Law 5- Contradictions to the Rules of Competition

Well, when it comes to heat, US Soccer has pretty clear guidelines that clubs and leagues should use. And afaik the national leagues that require you to check in with the national game day operations also require a trainer at the game which means that you should be reaching a decision as to whether to delay or abandon a match in coordination with the trainer who is providing their expert medical opinion as to whether the temperature is too hot. So it’s not some person saying yes or no depending on how they feel half way across America. The match day operations person is generally tasked with making sure that any decision to abandon or delay is made and coordinated with all parties who are impacted by the decision.

I myself have abandoned MLS Next matches due to thunderstorms. It involved a conversation with the coaches and MLS Next game day operations team as to whether to continue a match after half time after we cleared the field due to lightning. We discussed the extent of the storms and the visiting team’s travel requirements and the decision was made to abandon.

 

This is a nuance, but it is always the referee who makes the decision. Yes he/she needs to consult with the league but in terms of the paperwork it's the referee making the decision "after consultation with league personnel". So it is square with the LOTG.

As to procedure, I've never once encountered a situation where a league wanted to play when the referee truly felt it wasn't safe. In 95% of the situations I've dealt with, the league presses to wait longer to ensure safer conditions hold.

 

It's pretty normal for youth tournaments that HQ controls when to stop. I would expect to be fired/delisted by the assignor if I ever stopped a game that HQ wanted to keep playing.

I can't be sure why, but the only ref I saw stop a game that the boss wanted to keep playing I didn't see again. This was league games at a large complex, I was AR. There were a lot cloud to cloud strikes that seemed close but the lightning detection equipment didn't go off. We were the only game to stop. I think the center was @JimEWrld

 

First of all, the consultation is generally to discuss with the competition authorities how long can the match be suspended before the decision is made to abandon the match because of weather conditions and other logistical concerns.

You also call them at this level so that they know that your match is suspended and why. It’s part of the responsibility you accept when you accept a higher level assignment.

Heck, a decent referee on a run of the mill local youth match should also call his or her assignor as well to give them a heads up and find out what parameters may need to be followed for that league.

We should always do our best to know the league’s policies regarding suspended matches and how long to wait before we abandon them. Some leagues have specific rules saying that if a match is suspended, it can be restarted after the delay but cannot go into the scheduled time for the next match.

I’m curious Metro what the weather concern was for the other match you mention.

 

Could to cloud lightning can be seen from very far away - far beyond the 10 mile guidance that has been standard for decades.

 

This was very close, practically overhead.

Not that I'm infallible, I once advised a center to stop a game for a storm that turned out to be 50 miles away. He rightly ignored me.

 

did you all check phone lightning mappers?

all of the phone aps now pull data near instantaneously from NOAA’s weather satellites.

 

I use lightning apps. In my experience, they miss a lot, at least as far as hearing thunder with no corresponding hit on the app. The league in question uses them too. At least before the field detectors were installed, an app was used exclusively by the league manager regardless of visual evidence.

Story time for a different league, this one a sanctioned adult ethnic league. We were getting several strikes within 5 miles. The teams were lobbying to play but the center eventually decides not to play. We call the commissioner/assignor to inform him who went ballistic, basically saying we were not permitted to abandon games without his permission. We got yelled at some more the next day when one of the teams claimed they weren't informed of the abandonment.

Bottom line, refs need to understand that the other stakeholders don't care what our lightning training is and may not back you up.

 

Thunderstorm precautions are virtually unknown here in Uruguay, except when a lightning is really close to the stadium.

https://administrador.m24.com.uy/nacional-penarol-suspendido-por-fuerte-tormenta-electrica/

As for rain, well...

 

First of all, if your weather AP is connected to the network and you have it open to the lightning mapper, you are getting near real time data - as in 1-2 seconds of lightning. The satellites literally pic up every lightning discharge and transmit that data in real time.

the standard pre tech advice was the counting method from when thunder is heard until when lightning is observed. With detection systems and mappers, you now have much greater awareness of where the storm is as well as its track and can make much more informed decisions.

Generally, you can hear thunder at 10 miles. That’s also the distance that noaa suggests you begin to take cover due to the ability of lighting to extend out from a storm cell.

That said, in certain areas and in certain atmospheric conditions you can hear thunder from further away than 10 miles. Likewise, depending on topography, summer storms can be seen from far greater than 10 miles away.

