This weekend, I reffed a U-17 boys soccer game.
Referees for this league have been under the constant instruction for the past few years that this is a top tier league with numerous D-1 scholarship players and a few future professionals in it, so we should call the game with the assumption that soccer is a contact sport. Blue team drove five hours to the field from one direction and Red drove four hours from the other direction. Blue team played a very English style while Red team played an Italian style.
Blue started the game with hard but legal shoulder charges into Red’s attackers. Blue’s holding midfielders both looked like decent draft prospects as middle linebackers (6-2/6-4 225 to 230 pounds apiece) and they knew how to use their strength to their advantage. As a referee, I was fine with the level of contact as it was shoulder to shoulder, only occuring while the ball was in playing distance and Blue immediately disengaged without any extraneous contact after the ball was released.
Red was not happy. They chirped constantly. Red #18 was a little guy who was trying to play a speed game. Blue’s holding midfielders would body him every time he got a release and Red #18 was consistently looking back to me for a foul. I was not seeing a foul, I was seeing a weight room issue.
The Red coach was trying to work me. Every time Red #18 was within 10 yards of a defender, he was moaning and asking for a call and expressing his disbelief that I was not seeing the blatantly obvious foul. Red #18 started to flop and dive. This kept on going for the entire game. He never got the fouls that he wanted as I was not seeing a foul. When his players were getting illegally challenged, I was fast on the whistle, but I was allowing Blue to play strong.
At the end of the game, the coach came to me for a conversation in the middle of the field. He said that I would never work one of his games again. My response was simple and direct:
“That’s fine coach, please call the assignor, Jenny Doe to arrange that. Her number is 555-867-5309.” He was surprised at my non-chalance.
I had the freedom to call the game as I saw fit without being worked because the economics of the situation favored me, the referee.