A&H

Amateur football

The Referee Store
On the kit: where I am, under the 4th tier the competition rules are rapidly relaxed. By the 6th tier and in all grassroots, matching socks/kit is not mandatory, there are tiny fines if the match card is incomplete and refs have to manually input names/numbers in the online system after the game. Under the 5th tier we are also very understanding if a team has to wear bibs with wrong/no numbers. We just deal with it and get the right numbers when something happens. Only in the top elite youth leagues and national top 3 tiers do team officials have to confirm via email with refs. We have a great online system for refs, to "buy/sell" games, we help each other out and matches are only very, very rarely cancelled due to missing officials (effectively never in the capital region with as many as 1000 matches a week I believe). All match appointments and match cards are online for the world to see.

It's also up to the officials to wear kit that differs from the teams. We carry colours. If we can't avoid a clash with a GK we ask them to swap or bib. Worst case from 4th tier down the ARs wear matching kit that differs from the ref. There's a history of teams wearing black so it has never (to my understanding) been realistic for officials to only wear black.

Preserving laws like matching undergarment colour, matching sock tape is just daft at grassroots. It's an anachronism.
No team sheet, or incomplete team sheet. Yes, gotta be a disincentive there. No numbers on shirts - that is also a problem and gets reported. A fine is also understandable there.

Having a set of shirts with numbers and everyone wearing shin pads is the basic requirement at grassroots hobby leagues IMHO.

...of course, where I live takes this line to encourage participation and minimise the barriers.
 
I've always been of the opinion that at junior level or grass roots, barriers should be removed not maintained. The fines remind me of the cricket league I play in, where there was a fine for everything from team sheets to fielding less than 11 players, which is counter productive and frankly, it's ridiculous.

Colours of tape, undergarments, even socks at grass roots shouldn't be subject to fines or enforced. There's no safety issue so don't worry about it, nobody else does and rightly so. Dog and duck 11 or an u12s match, just pass me the bib and let's get on with it, just dont wear that kit in the future but you're here now so carry on.

It's not the job if a referee to be discretionary about such things, if they are in law or competition rules then I enforce them as that's my job but I certainly don't agree with some of them.

Safety asise, at the lowest tier, participation is the key and should never be discouraged on the basis of nominal issues and over fussyness. At that level, it's just a game
 
Great post Ben, the author makes some great points at his level, I don't agree with them all but each CFAs are privately run businesses with high overheads so I cant see this situation changing anytime soon!!
 
Some of his points seem valid, but some just come across as the normal player whinges.

I can sympathise with him about all the different fines that teams face that arise from league rules, but to an extent it is down to the club’s to ensure they comply with the various league rules. If they know that their league requires all players to have numbered shirts then they need to make sure all their shirts have numbers.

If they want to change various rule, or have them relaxed then surely they can raise this with the league at AGMs.

I agree about sock tape, under shorts and under shirts. At grass roots does it really matter if a player has red socks with white tape? The problem here is leagues and referees don’t have a choice about enforcing these laws, which is something most players etc don’t understand.

I’d never wear a bib, if a teams dark kit make it difficult to tell them apart from the referee then that’s the leagues fault for allowing the kit. But, that being said, since some counties now allow their referees to wear coloured shirts I have a yellow shirt, only had to wear it once in two seasons though.
 
Is it just me or is the goal in the pic looks not wide enough? :)

Agree that some of the 'rules' are pointless at grassroots. In fact we have a circular from our state governing body to be 'flexible' on sock tapes and under garment colours at grassroots.

But some other ones are there for a reason. Players always want to get away with things that seem unnecessary to them. Jewellery is a perfect example. Team sheet is another one. Yes I know you just want to get on the park and play, but I also want to make sure if something goes wrong, I have all i need to do my admin duties correctly.

