Reply to Would you support a zero tolerance on referee harassment?

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[quote=SoccerRef]Would I support a zero tolerance policy on referee harassment?
Sure!
Do I think the policy the OP found makes sense? 
No.

Look, believe me, nobody is against ref harassment more than I am. I've been doing this a long time, and parents are getting worse and worse, and players, especially younger ones, and aping their parents behavior.

But we have to use common sense. We don't need to kick out a parent that disagrees with a call, and yells out "no way!" At least he first time.
And we don't need to kick out coaches the first time they complain either.

There are some better things to do. FIFA is close to allowing refs to card coaches as we card players. It's a much clearer and simpler way to address coach behavior. Right now, coaches know that they can lean on a ref all game, and they may get warned, but that really means nothing. Especially with younger refs, they're far more comfortable pulling out and showing a coach a card than they are going over to tell the coach to stop. A coach that gets a YC knows exactly what it means. Some tournaments allow this already, but most don't.

As for parents, it's a lot more challenging. I have a much lower threshold for considering parents out of line than I do a coach.  A quick spontaneous complaint...fine. Things I won't accept, and give one, and only one warning...anything that's a personal insult, anything implying a lack of fairness, and, now more than every, any parents encouraging their kids to me more physical towards opponents.

In the end, as a parent you need to choose your battles. Don't complain about a meaningless throw in (an they're all meaningless). Don't complain about an offside call. If it's three refs, the AR has a MUCH better view than you do, and if it's one ref, accept that they're guessing on all offside calls and let it go. 
And never, never approach a ref to complain at half time or after a game. If you respectfully want a call explained, fine, but believe me, I can tell from 30 yards away if you have good intentions or not.

So yes, harassment should be out of the game. But there are enough gray areas that I don't think we need such a firm black and white policy. [/quote]

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