The Ref Stop

Referee Retention - Open Letter

We still have a problem lower down with uncovered games and problems getting ARs.
The FA will serve themselves 1stbthats always been the way.
I am guessing they won't take someone off a game to give it to a L4 who becomes available.
So you end up with a ex L4, or 5-4 whilst you do a local game... Mental!
 
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The Ref Stop
We still have a problem lower down with uncovered games and problems getting ARs.
The FA will serve themselves 1stbthats always been the way.
I am guessing they won't take someone off a game to give it to a L4 who becomes available.
So you end up with a ex L4, or 5-4 whilst you do a local game... Mental!

still hoping for a last minute moas ping!
 
I've met a Young Ref with a severe speech impediment whose completing his 5 qualifying games before the call-back evening
Really encouraged to see him taking on the challenge despite his disability
I've arranged for him to Referee my son's game this weekend at a cost of £22. It will give me the opportunity to mentor him etc.
Guess what? My son's Club has refused to pay his fee because he wasn't appointed by the League. The League has less than a dozen referees to cover approx. 200 games. I'll pay his match fee out my own pocket. So much for encouraging these young folk into Refereeing
 
I've met a Young Ref with a severe speech impediment whose completing his 5 qualifying games before the call-back evening
Really encouraged to see him taking on the challenge despite his disability
I've arranged for him to Referee my son's game this weekend at a cost of £22. It will give me the opportunity to mentor him etc.
Guess what? My son's Club has refused to pay his fee because he wasn't appointed by the League. The League has less than a dozen referees to cover approx. 200 games. I'll pay his match fee out my own pocket. So much for encouraging these young folk into Refereeing
so if you offered to do their games they wouldnt pay you?!
 
I've met a Young Ref with a severe speech impediment whose completing his 5 qualifying games before the call-back evening
Really encouraged to see him taking on the challenge despite his disability
I've arranged for him to Referee my son's game this weekend at a cost of £22. It will give me the opportunity to mentor him etc.
Guess what? My son's Club has refused to pay his fee because he wasn't appointed by the League. The League has less than a dozen referees to cover approx. 200 games. I'll pay his match fee out my own pocket. So much for encouraging these young folk into Refereeing
Tell the league. It's good practice to do that anyway, and I'm sure they'll happily set him up as the "official" referee for that game, which won't give the club a leg to stand on.
 
so if you offered to do their games they wouldnt pay you?!
I referee their games quite frequently but do so under the guise of a parent (I don't want a fee). I'll get the lad registered with an alternative League in the area as that other League is better organized. There are other local Clubs who will happily pay for him to get his 5 games done. He's met the right person to help him out
He can't really speak effectively, so uses an electronic whistle which involves pressing a button. Quite an impressive bit of kit
 
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i guess L4 ref numbers are stabalising a bit, my game got cancelled earlier in the week and i'm still not taken :(

sure the local league will be more than happy to use me mind but a little disappointed nonetheless
East Midlands Pool coverage was horrendous last week. Seemed to cover most of the step 6 games but the step 5 games looked around 50%.

Surprises me there's no loaning of level 4s between adjacent pools, probably political.
 
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I referee their games quite frequently but do so under the guise of a parent (I don't want a fee). I'll get the lad registered with an alternative League in the area as that other League is better organized. There are other local Clubs who will happily pay for him to get his 5 games done. He's met the right person to help him out
He can't really speak effectively, so uses an electronic whistle which involves pressing a button. Quite an impressive bit of kit
Awesome. Good on this fellow.
I'd be interested to see how the electronic whistle works out. Have seen them but wondering how well it works for tone variation.
I like my "you're off pal" whistle to be very different to my "it's just a foul" whistle.
 
still hoping for a last minute moas ping!
In our area we’ve got 1 Step 6 game this weekend covered by a 5-4 candidate and currently 4 Step 6 games next Saturday without an appointed referee.
Not sure how many have been nominated for mid season promotion to L4, but that will address some or all of the issue, depending on the delta between the number going to 3 and the number coming up to 4.
 
