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Match Report Writing

Bob Linebaugh, Chair of the State Referee Committee, gives us a great "How To" article on the necessary elements of report writing.

Nobody likes paperwork. But sometimes it is inevitable, especially when a team official is dismissed; a red card is issued to send-off a player; or for referee abuse/assault. It is not only important that you promptly and properly complete the paperwork, it is required. It's part of the referee’s job.

The following information is furnished because it is important and needed to mete out discipline. One of the frustrating things for those involved when it comes to deciding disciplinary action is send-off reports that are poorly written, and don't provide the complete and accurate information needed.

You are to complete and forward to the appropriate authority a report of any send-off you have in a match within 48 hours of the incident. When you are involved with a tournament, you need to complete the report as soon as the match is completed, if possible. Not only is timeliness important for administrative purposes, but the sooner you complete the report after the incident, the better your memory is of the specifics.

Who are the "appropriate authorities"? In New Mexico if it is for referee assault/abuse it is the SRA. First let us define referee assault and or abuse by citing the USSF Policy Manual.

Policy 531-9 -- Misconduct toward Game Officials

(3) (a)(i) Referee assault is an intentional act of physical violence at or upon a referee.

(ii) For purposes of this policy, “intentional act” shall mean an act intended to bring about a result which will invade the interests of another in a way that is socially unacceptable. Unintended consequences of the act are irrelevant.

(b) Assault includes, but is not limited to the following acts committed

upon a referee: hitting, kicking, punching, choking, spitting on, grabbing or bodily running into a referee; head butting; the act of kicking or throwing any object at a referee that could inflict injury; damaging the referee’s uniform or personal property, i.e. car, equipment, etc.

(4) (a) Referee abuse is a verbal statement or physical act not resulting in bodily

contact which implies or threatens physical harm to a referee or the referee’s property or equipment.

(b) Abuse includes, but is not limited to the following acts committed upon a referee:

using foul or abusive language toward a referee that implies or threatens physical harm; spewing any beverage on a referee’s personal property; or spitting at (but not on) the referee.

For a send-off of a player or the dismissal of a coach, know the reason for send-off as dictated by Law 12 of the Laws of the Game. Know the seven reasons for a send-off. Know the difference between Serious Foul Play, and Violent conduct. Use the "Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game" (ATR) and the USSF’s directives by referencing and/or citing them in your report. You can also turn to the "7+7" document for a concise list of offenses for which players can be cautioned or sent-off for. You should print and/or save this document for when you are writing a report (find it by clicking here). A coach or team official cannot be "sent-off", per say, but rather is dismissed for "irresponsible behavior." You would then need to define this behavior in the match report in a way that is easily understood.

On to the report. Very specific information is needed in a complete and accurate report.

Specifically:

Date/Time of match.

Location

League or Tournament

Level of competition

Teams

Team Coaches Names

Name of Center Referee

Name of AR 1

Name of AR2

Name of 4^th Official

Time of Foul

Name of Player receiving Red Card and that player’s Jersey number.

Reason for Send-off listed under Law 12 of the Laws of the Game.

The final and most important part of the report is the "Explanation" of the situation that created the need for a send-off. What you need to do is paint a picture, with as much as detail as possible, with your words of why the player was sent-off. You need to include when the event occurred, who was involved, how the violation took place, and what was the aftermath of the occurrence. The Disciplinary Committee relies on the information you provide to determine how many games the player will be suspended. If you give the Committee little or no information to go on, then they will be forced to minimize the suspension.

It is not your job to recommend how many games you think the player should be suspended or to decide if it was referee abuse, or assault. Never indicate your opinion on this matter when you complete a report. If you feel as though the send-off was for a particularly egregious foul, for example, make sure the Committee knows what happened in detail and let the process take its course. Simply just give the facts.

