To the soccer referee who proclaimed “Hey, that’s three times, I’m gonna start bringing out the cards now!” And to the referee who watched me get tripped on a breakaway, tear up my forearms and almost break my ribcage on the concrete floor of the Exhibition Park pitch – and then did NOTHING while the other player stood there and said ‘Oh my God, that was all my fault, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!’ – Do your fucking job and ref the fucking game! Are you trying to get us killed? Why the fuck are you watching three fouls before you bring the cards out? You think you should go easy on players because it’s a ‘recreational’ league? Recreational games are especially dangerous because of how many UNSKILLED players there are who think the best way to get possession of the ball is to throw themselves at the other player. Do your fucking job and REFEREE the game before bones start breaking!
—Not playing
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.
Maybe you could attend other games and video tape these incidents or have someone recording while you are playing then see if the referee association can review your video I was a baseball umpire ive seen it done there.
Oh shit, not the cards!
if you think rec league soccer is bad, try rec hockey. full of family men reliving “glory” days and thinking there are scouts in the stands.
broken bones and scraps are par for the course. as for the refs letting things get out of hand, sounds common as well.