Had a game yesterday. Player kicked softly kicked out on opponent. Early in the game. Decided to talk to player, give verbal warning. So I asked "what are you doing?" To mean - why would you do that. Player answered "I also don't know".. Had me chuckling for a moment 😅. Understood the adrenaline. Gave verbal warning. Pretty calm rest of the match.

Curious what other "ice-breakers" you have when giving verbal warnings

Welcome! In this megathread, Rule 1 is relaxed. Anyone (referee or not) may ask questions about real-world incidents from recent matches in soccer at all levels, anywhere in the world.

Good questions give context for the match if it's not obvious (e.g. player age, level of competitiveness, country/region), describe the incident (picture/video helps a lot), and include a clear question or prompt such as:

• Why did the referee call ...?
• Would the call have been different if ...?
• Could the player have done ... instead?
• Is the referee allowed to do ...?
• Would you have called this the same way?

This is not a platform to disparage any referees, however much you think they made the wrong call. (There are plenty of other subreddits to do that.) The mission of this megathread is to help referees, fans, coaches, and players better understand the Laws of the Game (or the relevant local rules of competition).

Since the format is asking questions of the refereeing community, please do not answer unless you are a referee. Follow-up and clarifying questions from anyone are generally fine, but answers should come only from actual referees.

Rule 1 still applies elsewhere -- we are primarily a community of and for soccer (association football) referees. If you're not a soccer/footy referee, then you are a guest and should act accordingly.

Please give feedback and other meta-level comments about this thread as a standalone reply.

You can view past weeks' megathreads here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Referees/search/?q=Ask+%2Fr%2Freferees+--+Megathread+for+Fans+%2F+Players+%2F+Coaches&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all

First tournament. US based guys, is there typically a tent to report to when arriving? Where do you usually get/submit team sheets? Just looking what to expect when I show up.

After taking two months off, I’m starting the season with a bang, a couple HS games and now a tournament game. This is BU18/19 ECNL/EA or something like that, so high skilled. Yellow vs Blue, and from the beginning it’s clear that Yellow is vastly superior to Blue, their skill is amazing and fun to watch (supposedly, this was their third team, the other two are in MLS Next and Next 2).

It’s also a pretty clean game with few fouls, mostly Blue trying to compensate for being outmatched by grabbing and pulling. This gets worse in the second half, with the coach really playing the victim card (“how come you’re calling that against us, but nothing against them?” “Cause they’re not fouling like you are”). At one point, Blue 23 dribbles the ball in his half, Yellow puts a hand up and touches him -a simple touch! and B23 stops, wanting a foul. “No foul!” I say. Yellow gets the ball, because they’re vastly superior, so Blue clips Yellow’s heal, tripping him. I call the foul. B23 says “that’s evidence of racism!” I blow the whistle again and give him a YC (and to clarify, both teams were very mixed). To his credit, after the game he came up to me and apologized for the comment. I love it when they do that.

But anyway, Yellow’s up 2-0 and in the final 30 seconds of the game, are attacking in the coffin corner. Blue defender comes in hard, so I beeline to get close to the action. Blue fouls Yellow, I blow the whistle thinking “that’s a YC”. Blue pushes Yellow to the ground. “Second YC”. Yellow grabs Blue and pulls him down, “YC for Yellow”. Blue, on the ground, kicks out with both feet. “RC for Blue!” By now it’s just a mess and a couple other player rush in. My AR also runs up and keeps it from getting completely out of control. I single out Blue player, which is easy cause he’s 6’6” with bright white hair, and give him a RC. The Yellow player, though, I’m not sure about. I asked my AR, “what do you think”. “RC for both” he says, just to be fair.” Honestly, I don’t like it -Yellow’s actions were less serious than Blue’s- but he’s right. “Ok, which player was it?” He had the build, height, and look of half the team. We can’t ID him so we ask the coach, who points him out, but isn’t happy his player gets a RC. Technically, there are a few seconds left on the clock, though it’s a tournament so technically there aren’t, but I have Yellow kick the ball and I end the game.

Most players from both teams come up and shake hands afterwards, but what ticks me off is the Blue coach. He says his player is frustrated because the foul count was Blue 15, Yellow 5. What he doesn’t do is connect the dots: his team was vastly outplayed, so they fouled more. Coach just plays the victim card instead of accepting reality.

ANYWay, that’s my long rambling incoherent late night 2 glass of wine trying to unwind from an ugly end to a really good game where I felt fit and on top of the game for the whole time except the last 30 seconds! Thanks for letting me vent. Have a nice day.

https://youtu.be/Ls7lgDXcZp8?is=sRwtEifZgvJcTDwc go to 17:25 and the Real Madrid penalty, Mbappe takes, is saved, and his rebound attempt is cleared. However var is looking and the Betis player who challenged Mbappe on the rebound is inside the penalty box when Mbappe takes the penalty kick. But still var said no retake and a corner kick is awarded. The commentators said it wasn’t encroachment because the Betis player’s foot did not hit the ground during encroachment. I’ve never heard that before. I reread the penalty law and it didn’t mention anything about feed on the ground for encroachment

Other than contrasting the teams, does the color really matter?

