We’ve all done it before and it’s safe to say that many of us love contesting a decision given against us. It’s human nature and when males play the sport, testosterone is bound to fly around. The inspiration of this story comes from the matches that I played today. Unfortunately the referee that we were given was a bit of a dud. And it seemed as though he was blind because every call would be against us and I’m sad to say, all I could do was keep playing my game and ignore what was going on around me.

There Was An Incident

In the second half we were drawn at 1-1 and my team mate decided to slide tackle another player who had the ball. In honest truth it was a great tackle and the ball was cleanly taken away from the player. Then the next thing we hear is the referees whistle and a yellow card made its way out of his pocket. My mate was absolutely peed off about the whole decision and started arguing with the referee saying, “Couldn’t you see I took the ball! I can’t believe this!” Then he swore at the official. As a result he brandished a red card which sent my friend mad and off to the bench, cursing at the official at the same time.

Pretty Funny Stuff, But Now We’re Down to 10 Men

Now, what can we learn here? Here is a list of things you need to understand about talking back to referees and what is wise:

• Their word is final and they cannot change their decision once it’s been made.
• Never argue with the referee as there is a chance that he might hold a grudge against you for the entire match
• If you have really been treated unfairly, go up the referee and ask him politely for an explanation for his decision, most will let you know
• If you don’t like their explanation, walk away
• In any situation you see that might get out of hand, you need to walk away and keep your comments to yourself

Keep this in mind next time you have a disagreement over a decision made by the official because you won’t regret it, much better having a yellow card, than a red. Plus think about what that red brings you. You get kicked out of the game, but more importantly you let your whole team down too and I don’t know about you, I would never want that guilt weighing on me.