Hello, I am Albin Wrångemyr from Sweden. I am 22 years old and have been a football referee since 2017. On Sunday 16 July, I went with two colleagues to Gothenburg to referee at the largest youth football tournament in the world, the Gothia Cup. Players, managers, parents and football enthusiasts watching the matches expect us to always make the right decisions. To succeed, there are various tools that can support us in managing matches. A good tool for mutual communication are headsets. With headsets, referees can communicate with each other in real time to make the best decisions. That is why I share 5 tips in this blog on how to effectively use headsets during football matches.
1. Clear communication
During a match, there are often three referees speaking and helping each other make the right decisions. Therefore, it is essential to have decided before the game how to communicate with each other, especially when using headsets. A referee makes approximately 600 decisions per match; if all referees speak at the same time, it is difficult to make correct and efficient decisions. Each referee must know when they can speak and when they should be silent. That is why it is essential to have discussed before the start of the match how each referee responds to offside, corner kicks, free kicks or when a game situation escalates. The conditions you apply during the match with the referee team must be established before the match to prevent ambiguity.
2. Stay calm
One of the most important qualities of a referee is to remain calm at all times, even when wearing a headset. Communicating with your teammates is easier when you speak at an average volume. If your colleagues do not understand or hear you, you must repeat your command or what you are saying until you receive confirmation from someone on the team.
3. Repetition
To prevent misunderstandings in communication between referees, repeat the message a few times through the headset. Especially as an assistant referee, so that the head referee understands what is happening. Examples include: “Offside, offside, offside”, “Free kick, free kick, free kick” or “Warning, warning, warning”. When a throw-in takes place, you say “Throw-in, green, green, green” to indicate which team gets the throw-in.
4. Only say what is happening
As a referee, it is crucial to only communicate through the headset what is actually happening. Examples are “offside”, “free kick”, “play”, and so on. In other words: you should not say “No foul”, “No offside” or “No penalty”, because this can be very confusing for the head referee. They might misunderstand and think it should be a penalty, while the assistant referee said: “No penalty”.
5. Colleague feedback
Remember that as a referee, you are part of a team. Because good collaboration is important, you can also easily give each other tips or positive feedback through the headsets. For example, you could say: “Great call”, “Good to take that warning to heart”, or “Keep an eye on number 9, causes a lot of arguments with other players”.
Wireless referee communication system
In sports, including at amateur level, it is increasingly common for multiple referees to manage a match as a team. For effective communication between referees, AXIWI introduces the wireless, hands-free referee communication system. The AXIWI communication system is very affordable compared to its competitors: other brands are 3 to 6 times more expensive! Meanwhile, AXIWI is successfully used in sports such as handball, korfball, basketball, football, hockey, volleyball, baseball, water polo, rugby, ice hockey and floorball.
