The Ref Stop

JPL - thoughts?

The Ginger Ref

Well-Known Member
Level 7 Referee
Thoughts on the JPL?

I tried to search and "JPL" is too short to trigger the search. Searching Junior Premier League returned a few results mainly from 2020 - 2021 and the reviews weren't too complimentary.

Has it improved since the 2020's? Is this league worth officiating in?
 
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Standard youth league but all the dads are convinced their kid is Messi. Load of commercial f***ing nonsense to me. It’s Goals 6-a-side League for kids.
 
Some thoughts:

1. I've grown to hate the concept of it, and what it sells and how this filters down. Too many seem to think it's a "new" level of youth football that sits somewhere between "grassroots" and academy football. That's nonsense - it's grassroots football with higher (unrealistic) expectations and higher costs.
2. Their admin is somewhere between poor to non-existent. Once you get away from "central venue" fixtures (those being mini-soccer), you will get no support, advice or even a response to any queries/reports etc and appointment of officials is, in my experience at least, down entirely to the home team - there are no referee secretaries or league adminstrators that I'm aware of.
3. Whilst I think the supposed gap between JPL and the higher divisions of Sunday youth football is pretty negligible, the standard is usually quite high and given the expectations their marketing has created, it can be a decent refereeing test.
4. One difference I do find is that the perceived higher level and expectations/pressure from parents tends to mean there are more challenges that require disciplinary action than you'd tend to find at more mixed-ability levels, and managing "what the game expects" versus what the LOTG require and protecting players can create challenges.
5. All that being said, most teams I've come across do teach the right ethos and enforce it, and are easy to deal with but it does also tend to mean that the outliers can be pretty awful to deal with, though they are the exception. My worst experience by far with a coach/parents was a JPL match, and the subsequent WGS extraordinary report simply disappeared into the ether.

In summary, I wouldn't put you off it if you can find a local club with the right ethos and good admin, but don't believe the hype.
 
Some thoughts:

1. I've grown to hate the concept of it, and what it sells and how this filters down. Too many seem to think it's a "new" level of youth football that sits somewhere between "grassroots" and academy football. That's nonsense - it's grassroots football with higher (unrealistic) expectations and higher costs.
2. Their admin is somewhere between poor to non-existent. Once you get away from "central venue" fixtures (those being mini-soccer), you will get no support, advice or even a response to any queries/reports etc and appointment of officials is, in my experience at least, down entirely to the home team - there are no referee secretaries or league adminstrators that I'm aware of.
3. Whilst I think the supposed gap between JPL and the higher divisions of Sunday youth football is pretty negligible, the standard is usually quite high and given the expectations their marketing has created, it can be a decent refereeing test.
4. One difference I do find is that the perceived higher level and expectations/pressure from parents tends to mean there are more challenges that require disciplinary action than you'd tend to find at more mixed-ability levels, and managing "what the game expects" versus what the LOTG require and protecting players can create challenges.
5. All that being said, most teams I've come across do teach the right ethos and enforce it, and are easy to deal with but it does also tend to mean that the outliers can be pretty awful to deal with, though they are the exception. My worst experience by far with a coach/parents was a JPL match, and the subsequent WGS extraordinary report simply disappeared into the ether.

In summary, I wouldn't put you off it if you can find a local club with the right ethos and good admin, but don't believe the hype.
I disagree I have a family member who was in academy system till 15 played a few games in it after release before playing mens non leauge following year also played with his mates on a Sunday and JPL was more beneficial in terms of playing mens the next year he did play 3 mens games at 15 also he thinks JPL helps in that regard.
 
I disagree I have a family member who was in academy system till 15 played a few games in it after release before playing mens non leauge following year also played with his mates on a Sunday and JPL was more beneficial in terms of playing mens the next year he did play 3 mens games at 15 also he thinks JPL helps in that regard.
I didn't realise refereeing on the JPL could make you a better footballer. 🤷🏻

And as I understand it, players aren't allowed to play open age football (except for in academy/professional environments) until they have attained the age of 16.
 
I disagree I have a family member who was in academy system till 15 played a few games in it after release before playing mens non leauge following year also played with his mates on a Sunday and JPL was more beneficial in terms of playing mens the next year he did play 3 mens games at 15 also he thinks JPL helps in that regard.
My son played JPL for three seasons, and I helped coach for a season too. Both clubs were great, coaches were great and he improved as a player, but fell out of love with it last year as his side were getting humped every week, so he's joined the Saturday version of the local league Sunday team he played for.

My points were largely observations in my role as a ref rather than coach/parent, and my criticisms were focused mainly on what it (in my view falsely) represents to parents/kids, especially this idea that it's not grassroots when it absolutely is. Their "league admin" from a ref perspective is non-existent, and even as a coach/player it's poor imho.
 
I didn't realise refereeing on the JPL could make you a better footballer. 🤷🏻

And as I understand it, players aren't allowed to play open age football (except for in academy/professional environments) until they have attained the age of 16.
15 with FA permission which he was granted but this was in non leauge system which may be why.
 
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