The Ref Stop

Tournament fees - youth

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The Ref Stop
I used to referee the same tournament every summer. It had teams from across the world travelling in to Yorkshire to play (Ireland, USA, Canada, Italy, India, Norway, etc.). The fee was free lunch and a tournament polo shirt. I did it for 7 years until they stopped the tournament (in its 20th year). Since then I've been involved in a few tournaments locally and also this year will be my 4th international tournament. I think I've been paid for one of them.

I've always seen tournaments, especially youth tournaments, as an opportunity to give something back, to work with some referees I'd never met before, nor would meet again, to gain experience and as a pre-season warm-up to get match sharp. They have never been about the money.
 
Wrong.

He came on here moaning that he wasn’t paid enough or what he felt was enough for doing a tournament.

1. You shouldn’t be refereeing any game for the money. If you are, do everyone a favour and either get motivated to do it for the right reasons or stick your kit on EBay

2. No one is forced to do tournaments....don’t like the fee, don’t do it. Simples.

Shock horror. The forum grump is out in force again being an old moany horrible git.

I started refereeing because I was 14 over a decade and a half ago and I was into my football and it was a nice little earner. Little Saturday morning run about and I'd have £25 in my pocket. Couple of weeks later that was a pair of new trainers or a shopping trip. I wasn't thinking about a refereeing career or a hobby. In fact, I didn't particularly like it during some cold rainy days being abused by a 40 year old coach or parent at 15 years old however it was generally a pretty easy and good earner considering I'd of got £6 or 7 an hour working in a restaurant or retail store. My mates were working full eight hour shifts and on Sunday's I earned more than them doing back to back games on the same pitch at £35 per game. It was purely about the money for me. I did the best job I could possibly do but I didn't do it for the love of refereeing. The OP was just asking a question. Stop being such a bully. If it's not about the money for you then that's great, but don't you dare tell anyone that they should hang up their kit if it's purely about the money. If the person is doing the best job they can do, and giving 100% on a Sunday morning, and doing it for the money, there's nothing wrong with that. They don't have to love refereeing or see it as a hobby and walk around the house with a LOTG book wearing their refereeing attire practicing dishing out red cards in the mirror.

For the OP, you check the fee in advance, and if you are happy with it, you get the job done. I've accepted fees for tournaments before nothing under £60 a day though because it's not worth my time however there have been tournaments where I've been frustrated with the organisation and the amount of time I've had to ref without any breaks or anything and I've been throughly peed off but I just put it down as a hard days work and maybe think to myself "that was a shi*t" day but I'd never even think about suggesting because I've done more refereeing than I expected I should of been paid over the agreed fee. It never has, but if something doesn't sit right with me at the time I'd say something i.e "right I've been refereeing for 6 hours straight now without a pee or drink. I'm taking a break...etc". Never has happened though. Stop trying to work it out per hour, it doesn't make sense. If you are after some extra pocket money, look at the distance, look at the hours listed and look at the fee. The rest is your call. Some tournaments you get to sit under a tent for a few hours skiving eating burgers if there's an overload of referee's, others you are working flat out. It's part and parcel.
 
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Shock horror. The forum grump is out in force again being an old moany horrible git.

I started refereeing because I was 14 over a decade and a half ago and I was into my football and it was a nice little earner. Little Saturday morning run about and I'd have £25 in my pocket. Couple of weeks later that was a pair of new trainers or a shopping trip. I wasn't thinking about a refereeing career or a hobby. In fact, I didn't particularly like it during some cold rainy days being abused by a 40 year old coach or parent at 15 years old however it was generally a pretty easy and good earner considering I'd of got £6 or 7 an hour working in a restaurant or retail store. My mates were working full eight hour shifts and on Sunday's I earned more than them doing back to back games on the same pitch at £35 per game. It was purely about the money for me. I did the best job I could possibly do but I didn't do it for the love of refereeing. The OP was just asking a question. Stop being such a bully. If it's not about the money for you then that's great, but don't you dare tell anyone that they should hang up their kit if it's purely about the money. If the person is doing the best job they can do, and giving 100% on a Sunday morning, and doing it for the money, there's nothing wrong with that. They don't have to love refereeing or see it as a hobby and walk around the house with a LOTG book wearing their refereeing attire practicing dishing out red cards in the mirror.

