A&H

Returning Ref

T

Twinblade

Member
Hi All

Thought I would pop by and say hi. I am reporting for duty again following a 3-year break due to moving abroad for work and therefore would class myself as a newbie once more. I'm wondering if anyone else here has experienced the same? Have you stopped refereeing for a long period to return and if so, how did you feel with your first game back in the middle?

A lot appears to have changed in terms of the faces of players that I knew before, which should be good, many that I refereed previously I had played alongside/against before taking up the whistle so hopefully this would make things easier than before.

A little nervy though, had a chat with the local development officer and returning seems rather easy, no refresher required...
 
The Referee Store
Welcome back Twinblade.
Just done my first match last Saturday, bit like riding a bike really, most of it came back to me quite naturally. Few issues with my countdown timer watch, the stop start button need pressing in a certain way and had lost the knack. Just fell back onto my stopwatch on the other wrist.
Just like my second to last match, pulled a calf too........
 
Welcome back @Twinblade - I too took a 5 year hiatus due to work commitments etc. - this is my 3rd season back, but id say my first 'proper' took me 2 seasons to settle! I was nervous as hell before my first game back ... but its like returning back from a long holiday to your favourite armchair ... once you've found that groove again you're happy! (I would have used the riding a bike cliché but Minty beat me to it ! ha-ha
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I've left my local league secretary a voicemail advising of my return and hopefully there will be some fixtures coming up I can get involved in. The local league has changed somewhat since I last took charge, only 10-teams in the local league but insiders suggest many of the referees doing it are on their last legs and only covering games purely because of the shortage of younger ones being available so I am hoping I can get a regular run of games to ease me back in.

As I said previously I was very surprised there wasn't more of a refresher required given all that has changed since I went away.
 
I was always told that if you let registration lapse for two seasons, you had to resit the exam?
 
Mintyref said:
I was always told that if you let registration lapse for two seasons, you had to resit the exam?
Click to expand...
Yeah - 2 years and you have to redo the exam, 5 years and you have to redo the whole course I thought? I was out of refereeing for something like 7 or 8 years and had to redo the course.
 
The official FA rules are below (source http://www.thefa.com/~/media/files/...iation/2015-16/016a_referees_regulations.ashx)

A Referee who has failed to register as a Referee with The Association for between two and five seasons shall not be re-registered until they have successfully undertaken and completed the Referee Course written examination. The Affiliated Association may then register the Referee at their former Level (up to Senior County Referee) once they are satisfied with his/her competence. A Referee who has not been registered for more than five seasons must attend and successfully complete the Referee Course at which point they will be registered as a Junior County Referee

So between 2 and 5 years you need to pass the exam and will come back in at your previously level (assuming that was 5 or 6). Any longer than that and you have to do the whole course again and will come back as an L7 no matter what you were before.
 
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