Yes, ignore everything, especially dissent and you get consistently good marks from the teams, if the assessor turns up you’ll get crucified and fail miserably with the same match control! Thieir is oodles of money in the professional game, its about how its chose to be spent!!!
No, because a lot of the referees that had the higher marks were also the ones with the higher card counts. The supposition that not carding will get you higher marks is a myth, as even if one team like it the other will likely mark you down for it. I got far more complaints about referees for not using cards than I did for those that did.
Clubs generally want a referee that is in control, keeps a low profile where possible so that they can just play football, but then gets involved when he needs to. What they don't want is a referee who won't deal with situations and lets the game get out of control, one that stays in the centre circle and won't get involved, or one that over uses cards, or more importantly is inconsistent with the use of the cards, and they certainly don't want a referee that wants to be the centre of attention (and there are plenty of those around). From my experience the biggest complaints about referees are ...
- Not being close enough to make decisions and generally being in or around the centre circle. Clubs hate this as it looks like you aren't interested.
- Poor administration before the game, not responding to match confirmation, turning up late, etc.
- Not "getting a grip of the game", this could mean a number of things but is generally a reluctance to get involved
- Not dealing with poor behaviour by one team. If one team is kicking the other of the park, or shouting abuse at them, the other team will expect you to do something about it and not just ignore it
- Not looking right. You'd be surprised, but clubs do want to see referees dressed properly and often complain if they aren't. Falls under the not looking interested category.
- Not being consistent in their decisions, usually when it comes to the use of cards.
For those that are against club marks, do you provide a score when Amazon, Argos, eBay, etc, sell you something and you then get prompted for a review and a mark? They send that because we are their customers, and the managers of these organisations want to know that their employees are cutting the mustard and providing excellent service. I know absolutely nothing about the retail industry, but they still ask for my feedback and I provide it.
Is refereeing any different? The clubs are our customers (no clubs = no referees, which I think sometimes a lot of referees forget about), and the managers (RefsSecs / CFAs) want to know if the referees are providing a good service so they ask the clubs. It is by no means perfect, but there is simply no other viable alternative, and splitting the mark into three sections should hopefully help going forward.