If you hear it, but the mappers say it’s 20 miles away, keep an eye on it and ask someone to track it as well as monitoring for other cells to develop. Most trainers are more than willing to do that bc they have an obligation for safety too.

Ultimately it’s the referees decision whether to suspend the match due to lightning and the error should be on the side of caution. But that also doesn’t mean we ignore sound information such as fully functioning technology systems and alerts / info from local weather forecast offices.

 

Few years back we had “bomb cyclone” and news was saying to not travel. One game cancelled but the Idiot NPL teams still had the game on a turf field that isn’t great in perfect conditions (the turf is too shallow and slippery). Pouring rain, 30 mph winds, players slipping all over. I tried to end it at halftime, the teams and players all refused so we played it out. Game showed absolutely nothing about anyone skill level, and the danger of travel on the roads, but hey at least they completed the game and that’s what’s important

Then the idiot summer tournament that knew for over a week that the temperature would be 110-115 degrees but waited until 2 days before the start to change the schedule from 8a-6p to 6a-2p and 8p-10p

Nice to see weather idiots exist in all places

 

I have never been told to play anyway. If the league wants you to let them know about conditions, you do it, if nothing else, out of courtesy to the nice people who write us checks. But that's not going to force me to go back out there in a lightning storm.

Since I'm the story teller......

Varsity boys dual at night. Game going along just fine when BANG! Very close ground strike behind my back. I'm guessing a mile away. We stopped the game and I went to my car, which was only about 30 yards off the field. The visiting team coach keeps his team out on the field, 'warming up."!!!!! Everybody else headed for the gym. Around here, lightning storms last about 30 minutes and we resumed. I reported what the visiting coach had done. The school fired him. So to speak.

Community college women's game, to be followed by the men's game (with a different crew), and after that a couple of youth club teams had the field for practice. Our game has lightning just before kickoff, so 30 minute delay plus we'll have to allow the teams time to rewarm up. We call the conference commissioner to ask what to do because we only had a four hour window to get in both games. The commissioner said that the conference had no policy on lightning delays! "Whatever you do, do the same thing for the women's game as the men's game." Of course, we weren't doing the men's game and that crew wasn't even there yet. IIRC, we played two 20" halves and called it good, showered and left.

And from the track world..... National championships in Des Moines. In the middle of men's triple jump, the referee comes by and tells us not to start finals. (three preliminary jumps and then the top nine get three more in finals.) The announcer then comes on the PA system and says that they are evacuating the stadium. The officials and athletes go up a tunnel into the PE gym, where we hung out for something like three hours, while the storm passed through the area. When we got the all clear, we had to squeegee off the runways three or four times to remove as much water as possible, before letting the athletes in finals warm up again. The guy who was leading after the preliminary rounds, though, had an early flight to catch and didn't come out to take his last three jumps. Nobody in finals jump farther than he had, so he wasn't even in the same state when he officially won.

 

Heat! I was at youth regionals in Las Vegas one year as an assessor. The genius administrators had scheduled a U-16 boys semi-final for 2 p.m., on turf. Nevada v. Cal South, the latter team the defending national champions. It was reportedly 115 degrees in the shade and no shade. I was with a colleague who was the assessor for this game. (I was leaving that night to fly to Ireland.) We had been explicitly told the previous night that we had no authority to tell the officials to stop the game.

Late in the game, the referee is starting to wander, even though the 4th has been handing him cups of water every time he goes past. And the game goes to overtime! People with braid on their hats are with the 4th, but overtime begins. Cal South scores twice in the 1st overtime, but it's not golden goal. With about two minutes left in the second overtime, a fight between parents in the stands breaks out and actually spills out onto the field, past a very startled AR2. The referee stops the game and order is somewhat restored. The Cal South coach wants to restart the game! He was afraid that the committee would give a double forfeit, sending the winner of the other semi-final to nationals. The referee, who was still suffering from the heat, with the advice of the brass hats, didn't restart the game.

 

Re: heat. I feel like we are still out in the wilderness on this issue. We don’t have a widely accepted generic policy re heat like we have for lightning (10 miles).