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In our area we’ve got 1 Step 6 game this weekend covered by a 5-4 candidate and currently 4 Step 6 games next Saturday without an appointed referee.
Not sure how many have been nominated for mid season promotion to L4, but that will address some or all of the issue, depending on the delta between the number going to 3 and the number coming up to 4.
Normal for me to get Step 6 Middles 5-to-4
A lot of games in my neck of the woods
 
Fixed fee. Cowes is lovely this time of year 😉

hahahaha i think that falls out of the 'within reason' clause!

do you get games on isle of white and other channel islands?? i know you can get to the isle of man up here but you need to be in the north west
 
hahahaha i think that falls out of the 'within reason' clause!

do you get games on isle of white and other channel islands?? i know you can get to the isle of man up here but you need to be in the north west
There are 3 teams based in the Isle of Wight in the Wessex League - Cowes Sports, East Cowes Vics and Newport and yes we get appointed to them. We take the boat over, it's about 25 minutes on the Redjet and then have to make our way to the ground from there, sometimes we'll get an AR based over there who will pick you up, other times the club will.

Midweek games kick off times involving the island sides can have different kick off times to accommodate the boat timetables and when there is bad weather involving games with island teams a consideration is whether the weather is going to be bad enough that the crossings are suspended.

If I get a Saturday game on the island, I normally get the boat across from close to where I live into Southampton, then hop on the Redjet across to the Island. With boat timetables, it typically means leaving home at about 11.20 and getting back about 7.15 for a 3pm kick off.

We normally only get 1 or 2 on the island games per season, but if you get sent there regularly, you've probably upset someone! 🤣

Jersey play in the Combined Counties which is the next league north of ours geographically, so don't have any experience of them.
 
We still have a problem lower down with uncovered games and problems getting ARs.
The FA will serve themselves 1stbthats always been the way.
I am guessing they won't take someone off a game to give it to a L4 who becomes available.
So you end up with a ex L4, or 5-4 whilst you do a local game... Mental!
In the old days, when referees were appointed to league instead of being pooled. Higher Grade referees could only referee on their league or at grassroots level. There is a true story of George Courtney not having a Football League match, so if he wanted a game he did a local leageu match in the Durham area. How about that an FIFA referee doing the Saturday kickers league!
 
I've met a Young Ref with a severe speech impediment whose completing his 5 qualifying games before the call-back evening
Really encouraged to see him taking on the challenge despite his disability
I've arranged for him to Referee my son's game this weekend at a cost of £22. It will give me the opportunity to mentor him etc.
Guess what? My son's Club has refused to pay his fee because he wasn't appointed by the League. The League has less than a dozen referees to cover approx. 200 games. I'll pay his match fee out my own pocket. So much for encouraging these young folk into Refereeing
Our league has just mandated that referees appointed by clubs (as we cannot supply them with a referee) must play the fee and expenses to the match official. Since our fees are split equally between clubs, the Away team can be paying for the Home coach to referee......
 
There are 3 teams based in the Isle of Wight in the Wessex League - Cowes Sports, East Cowes Vics and Newport and yes we get appointed to them. We take the boat over, it's about 25 minutes on the Redjet and then have to make our way to the ground from there, sometimes we'll get an AR based over there who will pick you up, other times the club will.

Midweek games kick off times involving the island sides can have different kick off times to accommodate the boat timetables and when there is bad weather involving games with island teams a consideration is whether the weather is going to be bad enough that the crossings are suspended.

If I get a Saturday game on the island, I normally get the boat across from close to where I live into Southampton, then hop on the Redjet across to the Island. With boat timetables, it typically means leaving home at about 11.20 and getting back about 7.15 for a 3pm kick off.

We normally only get 1 or 2 on the island games per season, but if you get sent there regularly, you've probably upset someone! 🤣

Jersey play in the Combined Counties which is the next league north of ours geographically, so don't have any experience of them.

oh wow that's a hell of a trip! do you get any sort of supplement on top of the normal fee?
 
I think it depends where you are in the country. They didn't even have enough L4s to cover contrib lines a couple of weekends ago, a L5 was on an Isthmian game, and not even a promotion candidate. I've seen that happen before as an emergency, where an official is sick on the day, car breakdown, but never when the appointment is done days before.
 
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