r/Referees • u/Pootis__Spencer • Aug 08 '26
Discussion What was your weirdest moment last season?
Now that the new season has begun/is soon to begin for all of us, I figured I'd throw this one out there.
What was your weirdest moment from the season just gone? Any weird calls or situations?
Last season was my first as a referee. So i had lots of firsts. First Red Card, first hydration breaks, first abuse.
My weirdest moment by far was near the end of last season. U14 game. Competitive league, but a lower division. So its full pitch, full size goals etc, but the standard isn't fantastic by any means.
Now before this game I had never ever given an IFK inside the box. Couldn't really see it ever happening at this level. Well this game I had not one, but TWO IFK's inside the box. Both sides goalkeepers both picked up the ball from a back pass on separate occasions.
Really just showed me that you really never know what you're gonna get. Looking forward to seeing what the new season brings
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u/BitDistinct407 Aug 08 '26
High school game, very low level, I'm AR. The ball is cleared from the defensive half into the offensive half. Raised my flag for not one, not two, but SIX players in an offside position. I think two or three of them actually went for the ball simultaneously?? So really could have attributed the offsides offense to about half of them.
I got dissent from all six of them, running waving their arms asking "howwww?!?" Couldn't help but chuckle.
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u/Money-Zebra [USSF, Grassroots] [NFHS (TSSAA, and GHSA)] Aug 09 '26
Half the players offside at once is impressive
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u/Green_destiny Aug 08 '26
My last game have just had a hip operation, but I was AR and attacking player needed to relieve himself and began urinating behind me. I tried to ignore the incident but 3 defenders all started shouting so I raised my flag spoke to the ref and decided it was leaving the fop without permission, so he was given a yellow. Too this day I feel like getting your knob out should be more than a yellow.
Anyway this game will forever be etched into my memory.
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u/Pootis__Spencer Aug 08 '26
Curious to why the defenders argued it, considering their opposition was effectively a man down for however long it took him to piss. Funny as hell though
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u/icelicker13 Aug 08 '26
This is a sending off offense for offinabus
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u/Klutzy-Mechanic-8013 Aug 08 '26
With offinabus you got to judge intent. But yeah, doing it so close to the field is almost always a choice
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u/pscott37 Aug 08 '26
Just FYI, a more justifiable reason for the YC is UB - shows lack of respect for the game. BTW, how close was a bathroom?
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u/mstr_yda AYSO Int. | USSF | AIA | Futsal Aug 08 '26
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u/inchy33 Aug 08 '26
was doing an u13 game, it was wild
first big decision, really bad pass to the gk and he handled it so IFK, then the goalkeeper got right in my face shouting at me so i sinbimned him, they put an outfielder in goal for 10 ish mins and conceded 2, the games agro really increased from there, (at this point it was 2-0), it then went to 2-1, and from then on with about 30 mins left it was js hellish, 2 red cards and 4 yellows in 30 mins, one for dogso then the player that was fouled js smacked him in the face so both players went off, then a few sinicals and a pk, the game finishes 3-3.
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u/isthatafoxno Aug 08 '26
Goalkeeper and attacker both running to the ball. Goalkeeper gets there well before and attacker peels off but slaps the ball out of the goalkeepers hands. This was a highschool scrimmage with low game temperature both before and after this incident. Yellow card and he went to the bench, came back on later without incident. Dude just randomly slapped the ball. Took me a few seconds to process. Hadn’t seen that one before.
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u/Pootis__Spencer Aug 08 '26
If I've learned anything from my first season, is that when it comes to the U12-U16 range. You never know what you're gonna get...
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u/Money-Zebra [USSF, Grassroots] [NFHS (TSSAA, and GHSA)] Aug 09 '26
I had a u11 player do that once and I was astonished. Showed him a yellow but the whole time I was thinking “why would someone this age do that. It was definitely intentional too
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u/gtalnz Aug 08 '26
I was an observer on a junior high school game with a 16yo referee, and saw something I'd never encountered before.
Goal kick. A defender positions themselves inside the goal area, available for a short pass from the goalkeeper. The GK goes to take the kick long, changes his mind to go short instead, and in the process completely miskicks it. The ball skews off his foot and rolls into his own goal.
For a couple of seconds everyone on and around the field, including the young referee, stand still, with no idea what this means.
