"Do you think I'm a D4 player?"
Just goes to show that any game at any level can be a difficult one for a referee: I was doing a Division 4 adult women's league game (the lowest division, a "rec" league that only uses one referee and has no slide tackling - the later being a regular bane of mine). The first 75 minutes are a breeze; the game has gone back-and-forth; purple has one player who just dominates the field : she's fast, strong, physical, and a decent touch on the ball. The white team isn't as skilled or physical, but was able to take advantage of two defensive lapses, and scored two very nice goals to keep the game tied.A couple notes before I go into "the incident" - just so you understand what's going on. The league has three regular divisions, 1-3 (there's actually a couple sub-divisions in 1 - not sure why, but there is a 1-A and 1-B) which uses promotion/relegation. Division 4 is strictly an elective division, and the league generally doesn't care that much if a player plays up or down on a second (or third) team. Obviously, they want to avoid D1 players playing D4, but as referees we're told to allow it, and contact the commissioner if there's anything that seems odd or unfair.
So when a white player slide tackles purple's dominant player in the penalty area, she may not have known that in D4, you're not allowed to do that. Sucks for her, but I'm not a mind reader, and it's not my responsibility to tell them of the league modifications that they've been playing under all year long. Slide tackles, in every league I've reffed that bans them, consider them penal fouls, and thus grounds for a penalty kick if done in the area, which this was.
What made this complicated is that both the defender, and the attacker, slid - but only one attempted a slide tackle. The attacker, slid, not toward the goalkeeper, but straight ahead to make a very tight-angled shot on goal (she just game into the six); the defender slid into her to take away the ball. The terminology makes all the difference here: a tackle is just the taking away the ball from an opponent - thus slide tackle is a tackle done while sliding. In no slide-tackle leagues, we often fudge it to include a player with possession who slides to keep others from challenging for the ball (my criteria also includes the requirement that the player is going towards another, risking contact). Thus, players sliding with no risk of contact, such as to keep the ball in play, or in this case, a shot on goal, won't be fouling.
But of course, this doesn't satisfy the team I just awarded a penalty kick against.
"Ref, you just decided the game." Well, if you're just going to give up with 15 minutes left to go, that's not my problem. Besides, I think it's the defender who slid into the attacker's fault - I'm just making the correct call. But as always, it's much easier to blame one's failings on the referee.
After the game, the player who I called the PK against tried arguing with me again, this time pleading ignorance. "Look at me. Do you think I'm a D4 player?" She's trying to tell me that because she plays in one of the other divisions, she should be exempt. Talk about an ego.
"You're playing in D4 today, so you play by D4 rules."
Nuances and semantics can be such a pain in the butt for referees and for players, but without them we'd be stuck on what to do in situations like these. As referees, we understand the differences, and use them to make the correct call, regardless of its popularity.