I dunno ...

So this is a story that stems from my recent moving experiences.

I have a contract with a national internet service provider, and lets just say they screwed up my service pretty badly during our move, and made life a lot more hectic than it ever needed to be. (In a nutshell they cut us off accidentally ... I will not comment if I think this was a FIFA conspiracy).

Throughout the process I was on the phone for hours ... yes hours ... trying to unscrew the screwed up situation.

With a couple of the conversations, I would ask a question, and the representative on the phone would say "... I don't know, but hang on and I'll find out ...", followed by several more minutes of awful hold music.

This was repeated (5) times ... yes I counted ... it was five.

Now, I am a HUGE fan of saying "I don't know, but will find out ...", if you are asked a question you don't know the answer to. If you try to make up an answer, it will nearly always backfire on you.

However, there is a point when being honest and saying you don't know, turns into a competency issue. After a couple times of "I don't know" when you are in a position to know, is an issue.

Be very careful with this, as a referee in that position you are expected to know *everything* about the LOTG. Now I'll also say that is an unrealistic expectation as the volume of information is huge and includes not only the text of the LOTG, but also IBD's, position papers, addendum, guides ... you get the point.

Like I said earlier, if you don't know something, you should say "I dunno", but please be careful when you do, as with my service provider who said it over and over, they looked like know-nothing fools by having to repeat it over, and over again.

The flip side is take the time to learn from the experience. If there is something you don't know, find out as quick as you can. I wish I could tell you how many times I have asked a colleague at half time if "... I got it right ..." or "... did you see something different ...".

Now I would not recommend thumbing through the LOTG in plain view at half time, but in a locker room to check on something ... or after a match is certainly fair game.

In all cases, future "I dunno's" on the same topic should not happen. Once you have a chance to learn something new about The Game ... embrace it.