And there is always two side to a story. The number of times myself or fellow colleagues turned up to games which were moved or rescheduled used to be ridicules until a few years ago when we decided to charge full mach fee if we were not given reasonable notice. Even being paid the mach fee doesn't stop you feeling you have wasted your time. Its amazing how having to pay the fee fixed the problem.

And there is no reason to persist with referees who the "secretaries have to make endless calls during the week". Drop them of your list or do what we do, we have a fine system for referees who don't do their admin duties (just like what happens to teams, players and clubs).

Fines are necessary evils. Without them hardly anyone pays attention to rules.
 
Is it just me or is the goal in the pic looks not wide enough? :)

Agree that some of the 'rules' are pointless at grassroots. In fact we have a circular from our state governing body to be 'flexible' on sock tapes and under garment colours at grassroots.

But some other ones are there for a reason. Players always want to get away with things that seem unnecessary to them. Jewellery is a perfect example. Team sheet is another one. Yes I know you just want to get on the park and play, but I also want to make sure if something goes wrong, I have all i need to do my admin duties correctly.

And there is always two side to a story. The number of times myself or fellow colleagues turned up to games which were moved or rescheduled used to be ridicules until a few years ago when we decided to charge full mach fee if we were not given reasonable notice. Even being paid the mach fee doesn't stop you feeling you have wasted your time. Its amazing how having to pay the fee fixed the problem.

And there is no reason to persist with referees who the "secretaries have to make endless calls during the week". Drop them of your list or do what we do, we have a fine system for referees who don't do their admin duties (just like what happens to teams, players and clubs).

Fines are necessary evils. Without them hardly anyone pays attention to rules.

I agree with leagues taking a harsher stance on referees who don’t do their part, I.e. not returning an email or voicemail to confirm a game etc.

Obviously there are reasons why someone might not be able to respond straight away, so each case should be judged individually but it’s takes 2 minutes to send a quick email or to return a phone call.

Of course, this swings both ways, I’ve lost count of the number of times teams leave it until the absolute last minute before confirming games, I even had one who confirmed the game at 11am for a 2pm kickoff.

I’ve also had more than one who didn’t confirm the game at all.
 
Like others i agree and disagree with some of the points in this article. What i do agree with is removing barriers and obstacles of getting people out and on a football pitch on a Saturday or Sunday.

I am on the committee of our local Sunday League and the fine list handed to us by the FA in our standard code is pretty long, we stripped it back and removed a huge amount of the fines. Incorrectly numbered shirts, no captains armband etc etc. We left in the fines that inconvenience* their opposition or the other teams in their division. Mainly, failing to fulfill a fixture, kicking off late. We also have a fine for not attending our bi-monthly meeting, this is purely so that we can pass on (what we feel) is important information to them. We have even reduced these to bi-monthly instead of monthly.

The league belongs to the clubs, we are an elected committee and it is our job to look after it and safeguard it for the future. We are a non profit making organisation and would rather help than fine our clubs.

* Edited from incontinence to inconvenience thanks @Sheffields Finest ha ha ha
 
Last edited:
One of the leagues he talks about is very good standard, very well organised, and many of the referees are progressing through the promotion scheme. That means there are observers at many of the games so the referees are clearly going to apply the laws, and the league expect all referees to do the same even if they aren't going for promotion, otherwise the promotion referees would be hampered by "last week's referee".

Yes, they are hard on clubs that don't follow the rules, but they are even harder on referees who transgress. You want to play in a good standard league with three officials on every game you need to accept that it will cost money. If fines are making it difficult they need to look at how they can stop them from happening. I ran a club for almost 10 years and we hardly ever got any fines for admin or match day procedures, it isn't that complicated really.
 
I have turned up to ref games to find both teams in the same kit, no white lines marked, late kick off due to away team arriving late, flat balls and no pump, torn nets with large gaping holes, no corner flags, nobody to run the line for one of the teams. Also on countless times match has not been confirmed by the deadline and I end up chasing home team to see if game is going ahead. I always report late kick offs but with the other issues I do work with teams to get game played. The only fine I strongly disagree with is if a team can't field a full side because if they are struggling to get 11 the remaining players will get fed up of chipping in to pay fine and team will be likely to fold mid season.
 