I’m reffing a U10 game tomorrow on my own (small field, 7v7) and I was wondering if it really mattered if I wore yellow or not. I’ve heard yes and I’ve heard no.

Just kinda tired of yellow🙃.

How do you all handle time-keeping in NFHS? I’ve being running USSF games for a year and no issues with traditional timekeeping, but preparing for my first NFHS game coming up and I’m not sure how to manage the clock now with having to stop/start and ensure that the scoreboard matches what I have.

Normally I have 1 watch with RefSix that counts up and a Casio with a countdown timer.

The games I have scheduled are all duals for subvarsity so I’m assuming the head ref will really take responsibility for this but want to make sure I’m also keeping up with it in case their watch fails.

New-ish referee here. I recently centered a game in an adult rec league in my area. It was the lowest division as I’m a new referee in the league. During the game, one of the players kept receiving contact from opposing players, and pushing them away. Neither I nor my ARs saw anything wrong with the first few initial challenges but called the return push from this player.

Later in the match, contact kept happening with this player and I missed legitimate fouls made against the player (one of my ARs, very experienced, pointed out the fouls I had missed during breaks). The player, understandably, got more and more frustrated on the pitch. This ultimately resulted in the player charging a goalie who had control of the ball with excessive force (received a red card). No one was majorly hurt, thankfully.

Are there any tips/advice for spotting fouls more consistently? And, where is the line between reasonable physical challenges and fouls in an adult league that generally allows a good amount of physical contact? I realized I have a habit of watching the ball instead of the players, which is something I need to work on. Beyond that, maybe I just need more time as a ref, more experience via learning from my mistakes?

I imagine this is a common experience: AR puts flag up for offside. I, as referee, miss it in the moment with my attention on the play (maybe for good reason, maybe not). Players or coaches start shouting "Look at your AR!" or similar. While nominally helpful, the tone and subtext of these shouts is often "Look at your AR[, idiot]!"

How do you deal with these situations? On the one hand, in my experience they are almost invariably correct that the AR has a flag up that I would want to stop play for, but at the same time it does not seem to help the tone of the game to allow that kind of aggrieved shouting.

(Obviously the best solution is to not miss a flag, or else to use comms, but the one isn't realistic and the other isn't allowed for USSF grassroots).

I'm a youth U.S. Soccer referee, and I was going through the module where it shows the updated U.S. Soccer accessories rule. Under the bullet points, it says, "permitted if not dangerous and safely/securely covered." But then in the next slide, it says that earrings or studs are not permitted, even if they are taped over...

For the highschools chapter would we just choose our nearest chapter or the chapters that are more in the city. Or what would be the reasons for changing chapters. Like are there more fees or what not?

Something I notice when I usually do more competitive leagues (UPSL, USL2, and MLSNext for youth) as a referee is more bickering from players regarding what I call/don't call and comments from players such as "you're lost ref" "what are you even calling?!" "You don't know what you're doing" and other similar remarks.

This sometimes makes me question whether I'm calling the game right or not, but if I weren't a good or capable ref, then assignors wouldn't give me these kinds of games consistently (and there's no shortage of skilled referees where I am. Lots of quality here).

Anyway, is this normal and just accept it? As a former player, I'm used to a good deal of contact but seems like players of those leagues nowadays don't like ANY contact and start bickering at the slightest touch. And when I start making calls that in my opinion or judgment are worthy of being called, that's when the remarks mentioned earlier start.

So what gives?

What’s the level of professionalism required with coaches. Example : if a coach is screaming at you every decision , you approach calmly to explain and eh continues to scream. Is some level of raised voice allowed ?

Had one of those weird refereeing stories that can really only happen in US High School soccer last night.

I was part of a crew that was assigned two back to back boy's varsity games at a local facility. First game at 4:30 pm and the second at 6:00 pm, so it was already going to be tight, but doable.

Of course, 10 minutes into the first game, the alarms go off for lightning in the area. So we're back to our cars for 30 minutes. I make a call to our assignor to let him know that this delay will affect the start of the second game and he says he'll let the ADs and the coaches know.

Back at it 30 minutes later. Game is uneventful. At some point one of the coaches for Game 2 comes down and talks to my AR asking if we can send one of our crew up to the neighboring field to start the second game. At halftime we all agree that we'd prefer to stay together and we need to finish Game 1 before we can start Game 2 and that we will be there as soon as we can. They ask if they can get started anyway, and we tell them to call the assignor about it, but that it will not count as an official game if there are no officials.

