The role of the captain?

There have been consistent misunderstandings in the recent past on the role of the onfield captains, in particular with regard to interactions with officials. Going to the rulebook, Rule 1, Section 1, Article 5 says:

Each team shall designate to the referee no more than four players as its field captain(s), and one player at a time shall speak for his team in all dealings with the officials. There shall be no more than four captains from each team at the coin toss.

The first point that comes from this is that multiple players gathered around an official all talking at once is unacceptable. This is unfair to the official but also does the team a disservice in that inconsistent comments can be made due to multiple people being involved.

Secondly, when we're talking about dealings with officials here the implication is that the officials are determining the interaction, not the players/captains. The captains, just like the other players, coaches and all team participants must still comply with Rule 9.2.1 regarding inappropriate language and gestures.

Where the prevalent idea that "I'm a captain so I get to say what I want to the officials" comes from is unknown. Requests from a captain for an official to watch particular opposition actions, when done calmly and reasonably, are generally appropriate. Comments such as "Are you blind?" are not appropriate whether coming from a captain or not!

In The Football Code at the start of the rulebook, there is a section on Talking to Officials which states:

When an official imposes a penalty or makes a decision, he simply is doing his duty as he sees it. He is on the field to uphold the integrity of the game of football, and his decisions are final and conclusive and should be accepted by players and coaches.

I am not aware of a situation where a captain's complaint about a call has ever resulted in the call being overturned. No-one should expect that any official is going to be perfect - we are all only human. There is the procedure of the coaches conference if a head coach wishes to challenge the enforcement of a penalty. Clubs are welcome to submit game reports if they wish to cover things in more detail. These reports may be reproduced in part or full on this blog as we attempt to respond to them in an open and transparent manner.

Rest assured that SAGOA and other officiating groups do review games and our decisions in them. We train to make sure we are in the best position to make the correct call on every play. Much like coaches and players, we are annoyed at ourselves when we get it wrong and work hard to improve our knowledge and abilities for future contests.

Regards
Simon Pollitt