Here's a sample of what should be included in an explanation on a referee's report. We don't have space to give you samples of every type of send-off. But make sure that every report you write contains the key elements that are within the following:

"In the 79^thminute of play, the Red team was building an attack near midfield. Red player #19 was in possession of the ball at his feet and was looking downfield to distribute the ball. As he was doing so, Blue player #7 (Bob Martinez) tackled Red #19 from behind using excessive force, with cleats up, making forceful contact with the player's calf and clearly endangering the safety of the opponent. Play was stopped, and the trainer for the Red team was called onto the field to treat #19. Mr. Martinez was shown the red card and sent-off for Serious Foul Play (Law 12). Mr. Martinez did not leave the field of play immediately. Rather, he remained on the field for thirty to forty seconds, haranguing the referee concerning the red card. After being restrained by his teammates, he did finally leave the field without further incident. Red player #19 was assisted from the field with an apparent injury to his left calf. After a substitute entered the field to replace the injured player, play was restarted with a direct free kick for the Red team at the spot of the foul. The score was 2-1 in favor of the home team at this time."

Are you able to visualize the event after reading this explanation? That is the purpose of the report, and should be your goal every time you have to issue a send-off. Also, if there is offensive, insulting or abusive language involved in your send-off or referee abuse, you need to specifically spell out what language was used and to whom it was directed. This, again, is important to the disciplinary committee. Include necessary information but avoid unnecessary details ('twas a warm summer day in NM, there were puffy white clouds...)

None of us enjoy sending off players or dismissing coaches. But when you do, it is very important that they be dealt with appropriately and that his or her punishment is commensurate with the type and nature of the offense. Do not leave a problem on the field that will come to haunt the next referee because you did not deal with it! That's why we have reports and disciplinary committees. And it is your job as a referee to do the best job possible in completing those reports. MAKE SURE THAT WHAT YOU WRITE IS LEGIBLE!!! None of this will matter if the committee can't read your writing. If you can type up the document that's even better!

If you have questions now or in the future when you are writing a report please reach out for assistance from a fellow referee or member of the SRC.

FWR 2010: A How-To Guide

The big thing I'm trying to do with this blog (and the newsletter) is to improve communication. It has been brought to my attention that some people find the selection process for Regionals to be incongruous with other processes in refereeing. For example, the criteria to upgrade from Grade 8 to 7 is clearly listed on the website. Conversely, where can you find the details on how to get selected for FWR?

This is a fair argument and it got me thinking about how to correct this. What better venue than the blog and newsletter? So here in plain text is the process that I go through in making the decision of who is selected for Regionals each year. With that knowledge you can know what to expect if you "throw your hat in the ring" next time around.

1. Each year there is a Region IV planning meeting. At this meeting it is decided how many referees each State will bring to the tournament. This usually occurs in October leaving several months for the SYRA to plan on who to bring.
   
2. Once I have the number in mind I begin to build a list of potential referees. Some of these referees have emailed me their interest ahead of time. Others are referees that are "up and coming" and have been brought to my attention by other referees.
   
3. Of the available slots (this year we had 10) two are taken by the Female and Male Youth Referee of the Year candidates. Another slot is taken by your SYRA.
   
4. From there the final slots are slowly but surely filled. Usually two or three referees are on a standby list, just in case someone can't make it. Regionals is a big commitment; you must attend meetings, group runs and spend a week of your summer doing games for free. I require a lot of work out of this group.
   
5. Although there are no formal requirements, generally we will only take two or three "rookies" to Regionals each year. Priority goes to the younger referees as a general rule, but I can't take Grade 9's.
   
6. The list of referees are not just randomly picked by me. The State Referee Committee is involved. I take feedback from Assessors. I pay attention who attends the meetings and yearly clinic. I go and watch possible candidates do games. I email each DRA for feedback on who they think should go.
   

The most important thing is to let me know you are interested. Although I ask for input from the DRA's for a variety of reasons I don't always hear back. If you want to go to Regionals there is no reason you can't just let me know directly. That ensures that I know your interest right away. Don't be discouraged if you don't end up on the list this year. Keep working hard and it will pay off. So now is the time to start. If you want to go next year please email me for details. NM is hosting FWR next year so we should have more slots open. And keep up the hard work!

Off the Pitch

Steve Schafer, a State Referee and DRA, gives us some advice on how we can stay fit and healthy off the pitch.

My plan is to give you a monthly dose of ideas for doing things off the soccer field to develop/maintain your soccer referee fitness level. Orion is doing a great job leading weekly workouts on Wednesdays (e mail Orion at ostrad625@comcast.net). Here are some additional workout ideas.

So what do you do when you are not refereeing soccer to maintain fitness? If your answer is 12 ounce curls and eating for two, disaster will strike before you know it. Your body will rebel if you go hard Saturday and Sunday, and don’t do anything for fitness the rest of the week.