The fines the writer is complaining about seem pretty simple to avoid. Not that hard to ensure numbers are on jerseys, or the team sheet is completed in time. Captain's armband is an odd one for me, but oh well.
Personally I think the entire process of teams emailing referees beforehand to organise appointments really, really bizarre. Here, the teams have nothing to do with the referees. The FA sets out the match schedule for the entire season, and each week or fortnight the RA's appointments officers sends out the appointments to the referees - away from prying public eyes. Referee turns up when and where he's told, teams don't know if they get an official until they turn up. Simple. Teams having the private contact details of referees just seems absurd, even dangerous to me.

As for the bit about colour of under-garments. I agree completely that they're stupid laws. But that's not the fault of the referees.

If no spectators are allowed on the sidelines in that league then I wonder what on earth has happened in the past for such a rule to be implemented. Sounds like there's been some pretty nasty stuff occur.

Some legitimate gripes, but a lot of this just encapsulates the problem with this game - that players don't want to be responsible for their actions and want to blame everyone else. That's a massively toxic part of football culture and this article captures that. The author is part of the problem with this sport, not part of the solution.

Complaining about his teammate who got cautioned for running on the field without permission is a perfect example of that.
 
The fines the writer is complaining about seem pretty simple to avoid. Not that hard to ensure numbers are on jerseys, or the team sheet is completed in time. Captain's armband is an odd one for me, but oh well.
Personally I think the entire process of teams emailing referees beforehand to organise appointments really, really bizarre. Here, the teams have nothing to do with the referees. The FA sets out the match schedule for the entire season, and each week or fortnight the RA's appointments officers sends out the appointments to the referees - away from prying public eyes. Referee turns up when and where he's told, teams don't know if they get an official until they turn up. Simple. Teams having the private contact details of referees just seems absurd, even dangerous to me.

As for the bit about colour of under-garments. I agree completely that they're stupid laws. But that's not the fault of the referees.

If no spectators are allowed on the sidelines in that league then I wonder what on earth has happened in the past for such a rule to be implemented. Sounds like there's been some pretty nasty stuff occur.

Some legitimate gripes, but a lot of this just encapsulates the problem with this game - that players don't want to be responsible for their actions and want to blame everyone else. That's a massively toxic part of football culture and this article captures that. The author is part of the problem with this sport, not part of the solution.

Complaining about his teammate who got cautioned for running on the field without permission is a perfect example of that.

Spectators are allowed, they just aren't allowed inside the pitch cage, there's an elevated viewing area.

The reason for clubs confirming the game with the officials is that the Standard Code of Rules (SCoR) in use for all grass roots leagues in England allows clubs to change kick off time and / or venue. Just sending the officials out is too risky in case something has changed and the league haven't been told. The system that most leagues use, Full Time, automatically emails clubs and match officials when a fixture is created or changed, or a refereeing appointment is made or changed. These emails contain the contact details for all parties.
 
Spectators are allowed, they just aren't allowed inside the pitch cage, there's an elevated viewing area.
wait, and the author is complaining about THAT? What an idiot.

The reason for clubs confirming the game with the officials is that the Standard Code of Rules (SCoR) in use for all grass roots leagues in England allows clubs to change kick off time and / or venue. Just sending the officials out is too risky in case something has changed and the league haven't been told. The system that most leagues use, Full Time, automatically emails clubs and match officials when a fixture is created or changed, or a refereeing appointment is made or changed. These emails contain the contact details for all parties.
Down here it's different - clubs don't get to make those decisions themselves. It's all done through the league.

And where I used to referee, most fields would be in constant use 8AM to 5PM, so there's almost no leeway.
 
Back
Top