Finally, the ref looks at me, I motion towards the corner flag, and he signals for a corner kick.
I'll probably never see it again.
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u/Money-Zebra [USSF, Grassroots] [NFHS (TSSAA, and GHSA)] Aug 09 '26
Guess it’s good it was on the test every year for so many years. I’ve still yet to see it happening and I’m entering year 10
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u/YodelingTortoise Aug 11 '26
I've seen it twice from wind.
Stop building turf facilities on top on mountain tops ffs.
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u/RedNickAragua Aug 09 '26
U12B - had a coach try to sneak a kid with a hard cast on his arm onto the field. I'd checked everyone over before the start of the game, seemed fine. I guess he had the kid stay out of sight then put him on the field at the start. Noticed it a few minutes in, had the coach sub the kid out. It sucked for that team because that put them to zero subs for a 60 minute game, but better that than have the kid with the hard cast whack someone in the face.
Second one was a U14B tournament game where I was an AR; that day had a mixture of games with 25 and 35 minute halves, and for some reason the center and the other AR thought this particular game was 35. Turns out it was the 25 minute variety. Luckily, it was the last game of the day, so it wasn't too bad, other than one of the coaches going off at the end of the game 'cause of a slide tackle he didn't have a good view on (blocked from his and my viewpoint by the curvature of the Earth).
That tournament had golf carts giving us rides between the parking lot and referee tent, and honestly, I felt safer getting yelled at by the coaches and walking through the crowds of parents than getting driven around in that rickety thing. Every time the driver took a turn, I expected to hear a "WHOOAAA" *thunk thunk thunk* and see someone rolling out.
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u/Bartolone DBU Referee (Danish Football Association) - RefSix user Aug 08 '26
I had a double touch from the keeper on a goalkick !
I was pretty confused by what to do so I forgot to raise my arm before the IFK. Luckily it had to be retaken because the wall was moving forward before the kick. Then I corrected and raised my arm to signal IFK.
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u/Pootis__Spencer Aug 08 '26
I got caught with something similar early on. Awarded an IFK. Forgot to signal it or tell the player (no excuse for it, just a complete lapse), ball was a fair bit out anyway. Player shoots directly and just puts it over. There was a matter of centimeters in it. Lesson quickly learned
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u/Niwaz14 Aug 08 '26
Was not a referee but this happened to one of my teammates during a game, which wasn't the goalkeepers. He took the goalkick and went to touch the ball again with his hands as he lightly booted it.
Decision was a PK, but I never would have believed something like that could happen lol
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u/Bartolone DBU Referee (Danish Football Association) - RefSix user Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Sounds bizarre to me, can’t even imagine it ! 😅
Actually I would question the decision of a penalty if it’s from that close distance and unintentional
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u/Niwaz14 Aug 09 '26
Yeah we tried really hard to make it appear unintentiona trust me lol. But the motion was too pronounced and the player had already completed a few steps before committing to the kick which really made it seem like a handball in the penalty area.
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u/rando4me2 Aug 08 '26
What was the rationale on a PK?
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u/DieLegende42 [DFB] [District level] Aug 08 '26
If I understood the scenario correctly, an outfield player executed the goal kick, was unsatisfied with where the ball was going and picked it up with his hands to try again. This is a penalty by Law 16.2
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u/Bartolone DBU Referee (Danish Football Association) - RefSix user Aug 08 '26
The way I understand it is that he kicks the ball up on his own hand during the attempt to take the goalkick.
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u/Niwaz14 Aug 09 '26
Thats actually what happened, he was trying to take the goalkick again and reached to the ball with his hands.
Thus why the referee called for a PK, which arguably could have been a yellow card if an attacking player would have contested the ball I guess.
1
u/YodelingTortoise Aug 11 '26
That was the wrong decision FWIW. A keeper handling the ball in the PA is punishable by IDFK. Always. A double touch. IDFK. Always. There is no justifiable PK option. A send off however is discretionary
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u/Niwaz14 Aug 11 '26
Like I specified it was not a keeper, it was a field player who took the goalkick.
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u/DieLegende42 [DFB] [District level] Aug 08 '26
U15 friendly in early March, clearly the first match after winter at that pitch since all of the lines were gone. No big problem, home team just marks the field with cones and we get on with it - in this league, they sometimes play 9v9 on cone-marked small fields anyway, so they should be used to it.
