Handling Dissent

First, this web site and the advice and answers to any questions are not sanctioned by or affiliated with any governing body of soccer. The opinions expressed on this site should not be considered official interpretations of the Laws of the Game. Although the content of the latest Laws are included on this site, the majority of the content is my opinion and opinions of other referees through research in books, magazines or other web sites.

Dissent is probably one of the hardest things for any Referee to resolve...for much of it is personal and subjective. Personally, I don't think you can go into a match with a set "line," since each match has different levels of play, intensity, age and tempers. A player's reaction is likely to be different, depending on what just happened on the field.

I think rather than try to draw some arbitrary line in the sands of abstraction, it's better to focus on what is happening on the field, with the understanding that soccer is a game of passion and excitement and strong emotion. Your skin needs to be thick, you must selectively be deaf, and you should use your cards to protect the players' ankles, knees, and calves, rather than to protect my own ego. Also, I'd prefer that players vent their frustrations in some way other than by hacking their opponents to bits.

So, I will usually try to sense whether the player is reacting out of frustration or disappointment to a call (usual solution: ignore it and get the ball in play as son as possible), or is seriously trying to dispute the call or embarrass a member of the Referee team. If the latter...I usually prefer a quiet word to a card --- and the word is often to a team-mate, to the effect of enlisting his help to get "Number 6...the one with the mouth over there" to tone it down.

Try to settle a player down verbally, if you think it will work. Often, simply listening to the player's concerns will make the problem go away...particularly if the problem is just frustration over a particular call, as opposed to "gaming" the Referee by smart-mouthing his every call). And it never ceases to amaze me how quickly a player will settle down, if you simply listen after asking..."Okay, Blue...what's the problem?" And then promise to watch more carefully next time: he feels he's been listened to...you don't have to admit doing anything wrong...and, on occasion, you receive some valuable feedback about things you may be missing. If fact, while I tend to filter out most petty grumblings and minor complaints, getting a sense of how things feel from the player's point of view often helps me calibrate my calls to the game they're trying to play...which, in turn, tends to eliminate most dissent from my games without it rising to the level of a problem requiring my attention.

In short...unless it threatens to affect the game, I'd prefer to give the players a little breathing room for "professional disagreements." They do not, after all, have to agree with my calls; they simply have to accept them...and I find my games easier to manage if I try to help them along...rather than playing "Pompous Dictator" on the field.

When open dissent is increasing, one tip is to stop play for every foul, no matter how small. Do not allow ANY advantage until the players have calmed down. Keep blowing your whistle until they get the message. Peep, peep, and peep for every infringement. If you allow advantage to flow during a tough game, it will undoubtedly cause you much more trouble. Advantage is applied when a player has been fouled, and play is allowed to continue because the fouled player (or his team) gain more of an advantage by continuing play, rather that restarting play with a free kick. When players are angry, or are openly showing dissent, there is a great danger of further fouls and retribution occurring if a Referee allows advantage to flow during these periods. Once the players have settled down, the Referee can consider applying advantage once again in the game.

Dealing and punishing dissent is another subject. The advice given on this page is aimed to make Referees think about the different ways of diffusing dissent. It is not meant to be an alternative way to properly punish dissent. All Referees are individuals – and as such, will need to develop their own ways in controlling players. These ideas may hint at what can be done to ease the pressure for a Referee in a game.

On the other hand...

A player who continues to argue after play has restarted is likely to receive a caution.

A player who follows me around...after I leave to "reposition" myself to give him the chance to cool off is likely to receive a caution.

A player who screams something that I don't think I should pretend not to hear is likely to receive a caution.

A player who violates one of the "Three Ps" --- Public, Persistent, or Personal --- is likely to receive a caution.

And a player who goes after a youthful or obviously inexperienced assistant referee --- is GOING to get a card, especially after the the 2^nd time as I would have already publicly admonished him, or someone else, about leaving my AR alone. Actually, I try to protect my AR’s as much as possible, regardless of their “youth” or not. If a player is having a problem, they need to be told to bring the problem to me and leave the AR alone. On a lighter note, if a player was telling me that my AR doesn’t know what he’s doing (which I know he does), I might say to the player that he wouldn’t want me to explain the rules to him now because then he’d get it right in the 2^nd half!!

As for the rest..."abusive" language goes past dissent, and change the color of the card. Usually, on my field, there must be something particularly nasty about the comment to warrant a red card. If I'm doing my job properly, the player's team-mate will probably have taken care of the problem for me as I will use them to help me out, well before it reaches this stage.

One caveat: if you're young...and feel a lack of self-confidence in yourself...your voice may give you away. And regardless of how confident you may appear through your body-language, if your voice is shaky or timid, you may undo everything you're trying to accomplish on the field. If this is the case, you may be better off with "physical" talk --- a "shhh" sign, or other visual signal to pipe down, may work better. (In the meantime, you might want to practice sounding "menacing.")

More from a player management perspective, and not necessarily regarding dissent, referees should never ‘set out their stall’, by threatening cautions next time around! I usually get their attention by saying, “OK, That’s 1,” after a not necessarily a cautionable foul. Now, they know I’m watching them. Even a small foul by the same player will get, “That’s 2.” I don’t even have to say that they only get one more chance. They already know. If the second half begins, I will sometimes remind them that they have 2 fouls or that they already have a caution and they should be careful.