£10 extra per season is not a big jump. Even more so when you take into account that the registration fee has remained static for over 20 years. Using the Bank of England's inflation calculator, £20 in 2006 would be over £35 now.
CFA registration fees
- Thread starter Kent Ref
- Start date
Exactly that, it is like football fans complaining about season ticket rises when they haven't risen for 10 years. Looking at the leagues I have officiated on referee fees have all gone up by more than 50% over the past 20 years. Once has gone up by very close to 100% in that time, so on that basis a registration fee of £40 wouldn't be inappropriate.
£30 is still considerably less than one match fee, so I'm struggling to see any issue. Bear in mind that observers have to be registered as a referee and £30 is more than they will be paid for a game.
The standard code of rules references 'registered referees' being appointed so if you are not registered you cannot be appointed, and only appointed officials are entitled to fees.
I'm confused as i know many people "ref" some of the youth league games who are not qualified referees.
Do they ref for free?
Any fees they receive could not be enforced by the competition. If there was an agreement to pay a fee, in the event of non-payment the only recourse would be a court claim. Also the opposing team does not have to accept that individual to referee. The two clubs have to agree on someone but it doesn't have to be that person. The competition could technically appoint a ref at any time up to kick off and the 'agreed' ref would have to make way.
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You would be an unregistered Referee, not covered by the CFA insurance policies and affiliated leagues require registered Referees. If you go down the unregistered route you are likely to be asked to do unaffiliated/unregistered clubs and the challenges that brings with misconduct etc.
ChasObserverRefDeveloper
Regular Contributor
Whilst clubs in most leagues are allowed to use a non-registered referee if there is not a registered referee available, they are not allowed to appoint non-registered officials in advance.
As DavidObs has mentioned, there is no insurance cover for any non-registered referees.
The inability to report discipline is a further issue.
A minefield!
As DavidObs has mentioned, there is no insurance cover for any non-registered referees.
The inability to report discipline is a further issue.
A minefield!
Just on this one, County FAs do administer discipline reports from unregistered refs but reports have to be emailed in as they can't use Referee Portal.
Something else I just thought of is loss of Level if you stay unregistered for too long.
That BOE calculator says our ref fees should be over £45 a game now but they are not. Plus that does not factor in the loss of petrol money.
I'm not overly impressed with the CFAs.
The CFA bias is now with clubs / players, not referees. This has been the case for over 10 years.
I get more contact and information from my secondary CFA than my parent one.
Presumably, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but surely this process can only be in place for those clubs that are registered but have an unregistered Referee because unable to get hold of a Registered Referee? I would be very surprised if the CFA deal with email reports from unregistered Referees involving unregistered clubs?
Though that’s not a surprise with secondary CFA. I moved to my secondary CFA in 1992 & I haven’t ever received anything from my parent CFA since then & nor would I expect to. All registrations/DBS/Safeguarding etc are from secondary/current CFA.
Absolutely fine that you're not overly impressed with your CFA / CFA's, but some CFA's are very good.
My CFA provide some excellent opportunities and are very well run.
Fees are set by leagues, they are nothing to do with the FA. If you aren't happy with the fee your league are offering you can campaign to them to increase it, or vote with your feet and move to a different league (subject to availability).
Out of interest I've gone back through my old Access database of games. For the league I am still active on the fees in 2002 were £20 for referee and £15 for assistants. They are now £42 for referee and £39 for assistants, increases of 110% and 160% for assistants, based on inflation that would equate to £37.78 and £28.34 so the increases have massively outstripped inflation.
It isn't really any different to the working life, some jobs pay bigger pay rises than others. Leagues are effectively no different to those employers in so much as they are free to set fees at what they deem to be appropriate.