they try their best to do the best job that they can. There are those unfortunate few that use the position of referee to their advantage. There are some things that can be done when this is the case. I am sure that the SCHSL would like to be contacted if there are major problems with officials. Here in Illinois we have the IHSA that has a lot more control than the SCHSL may have. We are rated by both coaches every game, and we usually get rated by officials associations and get ranked into the top "15" officials that each coach must turn in to give credit to good referees. Each official must also be rated by fellow officials before they can continue on with their IHSA certification. You start out as a registered referee, move to a recognized and then move to a certified referee. Each takes at a minimum two years to do. You usually don't get any sectional or supersectional matches unless you are at least a recognized referee. Maybe you should press the SCHSL to enforce some way to make referees accountable for their actions. It is imperative that as an official that they show up, do their job, and draw as little attention to themselves as possible. But it must also be understood that during a match a referee must have total authority in order to make sure that a game doesn't get out of hand. Kind of one of those damned if you do damned if you don't things.....Hopefully you won't get any more bad referees for the rest of the season!

Below are some cut and pastes off of my officials page offered by the IHSA

How the Ratings Percentile is Determined: All ratings in a particular sport that are received during the current school term, plus the two previous school terms, are averaged and then divided by the number of ratings. The result is that an official who works often (and is rated often) will generally receive a better ranking than an official who obtains a high average on just a handful of ratings. These numbers are sorted from top to bottom and divided into 100 groups of equal size. The officials in the highest group are assigned to the 99th percentile, the next group to the 98th, and so on down to 0.

How the Top 15 Percentile is Determined: All Top 15 Lists in a particular sport that are updated during the current school term, plus the two previous school terms, are used. Officials receive points based on their position in the lists: 15 points for each 1st-place mention, 14 points for each 2nd-place mention, and so on down to 1 point for each 15th-place mention. The total points are sorted from top to bottom and divided into 100 groups of equal size. The officials in the highest group are assigned to the 99th percentile, the next group to the 98th, and so on down to 0.

Key to Ratings:
1 = Qualified to work state final contests
2 = Qualified to work sectional contests
3 = Qualified to work regional contests
4 = Qualified to work varsity contests
5 = Qualified to work underclass contests only

Requests for Improvement
in Specific Phases
Received From Officials
BOYS SOCCER Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6 Phase 7 Phase 8 Phase 9
2006-07 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Key to Phases:
1. Rule Knowledge
2. Physical Appearance
3. Mechanics & Signals
4. Positioning
5. Game Management
6. Attitude & Professionalism
7. Consistency
8. Judgment
9. Reaction to Pressure

Hope that helps and hope it gives you some ideas!

I do agree that Refs are people and in turn are not some super-human beings that do not make mistakes...

There should be an effort to always have 3 refs no matter what size school, gender of the team, or importance of the game. Everyone deserves to have an equal and fair playing field and not just to the schools with all the money. Should there be an Article 9 type of policy for Ref at games?

But the Ref shouldn't get to the point where he is explaining his call to the stands and worry about the fans..

I was at a game and the Ref kept stopping the game to explain to the fans... Not Coaches.. There was had No injuries that game and some how the Ref got over 8 minutes of stoppage time.. The game was a physical one, but then the Ref let it continue, No calls. Then The keeper started to bleed due to an opposing player literally pushing him out of the air. Then Choas broke out and the Ref gave one player on the Keeper's team a red, then the gave one to the pusher's teamate, but then turned around, talked to the fans, and disregarded the pushers' teamates' red card.

I thought you can't take back calls/cards?

soccerboy,
Sounds like you have a good system of accountability in IL.
Being a small state, you would think that we could have a smaller version of that. And then when there are legitimate, valid complaints of poor reffing, they can be addressed, and an Improvement Plan implemented. SC football league has a rating system which even lists the test scores of the officials:
http://www.schsl.org/scfoa.htm

most refs i have known to be good guys and to call a game fair a few bad calls here and there but nothing major but a few refs i have seen it is just pathetic how bad they can get i belive that most the people here are right they should make sure the refs are in it to call the games right and make sure there is enough refs to do that.