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#Post#: 109727--------------------------------------------------
Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: Seagull
Date: July 27, 2026, 3:27 am
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A concerning story from France where a young female Referee
suffered concussion.
Female referee injured in melee during friendly -
HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm2gemrn7jdo
Whilst I have every sympathy for the young lady concerned and
hope she makes a quick and full recovery, the incident
highlights, in my opinion, how unwise it is to intervene
physically between feuding players. Much better to observe the
situation with verbals and repeated blasts of the whistle
followed by appropriate action when calm is restored. That was
always my way of handling such situations.
#Post#: 109732--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: Lanyardhater
Date: July 27, 2026, 7:07 am
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Absolutely right, Seagull. And to any young referees reading
this, don’t even think about getting physically involved
yourself.
I confess that in my younger days, I have done it on occasions.
Thinking I was close enough to nip it in the bud by stepping in
and pulling players apart like a boxing referee was too tempting
at times. But it simply isn’t worth the risk of getting hurt
like poor Mademoiselle Demoncay. And it seldom worked anyway.
As the report makes clear, the brawl was fuelled (surprise,
surprise) by other players rushing in to get involved. This is
a real problem in football at all levels these days.
Pofessional players don’t help by doing it themselves. There
seemed to be a mass brawl practically every week last season in
the Premier League.
And it really infuriates me when commentators say the other
players are “acting as peacemakers”. Rubbish. When you look at
the footage, very rarely does anyone go to a team-mate and pull
them away. They go to an opponent and PUSH them away (or
worse).
Very minor incidents (this one was only a bit of shirt pulling
for heaven’s sake) then very rapidly escalate into a major
brawl. Usually, when it’s all settled down, only the two
original protagonists are disciplined. Everybody else gets off
scot-free despite committing offences that at any other time
would get them carded. I have even seen goalkeepers run
full-pelt from one end to the other to join in, and escape
without punishment.
I’m not expecting referees to be handing out 20 or so cards
there and then - and certainly not on the Sunday parks. But for
televised matches, why can’t the authorities study the footage
later and award retrospective cards to EVERYONE who got
unnecessarily involved? The excuse that “the incident has been
seen and dealt with at the time by the referee” doesn’t wash,
because the officials are always concentrating on not losing
sight of the initial two and can’t be expected to see what
everybody else is doing.
#Post#: 109737--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: TillysDad
Date: July 27, 2026, 10:41 am
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I don’t understand why the match continued after the Ref was
knocked out,surely that should be an abandment
#Post#: 109738--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: Lanyardhater
Date: July 27, 2026, 10:52 am
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It certainly would have been if Mademoiselle Demoncay had been
the victim of a deliberate assault, but this was unintentional.
#Post#: 109747--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: bmb
Date: July 27, 2026, 2:58 pm
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--- Quote from: Lanyardhater link ---
>
> It certainly would have been if Mademoiselle Demoncay had been
the victim of a deliberate assault, but this was unintentional.
>
--- End Quote ---
Concussion protocol?
#Post#: 109748--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: bmb
Date: July 27, 2026, 3:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Seagull link ---
>
> A concerning story from France where a young female Referee
suffered concussion.
>
> Female referee injured in melee during friendly -
HTML https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm2gemrn7jdo
>
> Whilst I have every sympathy for the young lady concerned and
hope she makes a quick and full recovery, the incident
highlights, in my opinion, how unwise it is to intervene
physically between feuding players. Much better to observe the
situation with verbals and repeated blasts of the whistle
followed by appropriate action when calm is restored. That was
always my way of handling such situations.
>
--- End Quote ---
That video is so hard to watch. The only positive, if you even
can call it that, was that is stopped the melee instantly and
several players from both teams went to check on her. Nasty.
#Post#: 109758--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: TA_Ref
Date: July 27, 2026, 5:07 pm
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Firstly I hope Ms Demoncay is OK and makes a recovery in quick
time and returns to officiating soon. Not a pleasant thing to be
involved in any thing like this and it’s sad to hear that this
has happened.
Secondly, where is the responsibility of the players? It’s a
friendly for goodness sake. Where is the maturity of the players
and the responsibility to play the game fairly and in good
spirit? It doesn’t make good reading for either club.
Funnily enough, I was refereeing in my local clubs tournament
yesterday (at U18 level) and in one game I found myself in the
middle of some handbags. I wouldn’t say it was a full blown
melee but there was some pushing and shoving from quite a few
players. It was the first time I’d ever really found myself in
such a situation being only 19 years old and refereeing at
mainly grassroots level. I felt I identified the potential for
it to kick off quite soon and I rushed in to try and keep one of
the players away from potentially getting himself into further
trouble. All I remember of this moment now was me trying to keep
this player back from opposing players, blowing my whistle many
times and shouting “Step Away!”. Thankfully it calmed down
relatively quickly with some help from both teams coaching staff
and the staff of the club who were hosting the tournament who
were helping in an instant to try and diffuse any tension. I
felt I handled the situation well enough at the time.
It was interesting to me this morning to read by more senior
people on here about keeping yourself away from any melee. Not
that I think there’s a right or wrong answer but I found it very
informative for when I (probably) find myself in a similar
scenario some time in the future. But I think it just goes to
show there’s not really a win win situation for officials in
moments like this. You could get criticised for not stepping in
and trying to show some authority or you could be criticised for
doing the opposite and then possibly have a situation like Ms
Demoncay did in her match.
#Post#: 109760--------------------------------------------------
Re: Mathilde Demoncay
DIR By: Lanyardhater
Date: July 27, 2026, 5:45 pm
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Only 19? I thought ‘Hero Member’ meant you were about 50!
Seriously, I don’t think clubs expect a referee to physically
‘step in’ but authority has to be shown through voice, whistle
and body language. Holding a player back worked for you
yesterday luckily - but it could so easily misfire. There was a
case I recall some years ago where a player didn’t realise it
was the referee pulling him from behind, and turned round and
whacked him.
I hope you’re recovered from your first instance of this type of
thing. It’s all part of the learning experience!
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