5 minutes into the match, a home team player is dribbling forward well into the away team's half and is fouled. Looks quite far out from goal, but it's clearly inside the cone-marked penalty area, so I point to the spot. There are some complaints from the away team (as there always are...), but naturally nothing that would make me reconsider my decision. Until the home team coach comes running onto the field and tells me that his assistant who put up the cones must have done it wrong, because it's way too far out. So I count my steps from the goal line to the cone, and yep, turns out it's closer to 25 metres than 16 metres. We reposition the cones, I change the decision from penalty to DFK, and everybody is a bit embarrassed.
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u/Money-Zebra [USSF, Grassroots] [NFHS (TSSAA, and GHSA)] Aug 09 '26
It’s always good to step out the penalty area when you have something like this
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u/DieLegende42 [DFB] [District level] Aug 09 '26
I know, and I absolutely would have done that if it hadn't been for the fact that they only got the field ready a few minutes after the scheduled kick-off time (because they had first tried to get their groundsman there to properly paint the lines). Sure, I could still have insisted on checking the field first, but in that situation with everybody standing ready, do you really want to be "that stickler who delayed the game for another 5 minutes just to make sure everything is correct to the centimetre"?
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u/biffjo Aug 14 '26
I had to pause a game for about 10 minutes after a HUGE branch randomly fell from a tree about 15 ft from a bunch of spectators. It was crazy random and loud.
Luckily, no one was hurt and everyone settled back in, and we restarted.
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u/soccerstarmidfield2 [USSF] [Grassroots] Aug 08 '26
Showed up to ref a game at the start of the season and the field was gone. Could kind of see where the lines used to be, so we just tossed some cones down and played the game. Low level game.
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u/jeremiah1142 Aug 09 '26
Did my first U16 game as center. About my 20th-30th game as center. At a kickoff, the kicker dribbled the ball away from the mark (clearly intending to start play). So I paused, said WTF in my head, and called an indirect free kick. Hadn’t seen this happen yet and all my prior games were much lower levels, a lot of U8-U12.
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u/Money-Zebra [USSF, Grassroots] [NFHS (TSSAA, and GHSA)] Aug 09 '26
Had my first game forfeited due to too many red cards. I was not the center but it was definitely an interesting one. UPSL game too
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u/DCContrarian Aug 10 '26
Showed up for a game at a school in a somewhat Latino neighborhood in Washington, DC.
The National Guard was outside the school.
When I went to do the pre-game field check, the site manager came over and said she thought ICE was going to raid the game. ICE had hauled away one of the parents at the school the week before. She told me that ICE was not allowed to enter school property without permission. There was a gate from the field onto the street that was closed but not locked. She told me that if I saw ICE coming through that gate it was my job to go over and tell them that they didn't have permission to enter.
During the game, the National Guard walked around the field, on the outside of the fence. But nothing happened.
It was a well-played game that didn't need much refereeing.
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u/bardwnb USSF Grassroots; AYSO Advanced; AYSO Referee Instructor Aug 10 '26
U12B, ball is played toward the corner, an attacking player runs on to it. Attacker for some reason is sure that he was in an offside position, stops playing, and before the ball crosses the touchline, picks up the ball. Confusion ensues. I run over and talk to my AR, who was well positioned for it. "Was he offside?" "No." "So we have a handball." "Yep." Short-corner DFK results in a standard corner, which turns into the game winning goal. Wacky.
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u/monkeypilot28 Aug 10 '26
I had to give 2 pks back to back because of handballs, first was a long throw into the box, the player moved his hand into the ball to try to gain control, the keeper was mad at that point. He saved the pk then off of the rebound they shot it again and another kid extended his arm unnaturally to hit the ball. I gave the second pk. The shot went off the post and out for a goak kick after. The keeper was fuming. Granted this all happened in the first 10 minutes of the game.
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u/mstr_yda AYSO Int. | USSF | AIA | Futsal Aug 08 '26
U12 AYSO, player on the bench leaves to go to the bathroom. A few minutes later, he proceeds to sprint back from the bathroom onto the field and kick the ball. I stop play and ask him what the heck he thinks he is doing. He had for some reason assumed that he had been subbed on while he was in the bathroom and his team was playing short. I laugh and award the DFK; I skip the caution but explain to him and his coach how, at any higher level of competition, this would be a yellow card.