[Paintguru]

From my other referee life, we use the 3 p’s principal to determine if words or actions need to be dealt with by the referee, and I feel like they apply here as well. 1. Personal- Words or actions directed at a specific person; 2. Public- Can everyone hear it or just you and the offender; 3. Provacative- are the words or actions intended to incite further misconduct, raise the tension level, or show that obnoxious behavior is acceptable? If a fan’s, player’s, or coach’s behavior oversteps most/all of these bounds, then I think it is your duty as a referee to deal with it. As others have said, this doesn’t mean an immediate ejection, but perhaps having the site manager talk to the fan. Common sense rules here; we don’t want to be tossing every fan that utters a critical word, but we also don’t want to turn a blind eye to unacceptable behavior that will continue on to the next game and next referee.