How do soccer players communicate with refs with whom they don't speak the same language?

I played in France, Italy and Poland, and I spoke neither language at the time. First, you hardly ever need to communicate with a ref as a player. Second, body language is universal in football. Talking to a ref never brings anything immediately positive for your side. If it looks like you are genuinely dissatisfied with their decision, the ref might however try harder to "appear fair" (an unconscious process for the most part). It manifests itself through cutting more slack to the complainee's team, ie calling more hard-to-call situations in their favour. But to complain one doesn't need to speak the language at all. Just make sure he sees you are unhappy and genuinely believe he is making mistakes.

Over time a series of hand gestures have developed between referees and players where verbal communication is not an option. Examples used by players include: Holding an arm straight in the air to represent that the opposition player deserves a yellow/red card Putting two hands together in a downward motion to indicate the opposition player dived Holding both hands in the air to show that the player did not commit a foul Holding one arm up to signify anything from a which team won a throw in to arguing for a foul Beyond this, arguing with a referee is viewed very unfavourably in football and as such communication should be kept to a minimum between referee and player

The same way most people communicate with others who do not speak their language: they say it LOUDER with wilder gesticulations. Though I understand English seems to be the common denominator, with a lot of crude language that players assume refs don't understand.

Frequently they communicate by throwing themselves on the ground and rolling around in mock agony.