My latest discovery is Bikram’s Yoga on Juan Tabo (http://bikramalbuquerque.com). A Bikram’s yoga class lasts 90 minutes in a room at 105 degrees F and 40% humidity. The 26 posses help strengthen and stretch your muscles while also helping your breathing. Class sessions are offered in the morning, noon and evenings (see the website for schedules). I have found a weekly yoga session has eliminated all the little injuries I use to get from refereeing. Bring in a copy of this newsletter, and Bikram’s Yoga will give you half off the introductory special ($10 instead of $20).

Let me know if you have any questions! You can click here to send me an email.

~Steve Schafer

Risk Taking

By now most of you should have seen this diagram at least once. This representation of Game Management isn't really something new; in fact, its a concept that has been around for sometime. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the elements of this model and struggle to apply these "new" concepts in our games. But in reality we are likely applying all of these concepts in our matches without assigning the terms to them. For example, when we choose not to call a trifling foul near midfield to keep the ball moving we have just demonstrated the Risk Taking element. Or when we issue a caution for a player removing their shirt to celebrate a goal (even though its not a "big deal") we are adhering to 100% Misconduct.


Over the next few weeks both on this blog and at the ASRA Meetings (if you live in Albuquerque) we will continue to examine some of the elements of this model. I find drawing the correlations between this model and previous procedures is helpful. Take a look at the clip below and think about Risk Taking.




The Advice to Referees on the LOTG is very clear when it talks about Law 5 and the referee's power "to decide that an infringement is trifling or doubtful and should not be called at all." We see in the video that if the two minor fouls were called that a goal probably wouldn't have resulted (affecting the Entertainment value). So in this case we saw that there was enough game control to allow play to continue (take a risk) and getting more flow in the game. Keep in mind we must be careful when risk taking. Never do we want the player's safety to be endangered or lose control of the match. Watch how players react to the foul being ignored: Do they keep playing? Are they frustrated? Do they look for revenge? Communicate with players to let them know you see the contact, but are allowing them to continue. If you have less game control you will not be able to take as many risks.

F-I-R-E

Keeping with a tradition I started but didn't stick with here is another acronym that is commonly referred to when gauging contact about the shoulders.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The F-I-R-E Principle for Dealing with Above-the-Shoulder Challenges

Actions aimed at the face of an opponent must be dealt with severely REGARDLESS OF THE FORCE USED if the actions are:

• Deliberate
• Intended to intimidate
• Endangering the safety of an opponent
• Insulting and/or offensive in nature
• Potentially inciting further action on the part of opponents

The following lists some specific examples (but not all examples) of the manner in which the contact can be initiated are:

• Use of the backhand
• Open handed slap
• A push/slap to the face
• The jabbing of a finger(s) to the face
• Grabbing hair
• Use of a fist

To assist referees in recognizing and properly addressing these situations, the acronym F-I-R-E was provided to assist officials with the identification of elbows that should be defined as red cardable offenses (violent conduct):

• Frustration
• Intimidation
• Retaliation (payback)
• Establish Territory or Space

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Far West Regionals 2009

The weather sort of reminded us of New Mexico over the seven days spent in Lancaster, CA for FWR 2009. A total of ten referees and one assessor represented NM at this large event. Days consisted of usually 2-3 games, several hours out at the field, evening meetings and later meetings to get yelled at by the SYRA (or given assignments). Even though the days often started early and ended late the group had a good time overall.

Congratulations to those that were selected to attend this year (roughly from left to right): CJ Merritt, Amanda Forletta, Santos Toquinto, Mark Merritt, Frank Serianni, Kerstin Shrader, Oscar Toquinto, Jorge Garcia, Kris Grano and Seth Gilpin [not pictured: Nigel Holman, assessor]. Once again we had a great showing on the final day of games with four of our referees getting final assignments:

Mark Merritt - 4th Official Boys U-12













Oscar Toquinto - Referee Girls U-12
Santos Toquinto - AR1 Girls U-12













Kris Grano - Referee Girls U-18














Would you like to attend Regionals next year? Since the process can be a bit ambiguous look forward to a post giving you the steps necessary to better your chances of being selected. Remember that next year FWR is coming to Albuquerque so we'll have more opportunity to provide local referees!