To Metro - I don’t know what the right answer is to your game you mention. Ultimately if the crew doesn’t want to ref the game, it’s their right not to. That said, US Soccer has issued guidance and many leagues have adopted it in some form or another. Would it be optimal for clubs to move summer games to the evening - yes, ESPECIALLY when playing on turf fields as opposed to natural grass.

But there are lots more factors that go into heat than other scenarios. From the actual temps and humidity and where they fit in US Soccer’s guidance to our own fitness and that of the players.

For me, I think twice about most every assignment I accept from May through September - especially if on turf. I check forecasts, I ask myself if my current fitness can handle forecasted temps. If not I limit my games.

For the temps - again, lots of variables and part of that decision should include consulting with staff who are responsible for the health of the players - competition and team trainers / doctors where available. But while we are responsible for the overall determination of whether it’s safe to play, coaches share in this responsibility - especially when it comes to their individual player’s safety and fitness. It’s a balancing act for us and I encourage open conversations with coaches as with the training staff.

Does the competition have water available and cooling stations if appropriate (some states are starting to enact laws to require HS athletic facilities to have a cooling tub available on site.

Are the players acclimated to the weather.

US Soccer and clubs have made a lot of progress over the last 10-15 years with water breaks becoming common (and almost too common). Back in 2012 I was at the DA playoffs and showcase in Frisco Texas and we were told no water breaks. Halfway through the first games, the national scout on my field overruled that, we did water breaks and later that day they moved all of the games to early AM and late at night.

Personally, I would love to start seeing more common sense w/ scheduling - too many club schedulers don’t put any thought into these factors. But that seems to be a more local fight maybe best addressed through state associations having clubs implement best practices.

 

Important point to mention - if you expect you may get weather, know your ROC and weather policies *before* you start your game. Even better, know them before you accept the game. If the league ROC isn't clear or if the league doesn't have a policy, get clarification from someone of authority, preferably in writing (and bring that with you). You don't want to be in a situation where no one knows what to do or who to ask.

 

Whatever happened to

If you hear it, fear it
If you see it, flee it​

 

In the PNW, our lightning issues are comparatively rare, and heat is real but also pretty predictable. (One story on heat, though: I was at a tournament at a faraway field during a heat event, and when calling back to HQ to ask them what they wanted us to do, my iPhone overheated and shut down. That was sufficient to make a decision…)

A more modern and difficult issue with even less history and practice is air quality. Wildfires obviously impact air quality in unpredictable ways (you can’t look at radar and estimate what five minutes or two hours from now is going to be like), the apps that provide air quality readings don’t always match, and in fall, college ADs really don’t want to see their games cancelled, so they are giving their own opinions on the current AQI and whether it matches how they are feeling. Even when there are rules, it’s hard to get anyone to care. It’s messy and unhealthy and I do not love it.

 

Incredible to me the psychopathy these coaches and event coordinators have about YOUTH players. I've had some of these jackass coaches before, 90+ degrees and they try to object to a water break pregame. Then 15 minutes in, I got players asking repeatedly if there's gonna be a water break. These are youth players, and even if it's a tournament where they won't add time for water breaks, health and safety is more important. Thinking we're gonna let the people not the ones physically exerting make decisions on that stuff. And you know, the referees should be allowed a water break too.

Really grinds my gears.

 

Canada Soccer's policy is pretty simple... if you can see it OR hear it, stop it.

Wait 30m after the last time you see or hear it (ie, that 30m clock keeps resetting if you see or hear more).

 

Agreed - have you ever had a kid say no to a water break? I love the coaches at some of these low level tourneys asking for added time after hydration ... dude, do you see your players falling over out there?

 

Had an early season college women's game last year on a hot day, and the visiting team was from Canada, so it was unlikely that they were acclimated to the weather. Their goalkeeper goes to retrieve the ball for a goal kick and just drops over, passed out. That was pretty scary. Back up keeper got her stuff on and we restarted the game.

 

I actually have had it a few times when I propose the idea to the captains pregame. Oh no we don’t need it. Then halfway through the first half “hey ref can we do a water break”, then I’ll call the captains over and they both say they need one so we do one.

And also in youth games, I’ve never heard complaints and jeers when giving a water break. In fact, parents will usually applaud and thank the refs for doing it. But the jackass coaches are why a lot of times in summer tournament they put in writing in the rules that water breaks are REQUIRED so there’s no dispute with referees