Mom slaps ref
- by Soccer America , Nov 24, 2010
[OFF THE POST] The mother of a daughter playing in a U-10 game in the Atlanta area entered the field and slapped the referee because he didn't stop play after
the girl was hit in the chest by the ball and fell down. The mother left by the time Forsyth County Sheriff deputies arrived. Charges will be filed only if the ref swears out a warrant against her in
magistrate court.
The victim of the slap from the 39-year-old woman was a 30-year-old male referee, whose face was reddened and his lip bloodied.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ref didn’t stop play because the other team was in possession
– and waited until the ball went out of bounds.
The girl recovered from the fall.
The mother reportedly had a disagreement with the same ref the day before during another
of her daughter’s games in the weekend tournament.
“Some of them [parents] lose their minds,” said Iggy Moleka, an executive with the Forsyth
County-based United Futbol Academy, which staged the tournament. “But the last thing you want is a grown-up person attacking another grown-up person in front of children. What kind of message
does that send?”
Not too smart on this womens part, earlier this year SA had reported on an incident in I think Brazil where a ref was attacked by a player during a game and the ref ended up stabbing the player to death, While I myself have witness good and bad refing, as well as alot of other parents,fans,coaches, etc... from rec league to high school level and above I have had to control my emotions and walk away and hope that the coaches will deal with this in an appropriate legal manner. This women needs to make a public apology to save face and hopefully not jeapardize her daughters furture in soccer.
This mother should be banned from the playing field for life! There is absolutely no reason to strike a referee at any game, let alone a U-10 game. What coach is going to want to have the daughter of mother like that on the team? I feel badly for the daughter and wonder what happens at home when the daughter isn't prefect.
I was a referee, coach and parent in youth soccer for 20 years, so I have been on all sides. I only have one incident as a referee where I had a fear that I was going to have to defend myself on the field. In a U-10 boys tournament game, two players from one team ran together, knocked each other down and didn’t immediately get up . I allowed play to continue as my assessment was the two boys were not hurt but only shocked they had run together and the other team had a real scoring opportunity and they did score. Luckily the only physical contact was a push in the chest by a parent of one boy. I filed charges against the parent on the urging of the referees association. The parent was arrested and convicted for assault, fined and placed on probation for two years. The state soccer association banned him for 5 years of participating in any soccer event and placed him on probation for the rest of his life. As far as I know, there was no further trouble from this parent ever.
The referee needs to file charges against the woman. She needs to be banned from attending any soccer event for a significant period of time. Also the judge needs to make successful completion of an anger management class part of the conditions of being allowed back to watch her daughter play. Finally, the woman needs to be on probation for life for any sports event. Any further negative reaction by her would result in permanent ban of participation by her in any youth sports.