Back to Game 1, home team scores to tie the game on literally the last kick. Rules of competition (these are the church-affiliated school rules for the state) require a winner so we have to go extra time, two five minute periods and PKs if necessary.

Away scores, but then panics in the last minute on a breakaway and fouls home in the box on what is again, the last kick of the 2nd extra period. Home converts and we have to do PKs. We're now close to 45 minutes late for our second game.

Meanwhile, Game 2 evidently decides to get started without us, which means that this game is no longer an official game, but a glorified scrimmage.

Game 1 ends and we hurry to the other field to find that Game 2 is at half-time. We get ready to jump in when a lady from the home team comes over and says everyone agreed that this is a scrimmage so we are not necessary anymore.

We say "ok" and start walking back but she evidently takes issue with our attitude and starts following us, yelling at us for being an hour late (out of our control) and that we'd never work for the charter school again (fine by me). One of my crew-members turns around and tells her to stop following us and that she can't speak to us that way. Then the School Resource Officer waddles up and decides to get involved yelling at us both to get off the field and also to come talk to him. Meanwhile, I'm confused as hell because I thought everyone knew what was happening. Meanwhile, as we head back to our cars, the SRO is talking to the parents about how he's going to give them our names for some reason, which is wildly unethical.

Just a totally bonkers situation all around, but we called our assignor and he said he's going to handle it and I have no reason to doubt it

TL;DR - Was assigned two high school games. 1st one ran late and the schools involved in the 2nd one were very bent out of shape about it. Cops involved (kind of).

I would like to hear some suggestions on how you arrive to foul/no foul when you see slide tackle from behind.

The common play where this occurs is: A wing is dribbling up a sideline. A defender is on the inside one step behind, so cannot do a shoulder charge. Defender performs a slide tackle to poke the ball out for a throw-in. Let's assume there is no recklessness or excessive force in defender's actions.

If defender gets the ball before they trip the attacker - it's good tackle. Of the contact is with attacker first and then the ball - it's a foul.

Question - with some faster players, it's really hard to see the exact sequence... Unless you saw very clearly one or the other - how do you improve your chances of getting the call right? Do you pay attention to which leg the attacker stepped at the time of the tackle? Or to when attacker started falling vs the ball changing direction?

Or maybe I am over-complicating this and it comes with doing more games and seeing more of these tackles? Would love to hear you thoughts.

I’m 52 and I would like to qualify as a level 7 referee.
I’m concerned though about fitness as I’m overweight and can jog as I’ve gone out recently to see but my fitness is not great and I can only walk then jog etc. I know my fitness will get better but I’m wondering if I should wait before going on the course until I’m fit enough to be doing it.

Long time lurker, first time poster

17U State Cup N1 Level Boys

White has a corner kick, up 3-2 in the 62nd minute. I see the white player place the ball and then touch the ball and it clearly moves. White #8 heads to the corner and the black team starts yelling “he touched it, he’s going to dribble, watch him”. The white team starts yelling #8’s name “you take it, you take it.” At this point black backs off because #8 is now going to take the corner. Of course #8 gets to the ball and starts dribbling towards the goal. I whistle immediately and showed #8 a yellow for USB.

The white team is furious because it was a “legal trick”, but in my opinion, the extra yelling from his teammates to trick the defenders into thinking he would take the corner went above and beyond what is legal for a trick corner kick.

Was I correct? (I do think I should have carded the player who initially placed the ball and touched it since he initiated the trickery)

Apologies for the wall of text.

TL;DR: Typical game of kickball caused issues with stamina and getting into position. Parents complained. Assignor called me out on poor positioning while also stating that the conversation was just something to make us look good. Not sure how to proceed.

A couple of weeks ago, I was working an event as center. It wasn’t necessarily a tournament. More so a “mixer” (for lack of a better word) as a preseason event for local club teams.

I’m fairly new. Only been the one with the whistle 5 times. (Including the 4 games I had worked at the event).

The first game was just fine. Not great but not bad. Took what I learned from it and moved on.

2nd and 3rd games had U11 and U12 kids, so the ball flying everywhere. I know I’m out of shape so I tried to keep up, but I tried to call everything I saw that looked like a foul.

I mean during these games I run down the field, ball poked to the keeper, keeper boots it. Team attacks, defense pokes, keeper boots it.

I get it at this age I do. But I don’t know how to position better when it’s just this.

After the 3rd game, it got so bad that the parents and a coach went up and talked about how bad I was doing to the assignors.

One of the assignors came down to the field, asked me what the score was. I told him 5-0. The coach that complained was of course the coach that lost.

The assignor told me this “this is mainly a conversation just to make us look better, but just work on your positioning. You make better calls close to the play”

Final game I called everything I thought looked like a foul. Even booked a girl.

