What to say and do and not what to say and do before the game
NEVER MAKE THREATS
I would
always advise a Referee to never say to players “if you do
this, then I am going to such and such....’ Believe me the
players know what is allowed and what is not allowed so I
would say that the exercise of saying these types of things
is quite fruitless and indeed pointless. Pointless from the
view that on the first single occasion that you do not do
what you said you would your control has started to
diminish. ‘Threats’ do nothing but create unpleasantness
and if you are refereeing a junior game then it is the
coaches job to teach the children about the Laws of the
Game, not yours.
DONT
SPELL OUT YOUR EXPECTATION TO THE PLAYERS
Players
certainly know what is required of them, they have played
the game before. Just change it around and imagine how you
would feel if one of the captains came to you before
kick-off and said:
“Right
Ref, here is what we want from you today. We expect you to
deal firmly with any toe rag that goes around kicking us
and we want you to book anyone who holds up one of our free
kicks. When we start a fast breakaway we want you right up
there with us so that you can see what is going on, all
right? One more thing, if there is a foul by one of their
defenders on the 18 yard line, I don’t want you to chicken
out and give an indirect free kick or put the ball down
outside the penalty area. That cheat last week had one over
on us. We are paying you £20 for this game and we expect
you to earn it, OK?”
I am
sure that you will be surprised and even maybe a little
distressed at someone (especially a player) telling you so
aggressively what to do when you feel confident that you
already know what to do. I think that the players feel the
same way.
LET
THE PLAYERS KNOW THAT REFEREEING IS A PLEASURE FOR YOU
Smile
and be friendly. Look as though you are enjoying yourself
and indeed continue to enjoy yourself. (Sunderland RA Geoff
Eltringham is very good at this and look where he is now. I
am sure that this helped him on his way).
SHOW AN ‘INTEREST’ IN THE PLAYERS
Before
the match, learn something about the teams. Find out the
names of the captains and coaches if you can and use them
when you introduce yourself. This should be part of your
preparation for each match but more on that in the next
article.
Till
The Next Time
Happy Whistling!!!!!
Malcolm L
(The Refwatcher)