Why can’t referees be on time

Surfref

Surfref

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Why can’t referees be on time and keep games on time? Why don’t assigners punish the refs that are late?

I have had a recent string of referees arriving just before game time or after game time. Happened again today in my women’s game. The ref (center for first game) who showed up 1 minute after kickoff time said, “It’s women, they never start on time.” Unfortunately for him we (ARs) already had the teams checked in and everyone had to wait for him, so we kicked off 10 minutes late. I have talked to several coaches lately that complained about their afternoon State/National bracket Cup games starting up to 20 minutes late. I don’t understand how a ref crew can get 15-20 minutes behind when there are 15 minutes between games. It is unprofessional and shows no respect for the teams.

Needed to vent.
 
Surfref said:
The ref (center for first game) who showed up 1 minute after kickoff time said, “It’s women, they never start on time.”
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So in addition to being late, he is a chauvinist? If the women's teams knew what he said, there would be some pointed letters to the assignor and some great social media posts.
 
outside! said:
So in addition to being late, he is a chauvinist? If the women's teams knew what he said, there would be some pointed letters to the assignor and some great social media posts.
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The other referee on the crew, that was on time, is a female. Trust me, both of us were pissed off at him especially the female referee who had to deal with him as a no-show the prior Sunday.
 
Surfref said:
They were reported. No idea what was done.
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Which is what always happens when referee's are reported to assignors. While there may be accountability, it is completely opaque. Some transparency and accountability would help the customers feel better and perhaps lead to better relations, at least at the older ages. As the age and skill level go down, the parents seem to be crazier.
 
Way back when in my late teens, I only had 2 shirts, was constantly late, and was consistently forgetting 1 thing or another (ref wallet, paper, pen, cards, whistle). After 1 game where both teams had the 2 colors I had, I forgot cards, and showed up 5 minutes before game, I apparently got reported by the crew I was working with for doing al of the above. (I knew it was the referees because they lended me the cards so no one else knew I forgot them). I also remember having a disagreement with the ref about whether something should have been an Indirect or direct FK and I ended up being right according to the Google, so that left me feeling cockier and probably ticked off the put together, on time referee. Later that day I got a call from my assignor about the complaints. I knew him personally too and he had high hopes for me. He basically asked if it was true and said that I needed to ____ and couldn't_____. I could hear the disappointment in his voice and I was ashamed. I do not think it affected my assignments, if it did, maybe for a month or less. I think it hurt more because I thought I did a good job actually refereeing the game. But I learned all that goes out the window if you don't dress, act, and look professional. It wasn't an overnight change, but it definitely started me down the right path as I made a concerted effort to be on time and started shopping on where to get more jerseys and equipment. So, maybe there is some consolation that your complaints can have an impact. In fact, @Surfref it might have been you because it was indeed a father and daughter pair that I worked with that day.

As for the misogynist stuff. Adult men are just as bad about starting games on time as adult women. I tend to first assume stupidity before malice to people. It makes life better. Maybe he just meant adults in general don't start on time and just said adult women because that is who he happened to be reffing that day and would have said adult men if they were on the field. At the end of the day, he is just pulling an excuse out of his ass for why he was late so he might have said anything. I will always give the benefit of the doubt unless a pattern gives me a reason not to.
 
Adult games tend to start late due to roster and preparation periods. In LA, we just start the clock at the kickoff time and if they give us crap about it promise a full 45 in the second. They're coo with it because they tend to be the reason we start late...

What's not acceptable to me is when your partners dont contact you ahead of time. Sometimes things happen and we run late. If it's habitual then that needs to bw corrected.

If you're running late, call your partners!! Don't show up late and then give a crap reason. That's annoying.

Assignors can't do much, because at the end of the day a lack of referees is their biggest problem. If this is a non-calsouth sanctioned league they should just do a 2 man system. Especially for adult women..but that's another topic. This way the ref can fear getting dropped.
 
The crazy thing is that for once the women were ready and we would have started on time. This was the second weekend in a row that the referee was either late or a no-show.
 
As a ref and soccer dad, I noticed many times that games were running 20 minutes late and refs were just casually standing around letting the teams warm up. For me, starting on time is critical as it otherwise throws the tournament/day off. Am I wrong? I understand that the game prior ran late so should the next game curb the warmup a bit to start on time? Just don't know the min amount of warmup time.
 