For the OP, you check the fee in advance, and if you are happy with it, you get the job done. I've accepted fees for tournaments before nothing under £60 a day though because it's not worth my time however there have been tournaments where I've been frustrated with the organisation and the amount of time I've had to ref without any breaks or anything and I've been throughly peed off but I just put it down as a hard days work and maybe think to myself "that was a shi*t" day but I'd never even think about suggesting because I've done more refereeing than I expected I should of been paid over the agreed fee. It never has, but if something doesn't sit right with me at the time I'd say something i.e "right I've been refereeing for 6 hours straight now without a pee or drink. I'm taking a break...etc". Never has happened though. Stop trying to work it out per hour, it doesn't make sense. If you are after some extra pocket money, look at the distance, look at the hours listed and look at the fee. The rest is your call. Some tournaments you get to sit under a tent for a few hours skiving eating burgers if there's an overload of referee's, others you are working flat out. It's part and parcel.

And just to rubber stamp your point, on my course there was 40 of us, 3 adults & 37 under 18’s, to a man every single one of them said we’re doing it for pocket money most were 14-16 & to young to work so it was another way of earning.

Good job padfoot wasn’t the mentor or we would have been down to 3 of us on the course.
 
Whilst we’re on the subject of money, would be very interesting that if every referee on here received an email saying you won’t be getting paid next season for any games the rules have changed and refereeing is now voluntary, would be very interesting to see how many would still do it.

I woudnt put up with the sh*t we get if I wasn’t getting paid for it, just woudnt be worth it!

I don’t do it for the money I do it for the bug but at the same time I think that bug would soon disappear if I wasn’t getting paid, if that makes any sense.
 
I have just done a 2 day tournament which included accomadation dinner breakfast and free food for £140, so seventy a day. I am just about to do another one at £40 a day with free food and drink. The second one will be my third year running. A well run tournament well looked after and the same refs every year. I do this one for the social aspect but wouldn't do it for free as we all work our blinkin socks off.
 
For me the OP is not about what the referee is getting paid, how much they are worth or if they referee for money or not. Although I am not certain of all the facts, it sounds like the tournament organiser financially screwed the referees for their own financial benefit. That is something we should all stand up against.

True that no referee was forced to be there but most exploitation are not forced, it doesn't mean they are okay.
 
With all the money in the game nationally the FA and Premier League could very easily fund 30,000 referees with some form of weekly retaining recompense, but they choose not to but to favour their Palaces and bulging bank accounts on the Sky / BT Gravy Train express.
 
Over the years I have seen many many spotty teenagers reffing for some pocket money, almost without exception they have been abysmal. Scruffy, disinterested and just plain bad. But hey, it’s easy money right?

Wonder if they ever considered how their piss poor performances affected players and coaches? It’s one thing to make a genuine mistake, it’s entirely something else to just simply not give a crap.

Controversial idea coming up......

Ever considered that the reason some young referees suffer ‘abuse’ from parents, players and coaches is because their performance is so poor and it is obvious they don’t care?
Equally can apply to older refs as well.....have seen some of the worst ever this season.....ranging from plain incompetence to ‘just give me the money’!

If the attitudes displayed on here are typical of the wider refereeing fraternity then it’s no wonder discipline is getting worse.....with such a mercenary outlook it undoubtedly leads to officials simply doing the bare minimum they can get away with to collect their fee.
Whereas if you have a passion for what you are doing you are much more likely to care about your performance and go that extra mile to make sure you deliver good value for your money.

Maybe it’s time to introduce performance related fees, where the teams get to have an input on what your performance was worth?
 
Over the years I have seen many many spotty teenagers reffing for some pocket money, almost without exception they have been abysmal. Scruffy, disinterested and just plain bad. But hey, it’s easy money right?
Why not look at the glass half full. I know quite a few top level referees who started as a teenager purely because of money. Had their RDO had this sort of logic they would not be around now to do the top tier games.

Ever considered that the reason some young referees suffer ‘abuse’ from parents, players and coaches is because their performance is so poor and it is obvious they don’t care?
Actually those parents and coached who abuse referees (and I have dealt with many) do it no matter what. Its a mentality and culture which has little to do with referee performance and a lot to do with if they get decisions their way, correct or not, and if they are winning the game.
On the other hand those who know referee abuse is unacceptable, when they see a poor performance they just see it as a poor performance without abusing the referee.

I find it amusing that in this day and age blaming the victims of referee abuse for the abuse is even acceptable as a "Controversial idea" by a referee who has been around for a while.

What's next, victims of domestic violence only have themselves to blame? I wont go into other victim blaming topics but the are plenty.
 
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