Question Number: 21813

Law 5 - The Referee 8/22/2009

RE: house Under 13

Andie of King city, ON Canada asks...

This question is a follow up to question 98

The ref 'Favoured' the opposing team. He only called our hand balls., etc. I was just wondering if there was aything we could do.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Perhaps your team could quit fouling.

Accusing a ref of favortism is a very serious charge. If you truly feel this referee was biased for the other team, your coach should report him to the league.

One time I was jokingly asked by a coach how much more the ref fee would be to ensure they won. I joked right back, 'Oh I couldn't do that, you're the Dragons.' Later I thought, if I was caught cheating, I'd be banned for at least 10 years. Since I do 70-80 games per year, I'd come out ahead if they paid me about 800 game fees.

I present this as an illustration of why a referee wouldn't conciously call a game for one team. It isn't worth it.

Answer provided by Referee Keith Contarino

Maybe your team should stop doing things like deliberately handling the ball and committing other fouls. I am sure that there have been instances where there has been referee favoritism but these are very very rare. Referees are impartial and could care less who wins or loses. Referees call what they see. I have worked games where virtually ALL the fouls were called against one team. Guess what? That team WAS committing all the fouls and the other team was playing by the rules.

The referee is a playing condition. You have to adapt to it. If it becomes obvious that the referee is calling a lot of deliberately handling the ball fouls against your team, you should adjust and stop doing it