blinkin typical

[Tino Best]

last night received an emergency email from a championship club, forwarded to all refs in Suffolk asking for a team of three to do an academy game due to a bit of a balls up in a neighboring county. Already had a game grass roots level lowest division so didn't get in contact with the club. 7.20 this morning my game gets cancelled due to the away team not having enough players. Gutted I would have loved to have done that game. Now feeling slightly at a loose end.

 

[GraemeS]

last night received an emergency email from a championship club, forwarded to all refs in Suffolk asking for a team of three to do an academy game due to a bit of a balls up in a neighboring county. Already had a game grass roots level lowest division so didn't get in contact with the club. 7.20 this morning my game gets cancelled due to the away team not having enough players. Gutted I would have loved to have done that game. Now feeling slightly at a loose end.

That's a real shame, but if academy games are something that would interest you, I'd go ahead and ask whoever forwarded the email how they allocate referees to their matches normally.

As I'm based in Essex, I get semi-frequent emails from county asking for referees/AR's at Colchester's academy. Generally they appoint teams of 3 at U18 and U16 around 3 or 4 times a month, so there should be plenty of opportunities once you've found the right contacts.

 

[OIREF!]

Already had a game grass roots level lowest division so didn't get in contact with the club.

Good for you! It does happen occasionally that referees drop their appointed fixture, tempted by a more glamorous tie. A few years ago my son's youth team were just about to kick off when a representative from the neighbouring semi professional team appeared to say that their referee hadn't turned up. Our referee dropped everything and went off to their game which was a very poor show in my opinion. If you've accepted a fixture it should be fulfilled unless instructed otherwise by league/match secretary.

 

[Tino Best]

I have regulary turned down fixtures as I have already agreed to ref. Evan for a mini soccer 7 aside game I would have turned it down. If you make a commitment to do it you should. You would be letting at least 16-20 people down. No matter what the the age group or level of football everybody is always happy at the beginning of a game they have a proper ref. Its different when you have been reappointed as as happened an awful lot to me this season. I was down to ref a girls youth league 3 times but was reappointed by my FA.

 

[UKColt]

If you're regularly getting re-appointed to games (assume you mean that you get a league game, then get a county appointment from the FA which trumps it?) then you need to speak to your CFA about how they manage closed dates.

Once I get allocated a league fixture then I'll close the date with the FA so that they don't come to me with a late switch that I have to turn down (and upset the FA) or take (and upset my league). The county games are usually allocated far enough in advance that I'll know if I have one before I get my league allocation, and it just prevents that awkward situation.

 

[Tino Best]

In Suffolk all youth appointments are made by an appointment officer for all youth leagues so that is why I have been reappointed. All to do with which games need to be covered, and travel arrangements.

 

[zarathustra]

If you're regularly getting re-appointed to games (assume you mean that you get a league game, then get a county appointment from the FA which trumps it?) then you need to speak to your CFA about how they manage closed dates.

Once I get allocated a league fixture then I'll close the date with the FA so that they don't come to me with a late switch that I have to turn down (and upset the FA) or take (and upset my league). The county games are usually allocated far enough in advance that I'll know if I have one before I get my league allocation, and it just prevents that awkward situation.

It depends on the game youve been appointed to by your CFA, but if you turn down a county cup appointnent then you cant referee a sunday league game on the same day.

1 - The FA cup
2 - The Premier League
3 - The Football League
4 - The FA Trophy
5 - The FA Vase
6 - County Cup Competitions (nominated senior competition only, or semi- final or final in any other competition)
7 - The Panel Leagues
8 - The FA Youth, FA County Youth, FA Womens Cup (4th round and above)
9 - Contrib Leagues (recognised divisions only), Nation League Systems Cup and FA Sunday Cup
10 - FA Womens Super League and Cup
11 - Supply Leagues (marking divisions only)
12 - FA Womens Premier League and Cup
13 - Senior County Leagues
14 - Intermediate County Leagues
15 - FA womens cup prior to 4th round
16 - Womens Combination League and Cup
17 - Womens Regional League and Cup
18 - County Junior Leagues
19 - County Womens League and Cup
20 - All other competitions

So, for those of us who are at the bottom of the pile, if we close a date with the county then we shouldnt be refereeing any other games.

While you could do a botom division sunday league game, i think your CFA would take a dim view of it if they found out.

 

[GraemeS]

At the moment, I only have one league that even comes close to appointing me before the small number of CFA matches. And they're the most senior league I do regularly. So I'll get CFA appointments first, followed by these supply league lines, followed by all my other leagues.

It did take me a while to realise that this was the case, but as long as I remember to put matches in my calendar and close them with lower leagues, it kind of works. The only clashes I get are between the two non-supply Saturday leagues I do - one doesn't use me every time I'm available, so I tend to "open" Saturdays to both of them and then go back and close them again as/when I'm given appointments. Works well apart from the time I got appointment emails through from both leagues within 10 minutes of each other!

 

[Tino Best]

The level I am reffing the county cup games are all at youth level and thses are done more in advance than the league games. The system for youth in Suffolk is all appointed through a dedicated appointments officer employed by Suffolk FA which means he has the ability to move his referees as needs to. It seems to be working OK and I think the coverage is getting better. So I normally get an appointment on the tuesday for Saturday and Sunday, but when I get reappointed I do get a phone call asking if it is allright.