A Worrying Trend?

[Smudge]

After yesterday's game at Camberley where the Officials were excellent,was talking to a Referee today at a Sunday Game who assesses Referees for Surrey F.A.,He informed me that the F.A. Had sent out instructions that many Young Referee's were to be fast tracked by County F.A.s.Whilst this is to be applauded, my worry is that gone are the days of the Friendly Ref.with their banter, knowing players names etc.The 2 young Refs I have seen this year have been card happy to say the least.But if this gets you upgraded,I suppose this is what Assessors will be looking out for.Any views?

[Big J R]

Cue Merc !!!!

[avalon_archer]

The FA's fast track scheme has been in place for about five years.

 

It is the reason why so many young referees have been on the Combined Counties & other step 5 leagues for some seasons.

[Terrence Collina]

and why so many referees have been out of their depth. Fast track the one who show potential, just like good young players would be fast tracked, but not the average ones who need a bit more time.

 

 

Take Stuart Attwell on the Premier/Football league - not ready yet.

[Footy Mad]

Surely, and I hope that I am being fair here, referees should be promoted or kept on irrelevant of their age.

 

Good referees should be promoted because of their ability and poorer referees demoted because of their lack of ability.

 

Assessors and clubs should judge on performance not on age

[Krooner]

Agree with you TC. Doesnt matter how old you are if you are good enough you are good enough. No-one batted an eyelid when Rooney made his premier league debut.

[The Fan]

RE young refs the lad at the chessington game was assisted by 2 older guys. he seemed to be overly influenced by these guys. 1 lino flaged to stop play, he informed ref, that the baggies had a player with difernt coloured under shorts. but dispite hunting for the culprit, he could not be found.

[Smudge]

Just my view,but are Refs born to be Refs,what training,coaching, do they receive,Footballers do, even Rooney. Like all professions you only learn from your mistakes,or the person who is teaching you,so I could teach a Ref his trade,I Think not,as I could not coach at a Pro Club the Rooneys of this world.So who moulds the Refs of the future,Krooner,Footy Mad,Mewcenary,Middleman,spill the beans.hows it done how did,you learn your trade,who taught you.Were you ex-pros,played to a high level, or born to be refs.The assessor I met today loves a card,he assess's Refs,so does he mark them to his standards,or are there guidlines to follow.

[The Fan]

i watched the banstead v mvscr the ref was being mentored. by a lad that used to ref in the ccl, but is now higher up the food chain. there were 5/6 young men, standing next to me, they talked all through the game. not about good tackle or nice pass, these lads were all young refs, that were talking about the man in the middles performance. and how he would be marked down, as he turned his back as he ran back to the halfway line. my point is they were really up for it, but in a refs eye view way.

my fears were, had any of them played, had they any life skills.

[Terrence Collina]

Just to add to my point, it appears that some refs are being fast tracked for the sake of it.

 

Something needs to be done about assistant referees as well. There are some who do not want to assist the referee at all with decision making and are just happy to flag for offside and ball in and out of play (club linesman stuff), and then if they do start assisting in giving free kicks or helping the referee spot an obvious foul on the goalkeeper rather than letting the referee look and idiot, then the perception is that the referee will get rollocked by an assessor by being over-powered by an assistant.

 

The FA publicies the officials as the 3rd team on the field, yet they don't act as a team. Surely all teams would rather an assistant help give the referee give the right decision? All the referee has to say is his assistant had a better view than him and we move on.

[Krooner]

Dont get me started on Assistants TC !!!!

 

Smudge I learnt the trade by passing an exam and being shoved in the thick of it. I was lucky enough to start on a league that I had played in for 10 years and knew a lot of people. that bought me a little respect by knowing a lot of the guys. When you start out it can be a scary thing in the middle of the park with 22 blokes who essentially do not like you and no one there for support. Now days there is much better system where there are regular training courses and entoring going on that really helps newer guys.

 

As TC mentions there is a need to stop the "Fast Track for Fast Tracking sake" because some of the guys needs some years gaining expereience. Others are superb almost immediately and it is identifying that which is the problem IMHO.

[Smudge]

T.C. get Kroons started,see he has has been Assistant 5 times this year already,he has some vast experience of Assisting.So maybe he can tell us what he feels the Important part of Assisting is,because I agree with you T.C. that the 3 Officials should be a Team,but different Refs have different Rules,as to the role of the Assistant,there in lies the problem with uniformity.

[VPCTFC]

I see a lot of young officials at our U18s games. There are some who are really good and would be an asset to the CCL but there are also some that are visibly unsure of themselves and seem nervous. I'm not doubting they know the laws and the procedures but you need a thick skin to be an official at any level. It's not just the players having a go at you but also the spectators. It's definitely not a job for the timid. I don't think that's something you can teach.

I've found on one or two occasions that senior refs will assume the younger officials will get things wrong. I've been at games where a teenage lino has correctly flagged for offside only to be over-ruled by a doddering old fool in the middle who's miles behind play and couldn't possibly see if it was offside or not. This can frustrate everyone, including the lino.

When I was a club lino on Sundays you used to get refs saying that they only wanted you to flag for throws and off-sides which is understandable when most club linos are just a little bit biased but IMO it should never happen when there are three 'proper' officials. If a lino sees an incident that the ref couldn't possibly have seen are they just supposed to keep schtum? Ridiculous.

Edited September 20, 2010 by VPCTFC

[Smudge]

Do you get to watch a lot of our Beloved Leaders games then V.P.

[VPCTFC]

Do you get to watch a lot of our Beloved Leaders games then V.P.

 

No. We might draft him in for a friendly once in a while if we can't get anyone else but it's rare to see him as an appointed official in our games. He's not on the books of all the leagues our different sides play in. At least, I don't think so. Maybe he can answer if he's on the Suburban list or not?

[Krooner]

Not any more VP. About 5 years ago I packed that league in. CCL + Allied Counties are mine now.