soccer dude said:
As a ref and soccer dad, I noticed many times that games were running 20 minutes late and refs were just casually standing around letting the teams warm up. For me, starting on time is critical as it otherwise throws the tournament/day off. Am I wrong? I understand that the game prior ran late so should the next game curb the warmup a bit to start on time? Just don't know the min amount of warmup time.
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that was one of the things that absolutely irked the daylights out of me when I was still doing tournaments. referees that really had no concept of keeping the games on time. granted, some tournaments schedules were so aggressive as to make keeping the games on time impossible, but at least you should try. I can remember showing up for an afternoon set and the ref team handing over the field nearly an hour late. part of the job is to have a sense of urgency to keep the games as close to on-time as possible.... I would let the coaches know before the games that we would start as soon as the field was clear of the previous teams, and if they lagged, my watch would not.
 
baldref said:
that was one of the things that absolutely irked the daylights out of me when I was still doing tournaments. referees that really had no concept of keeping the games on time. granted, some tournaments schedules were so aggressive as to make keeping the games on time impossible, but at least you should try. I can remember showing up for an afternoon set and the ref team handing over the field nearly an hour late. part of the job is to have a sense of urgency to keep the games as close to on-time as possible.... I would let the coaches know before the games that we would start as soon as the field was clear of the previous teams, and if they lagged, my watch would not.
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In my experience the coaches cause more delays than the referees. I cannot stand the coaches that are rude and have to give their team 5 minutes of extra instruction while the other team and referees are on the field ready to go and ignore the referees instruction to take the field. A few years ago I had a coach outright refuse to have his team take the field and told the 15 year old girls to ignore me. I stopped addressing the coach and asked the Captains to have their team take the field and the coach told them no. Then I cautioned (yellow carded) one of the Captains and told her that if she didn’t want the second Yellow that her team should take the field. She got them to take the field. Not going to say which club, but she never walked alone. My partner said I should have just started the game because the coach was on the field with with his players and I should have started then stopped the game and yellow carded all 5 players that were not starters. I thought that would have been overkill. The coach was actually very respectful during the game and we had no problems.
 
How about when the game is already running late, you as the referee tell everyone to take the field and then both girl teams decide to do their cheer while bouncing around in a circle. And of course both teams don’t do it at the same time, 1 team bounces around 1st then the 2nd team do their “We are the best” cheer...Then the coach wonders why the half was 5 minutes shorter. Well coach, it wasn’t 5 minutes shorter as I started the watch during the cheers...
 
RedCard said:
How about when the game is already running late, you as the referee tell everyone to take the field and then both girl teams decide to do their cheer while bouncing around in a circle. And of course both teams don’t do it at the same time, 1 team bounces around 1st then the 2nd team do their “We are the best” cheer...Then the coach wonders why the half was 5 minutes shorter. Well coach, it wasn’t 5 minutes shorter as I started the watch during the cheers...
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I would never shorten the game without permission of the tournament or gaming authority. As a referee I do not have the authority to cut a game short just because the start time is running late. Both teams doing their cheer will take no more than two minutes.
 
RedCard said:
How about when the game is already running late, you as the referee tell everyone to take the field and then both girl teams decide to do their cheer while bouncing around in a circle. And of course both teams don’t do it at the same time, 1 team bounces around 1st then the 2nd team do their “We are the best” cheer...Then the coach wonders why the half was 5 minutes shorter. Well coach, it wasn’t 5 minutes shorter as I started the watch during the cheers...
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I have seen this work well only when the ref lets the teams know the clock is starting. If done secretly, the drama begins at the end of the half.
 
RedCard said:
How about when the game is already running late, you as the referee tell everyone to take the field and then both girl teams decide to do their cheer while bouncing around in a circle. And of course both teams don’t do it at the same time, 1 team bounces around 1st then the 2nd team do their “We are the best” cheer...Then the coach wonders why the half was 5 minutes shorter. Well coach, it wasn’t 5 minutes shorter as I started the watch during the cheers...
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Five minutes long?!? Those are some long ass cheers!
 
RedCard said:
Well they can’t do their cheer together. One teams go, then the next, then running into position...ok, maybe 4 minutes ...lol
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I was refereeing the ECNL boys tournament this past weekend. One of the B17 teams (Blue) did a short cheer, which for older boys is unusual. When they got out onto the field a player for the white team condescendingly says, "That was a cute little AYSO cheer." Blue player says, "Glad you like it. We are going to do it every time we score a goal." White player says, "Good we won't have to hear it again." I had to hear that stupid cheer six times, final score Blue 6 - White 1.
 
Surfref said:
I was refereeing the ECNL boys tournament this past weekend. One of the B17 teams (Blue) did a short cheer, which for older boys is unusual. When they got out onto the field a player for the white team condescendingly says, "That was a cute little AYSO cheer." Blue player says, "Glad you like it. We are going to do it every time we score a goal." White player says, "Good we won't have to hear it again." I had to hear that stupid cheer six times, final score Blue 6 - White 1.
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Funny story. I did go look at the scores for the games as I wondered who it was and I didn't see any games scored 6-1. FYI
 
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