Argumentative Coach on Substitution

[BCer]

Originally Posted by CecilOne

"At halftime, the coach asked my partner about it. I don't know exactly what was said. When I asked him about it, he said "if he didn't want to sub the kid, he doesn't have to". I said that he clearly sent him to mid field, and had he not been subbing, the white player would not have been called on since it wasn't their throw. His response was that the player had to report to the official scorekeeper, which in this game, was the officials, and had not, so he didn't have to sub. "

This sounds like logic chopping by the coach. The logical extension of this line of thought is to simply not allow any substitutions in the game at all without receiving a caution (except at half). After all, you cannot become a sub except by reporting to the (on field) officials, and stepping on the field without already being a player is a cautionable offense (I'm stretching the caution a bit, but I can logic chop with the best of them) . Absolute inane from a spirit point of view, but a technically defensible position. (Although I wouldn't want to write-up these cautions for what are basically sins of the coach)

My own view is that you establish with your partner what you consider to be a proper substitution request given the field markings and lack of scorer and make it clear to both coaches that if you put players in this position, you are asking for a sub. I've had the rare youth (club) coach who tries to muck around with the sub rules (as we have unlimited subs at any stoppage. We've been told that ref "discretion" shouldn't be applied. I shouldn't need to tell you the potential gamesmanship issues that exist here) - I've ended up having a quick chat explaining what I think they are trying to do if I notice them trying to sub (more than once) to disrupt a quick throw-in/corner, and ask them to please stop it or I will write them up for what I perceive as gamesmanship.