A&H

Availability & Promotion

L

L9212

New Member
Evening all,

I'm about to undertake my referee course in the next couple of weeks and just wanted to know about availability and if that has an impact on promotion etc.

I tend to work weekend on/weekend off and straight away halves the amount of games I can ref. Are you able to pick and choose when you can referee? Can you make up for lost weekend games by undertaking more midweek games?

Also would limited (weekend) availability affect promotion chances in the long run?

Any comments would be appreciated.
 
The Referee Store
L9212 said:
Evening all,

I'm about to undertake my referee course in the next couple of weeks and just wanted to know about availability and if that has an impact on promotion etc.

I tend to work weekend on/weekend off and straight away halves the amount of games I can ref. Are you able to pick and choose when you can referee? Can you make up for lost weekend games by undertaking more midweek games?

Also would limited (weekend) availability affect promotion chances in the long run?

Any comments would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Talk about wanting to run before you can walk!

A promotion season consists of completing the required number of qualifying games (usually 20) between March 1st and February 28th of the following year. Qualifying games usually have to be open age, played on Saturdays or Sundays, however some Counties will accept games on U21 and Vets Leagues. Over the course of the 20 games you will be observed by an experienced current or former referee who will write a brief report on your suitability to progress to the next level. these observations will take place a minimum of 3 times in the season and you need to get above standard on two of these three occasions. Up to this point you can pick and choose when you are available however if you screw up and take a game, then have to work, subsequently crying off the game (called giving backword), you will not be popular with the local appointments secretary meaning you may not get games when you are available.

If you reach a point where you want to go into semi-professional football, the expectations of availability increases significantly so that you are at the beck and call of The FA for 5 days a week (they tend to avoid Fridays and Sundays), with Saturdays as the primary day for football. This countries weather can make life difficult for promotion candidates to get in their 20 games even when they are available every weekend, so by restricting your availability, you may struggle. Certainly if you do reach semi-pro football, you may even get demoted because restricted availability.
 
Good advice by Brian. Availability certainly won't affect you getting promoted to levels 6 and 5, assuming of course you aren't unavailable so often that you are unable to referee the minimum 20 games. Bearing in mind that as a promotion candidate you are likely to get lines on county cups and these don't county towards the 20 (middles only), so if you only officiate every other Saturday even that 20 might be difficult, whereas if you do every other Sunday as well you should be fine.

It gets tricky from there on in. At level 4 and above Saturday afternoon and Tuesday evening are your bread and butter (some clubs play Monday or Wednesday, but Tuesday is the most common). Your county may be reluctant to nominate you for level 4 if you are regularly unavailable on these dates as it wouldn't look good on them. At the end of the day the FA have a set number of games to cover, a panel of only a certain size to do so, so they need people who are available week in week out. Of course, they accept that refereeing doesn't pay the bills and that referees also have family, so the odd missing weekend and midweek here and there is fine, but I doubt that being closed every other weekend would be viable.
 
From personal experience i tried balancing 1 in 3 weekends, a season ticket for the club i support and refereeing. The season ticket caused some juggling of work days so i was maybe available a little less than 1 every other. I was nominated by my county to go to level 4 but with a question mark over my availability and I was not selected to be promoted because of this. I have had to make personal sacrifices to get to level 4 i.e. my season ticket and I am told 2 in 3 weekends is okay. I also have the added benefit of being available almost every Tuesday.
So from my experience you'll have no issue getting lev 6 and lev 5 provided you're happy to commit to sat&sun refereeing on days off and so long as you're good enough.
Level 4 might be an issue.
But as others have said thats a long way off just yet - at least 3 seasons of refereeing away. Nowt wrong with a bit of ambition but 1 step at a time. Im a very different referee than I was when I first started and I can tell you i would have been way out of my depth reffing some.of the games I get now. So take your time, enjoy the games you can and learn from the ones you dont.

Edit: I am not level 4 yet. Waiting on FA to select their level 4s promotees.
 
My season ticket wasn't renewed in my third full season as a referee, when I was going for my L5. Couldn't justify £1000 (for me and my son) when I could only get to 7-8 games a season.
 
Same here Brian, sadly had to choose 2 out of the three and couldnt give up work.
 
I gave up my Gillingham season ticket at the end of last season, even though I was only going 7-6 I knew I needed to get the number of games in.

I'd have struggled to get there if I'd not been refereeing on Saturdays
 
L9212 said:
Evening all,

I'm about to undertake my referee course in the next couple of weeks and just wanted to know about availability and if that has an impact on promotion etc.

I tend to work weekend on/weekend off and straight away halves the amount of games I can ref. Are you able to pick and choose when you can referee? Can you make up for lost weekend games by undertaking more midweek games?

Also would limited (weekend) availability affect promotion chances in the long run? .
Click to expand...

You could do OA on Saturday and either OA or over 16 games on the Sunday. This will help for the first few seasons until you are planning to be L4, then as others have said unavailability will limited your prospects. One of the best referees in the York area have never gone for L4 as his job means that he could need to be away at a few days notice. This would be a nightmare for contrib and supply league appointments. Still an excellent referee and respected by the players
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top