well, he stood there acting like an assistant referee. so present in the physical sense. nothing worse than seeing girls put together a magnificent attack only to see it ruined by an erroneous flag raising. at least three times. does it matter? sure it matters. players shouldn't be the victims of an improperly trained or inadequately trained AR. especially at the under 17 level.
***edit***
i chuckled seeing your reply with "linesmen". we don't use "linesmen" any longer. it hurt the feelings of the female referees to be called linesMEN, and, due to the nature of their job duties, "linespeople" have been called assistant referees for quite some time now. at least under the United States Soccer Federation which oversees all of us licensed referees here in the USA. i'm guessing that FIFA's Laws of the Game are the same as well.
***edit***
i chuckled seeing your reply with "linesmen". we don't use "linesmen" any longer. it hurt the feelings of the female referees to be called linesMEN, and, due to the nature of their job duties, "linespeople" have been called assistant referees for quite some time now. at least under the United States Soccer Federation which oversees all of us licensed referees here in the USA. i'm guessing that FIFA's Laws of the Game are the same as well.