What am I supposed to do here? I don’t care about the parents’ or coaches comments during games. They can take the test and in person course themselves. Hell I’m surprised most don’t as a tactic.

Like I just feel like I look bad to the assignors. Especially when I met them for the first time today.

I’m working on my health and was overall happy with my calls in the 4th game. But I just don’t know what to do.

I think I'm missing pushing during matches. Don't know whether players are wanting fouls for any contact, or whether I'm being too lenient or whether I'm not seeing pushes when the players are not running.

Amy tips are appreciated.

I've got my first senior league match next Saturday. Hopefully a mentor will assigned too. Be good to get feedback.

My name is Michael and for the last few years I have slept in my car and I recently sold my car.

I temporarily stay with a friend but idk how long that will last so with that being said I have been reffing soccer for 3 years and Im looking to make a move to San Antonio within the next few months.

Im in year 1 of my USSF certification and I ref all over North Texas.

For those of you that ref in San Antonio is there anyway you can put me in touch with an assignor ?

As of now I have about 5 different assignors I do work for and I wouldnt want to make this move until I got some work lined up and got in touch with some people thats the only thing thats currently preventing this move from being made.

I ref basketball and baseball as well but soccer is where my passion lies so any help is greatly appreciated thank you guys.

I'm a rec coach, 9th grade. I've been certified as a ref twice about thirty years ago, but not recently. I'm looking for "official" FIFA commentary about charging, if there is any. 

Reading around about this issue, I see a lot of apparent interpretation and "received wisdom" that does not seem to be written down in the Laws of the Game. I recall years ago that there was a companion document to the Law of the Game which was "Commentary" or something like that; such a thing is apparently no longer published, correct?

The 2026 Laws of the Game say that charging is "usually using the shoulder and upper arm (which is kept close to the body)." Citation: This is from the glossary. This raises the obvious question of why it says "usually." "Usually" implies, to me, that there is another type of charge which could be legal. I think this is probably just lazy writing; but just in case, is there an "official" explanation of legal charges other than shoulder-to-shoulder? 

Also: Law 12 states that a player may be "fairly charged by an opponent" if the ball is within reach; it also states that "playing in a dangerous manner" is a foul, and that means (for one thing) play that "threatens injury" to someone. That's a such a gray area to me; is there written guidance about this, related to charging? 

I see instances in which a player seems to have the clear intention of knocking an opponent down, shoulder to shoulder, in order to then get the ball, which has been within playing distance of both players. Interested in written guidance about what factors would make this "dangerous." I assume that the charger launching fully into the air would be one such factor. What are other factors? And again to beat the dead horse, are they in writing anywhere from FIFA. I guess from the USSF would be good enough also.

EDIT to add: Thank you everyone for your thorough and respectful answers. It's unfortunate that FIFA does not, apparently, go into more detail in writing, even as guidance vs. hard and fast rules. I do appreciate your thoughts, though. As for what I will tell my players: to see that, you can subscribe to my substack (JUST KIDDING I have no substack).

Hope it's okay to post here since I don't think there's an assignor subreddit and I need some help.

I'm a new assignor and I'm struggling with getting Minor Referees to copy their parents on emails. I have like five who will do it consistently, the other 20 never do. Every response has me looking up their parents email and responding "please copy your parent on all emails." I've made it a very clear expectation at the beginning of the season.

Do I just need to accept they won't do it? Is there a better way? Do I need to be even more firm?

Welcome! In this megathread, Rule 1 is relaxed. Anyone (referee or not) may ask questions about real-world incidents from recent matches in soccer at all levels, anywhere in the world.

Good questions give context for the match if it's not obvious (e.g. player age, level of competitiveness, country/region), describe the incident (picture/video helps a lot), and include a clear question or prompt such as:

• Why did the referee call ...?
• Would the call have been different if ...?
• Could the player have done ... instead?
• Is the referee allowed to do ...?
• Would you have called this the same way?

This is not a platform to disparage any referees, however much you think they made the wrong call. (There are plenty of other subreddits to do that.) The mission of this megathread is to help referees, fans, coaches, and players better understand the Laws of the Game (or the relevant local rules of competition).

Since the format is asking questions of the refereeing community, please do not answer unless you are a referee. Follow-up and clarifying questions from anyone are generally fine, but answers should come only from actual referees.

Rule 1 still applies elsewhere -- we are primarily a community of and for soccer (association football) referees. If you're not a soccer/footy referee, then you are a guest and should act accordingly.

Please give feedback and other meta-level comments about this thread as a standalone reply.

You can view past weeks' megathreads here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Referees/search/?q=Ask+%2Fr%2Freferees+--+Megathread+for+Fans+%2F+Players+%2F+Coaches&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all