I have always been happy after a match to answer any questions from players or coaches/managers and explain the reasons for any decisions. I was, however, thrown a little recently when the coach of one team approached me as I came off the field. ‘Can you tell me’ he asked perfectly civilly, ‘why you changed your assistant referees at half time?’
I thought for a minute before assuring him that I had not changed them. They were the same guys I had started with and what’s more they had both
run with the same forward line throughout the match. ‘That’s what I mean,’ he said, ‘they are supposed to take one forward line for one half and then the other forward line for the second half’. In other words he was suggesting that they should have stayed on the same touch line for the whole of the match.
Most people, I guess, never even notice which assistant referee goes where, so I asked why he thought that his suggestion would make any difference. He replied that his team should have the benefit of both assistants. When you consider that both my assistants were neutral and fully qualified referees, his answer left me bewildered.
I explained that as referee, I was free to deploy my assistants as I saw fit, unless the competition rules said differently.
I have officiated in leagues which do have conditions. One league stipulated that as referee, I had to run one diagonal in one half and the opposite in the second. This meant the assistants referees ran with right wings for one half and left wings for the other. It was usual however, for assistant referees to stay with the forward line they started with. One benefit of this method is that when judging offside, they are looking for the same team, same colours, in both halves which makes life easier.
I can understand what the coach was getting at however, for in recent years there has been a tendency for assistant referees to stay on the same touchline and same half for the whole of the game.
There are two reasons for this. One is substitutes. Unless they have the luxury of a fourth official, very often referees delegate the introduction of substitutes to one of the assistants. The appointed assistant will check that the names of substitutes conform to those which have been given to the referee prior to the game and will check the substitute’s studs if not done before the game. He will also ensure that the substitute does not enter the field of play until the player being substituted has come off.
The other reason is the behaviour of coaches/managers. Of the two assistant referees, one is always the senior, ready to take over if the referee is injured. Referees often put their senior assistant on the touchline nearest the technical areas, as he has that little extra authority or experience to deal with any problems that may arise.
In this particular game, I had decided that I would deal with substitutes and I judged, rightly as it turned out, that neither coach would cause any trouble. This meant I had no need to keep the senior assistant on the bench side, so I chose to leave my assistants with the same set of forwards for the whole of the match.
When I watch football matches my attention is always on the officials and it seems to me that it varies how the assistants are
utilised: some referees swap them over, others keep them on the same line. When I run the line myself, I also find instructions vary from referee to referee but many keep assistants with the same forwards. Surely, it doesn’t matter which team an assistant referee runs with, because if he does his job properly, he benefits the game not individual teams.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2009