One of my other hobbies is short-story writing. Belonging to the local Thames
Valley Writers' Circle has the benefit that stories can be read out to other
members, who can pass comment before they are sent away for a competition or
possible publication. Sometimes the comment is made that a story relies too
much on coincidence but of course in real life, coincidences happen all the time.
At the beginning of this season I wrote in this column about the days I refereed
celebrity charity matches. I mentioned that one of the better footballers amongst
the celebrities was the jockey John Francombe. I hadn't seen John Francombe
since a charity match I refereed at Newbury many years ago but by coincidence
the same week that article appeared, he nearly ran me over in a speeding golf
buggy on West Berkshire Golf Course.
Early this season I was refereeing a Sunday League game at Kings Meadow
and sharing the cell-like referee's dressing room was Paul Jenkins, long serving
Registration Secretary of the Reading Sunday League who was refereeing on
another pitch. 'Don't forget' he said 'you were going to write a piece on calling'.
He had experienced misunderstanding by players about calling during a match,
and thought it might be a good idea to say what was permitted and what was not.
By coincidence, during my game that morning I experienced a classic case of
calling that had opponents shouting for some action to be taken.
There are probably two main occasions when players call for the ball. One is
when a team mate has the ball and they want it passed to them. I remember a
local winger, who whenever one of his team mates had the ball would scream
for it in a high pitched voice. Opponents would demand action against him but
I'm not sure whether they thought he had committed an offence or if it was out
of irritation. A player is quite entitled to call for a team mate to pass to him.
The other type of calling is when the ball has been played and a player calls for it to
be left. Something like, 'leave it, my ball, let it go.' The point here is that calling
for a team mate to leave it, is not contrary to the laws. In fact, calling is not
mentioned anywhere in the laws of the game. It comes under that all embracing
clause, 'unsporting behaviour'. It only becomes an offence when the call is to
trick an opponent into leaving the ball.
Everyone I think would agree, that
calling to deceive is unsporting. In my game that Sunday morning, the ball was
passed across field to a team mate, but another one, just behind him, felt he had
a better opportunity so called for him to leave it, which he did. There was not an
opponent within ten to fifteen yards so there was no mistake who he was calling
to. 'But he didn't give a name' the opponents cried.
I refereed a game last week in which a forward lobbed the ball high and
hopefully into his opponents penalty area. The goalkeeper rushed out of his goal
shouting to all and sundry 'leave it, leave it'. I didn't punish him but after he
cleared it up field I heard his captain tearing him off a strip. 'That's the worst
thing you can say,' he told him,' shout "goalies ball" or give a name then
everyone's clear who you are shouting at'. I couldn't have put it better myself.
There is no requirement for a name, but giving one makes it clear who you are
calling to, to everyone including the referee. You won't then have to claim it was
all a coincidence that an opponent left a ball when you were really calling to a
team mate.
Dick Sawdon Smith