I was an assistant referee recently for a quarterfinal girls high school state soccer championship. The match had been hard fought and there were the usual complaints from players and coaches but nothing extraordinary. Suddenly on a foul restart the referee pulled out a red card and ejected a tall player, a center defender. She left the pitch crying “What did I do?! What did I do?” She was inconsolable on her team’s bench.
Unfortunately we didn’t have a ref comm system for this game so I had to wait til the end to ask the referee what happened. “She said ‘Who’s paying you?’”
As referees we can take criticism — we expect it. It’s part of the game. But never, ever question our integrity. A soccer player spent the last 10 minutes of her high school playing career — maybe more — crying on her team’s bench. All over three little words.
Yeah, what is said matters.