The Ref Stop

Club Marks

M

MKAhmad

Active Member
Level 6 Referee
I'm currently a trainee referee who's completed there 5 games but trying to get in as many games of any type before my exam. Club marks are something I've heard of and I know they exist in most levels of the game but I was wondering whether you still get them at Youth Level. I currently only do U12 but they are appointed games so I thought they might. And how much do club marks affect you at Youth Level? Should I worry about them if so?

Thanks in advance.
 
The Ref Stop
Don't ever worry about club marks, not unless your in the higher echelons or heading there!
Focus on applying the laws of the game correctly and you won't go far wrong.
Along the way, teams/managers will not agree with your decisions and mark you down, so what?

Enjoy your refereeing.
 
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Marks will help you get cup finals and semi finals. But so does availability etc.
 
This is my first badged up season and I have done al ot of youth games as it is why I got into this lark. I am not sure at youth level if you get marks. If we do round here I am not aware. The thing is normally one club will be unhappy. A penalty a missed foul disputed offside, red card, yellow card etc. You shouldn't have club marks in your mind when starting out. There are so many more things you need to concentrate on.
If we do get club marks round here I can't have done too badly as I haven't had a phone call from my RDO asking "What the hell happened this week" call!
 
Mintyref said:
Don't ever worry about club marks, not unless your in the higher echelons or heading there!
Focus on applying the laws of the game correctly and you won't go far wrong.
Along the way, teams/managers will not agree with your decisions and mark you down, so what?

Enjoy your refereeing.
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*This*....for at least two more years mate.
 
You can help your club marks well before you get anywhere near the ground. Reply quickly to the home club's confirmation of the game, if they have to chase you up they might well remember when it comes to marking you. Turning up on time, and not looking like a dog's dinner, will also help.

As others have said though, once you get on the pitch don't worry about how your decisions affect your mark. You might need to if you start going for promotion, but don't think about it now.
 
75% of managers and players I've met don't know much about refereeing, and I don't mean that they're rude or mouthy, just that they genuinely don't know about it (much as I don't know much about playing!).

Advice is always good, but the real people you should be paying attention to are your observers and colleagues, their advice will be infinitely more useful.

I've been told I've had a good game by two content teams when I know I haven't (I'll take it anyways!), and the inverse is true.
 
WAFCryan2014 said:
Marks will help you get cup finals and semi finals. But so does availability etc.
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This is one of the major incorrect rumours in football. The best referees get the top marks but will only get the cup finals once.

What they do is get you better, more challenging league matches.
 
RustyRef said:
You can help your club marks well before you get anywhere near the ground. Reply quickly to the home club's confirmation of the game, if they have to chase you up they might well remember when it comes to marking you. Turning up on time, and not looking like a dog's dinner, will also help.

As others have said though, once you get on the pitch don't worry about how your decisions affect your mark. You might need to if you start going for promotion, but don't think about it now.
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LOL, getting marks for turning up early! Gi ower wi thi sen..... Its purely down to the result and how you dealt with their discipline. Give a late penalty and dish out some plastic and it doesn't matter if you got there the week before... they smoke your mark!!!
 
RustyRef is right
Tips:
- reply to club secretaries ASAP with little bit more than just "received and confirmed.Thanks"
- turn up on time ( if with AR`s you can travel together or aim to arrive together - meeting point within close proximity of the ground )
- TALK TO PEOPLE ( and dont be affraid to use words: Yes and Thank you ). Be approachable and let them know before the game how you will run it so there will be no "surprises"
- Do your game ( be firm but fair and consistent )
- Allow them to talk to you after the game if they are in the right state of mind to talk and be honest
- Don`t leave mess in changing room. They will not mark you up if they will have to clean dressing room after you for 30 min )
- Smile ! That is possitive reaction. Try not to smile when sending someone off but even then you can demonstrate empathy using both verbal and non-verbal communication
 
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TheKidMaN said:
RustyRef is right
Tips:
- reply to club secretaries ASAP with little bit more than just "received and confirmed.Thanks"
- turn up on time ( if with AR`s you can travel together or aim to arrive together - meeting point within close proximity of the ground )
- TALK TO PEOPLE ( and dont be affraid to use words: Yes and Thank you ). Be approachable and let them know before the game how you will run it so there will be no "surprises"
- Do your game ( be firm but fair and consistent )
- Allow them to talk to you after the game if they are in the right state of mind to talk and be honest
- Don`t leave mess in changing room. They will not mark you up if they will have to clean dressing room after you for 30 min )
- Smile ! That is possitive reaction. Try not to smile when sending someone off but even then you can demonstrate empathy using both verbal and non-verbal communication
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Some fair points. Couple of comments from myself though.

"- turn up on time ( if with AR`s you can travel together or aim to arrive together - meeting point within close proximity of the ground )"
Don't agree with meeting point within close proximity of the ground. With a team of three, if all of you can travel together, great, organise accordingly. If only two can travel together, they then meet the third person at the ground - ensuring the referee sets a meeting time.

- TALK TO PEOPLE ( and dont be affraid to use words: Yes and Thank you ). Be approachable and let them know before the game how you will run it so there will be no "surprises"
Also don't agree with letting them know before the game how you will run it. Referee the game in which you always do. I see no benefit of boring players/management etc... before the game with some spiel about how you're going to referee. If anything, you only set yourself up, for when you don't referee in your pre-stated way. E.g. "I don't allow swearing on my pitch" - a player then swears out of frustration to himself "Ref! You said you weren't going to allow swearing!" - says one player who now thinks he has the ability to referee the game for you, as he knows how you are going to referee it.
 
drahc said:
TALK TO PEOPLE ( and dont be affraid to use words: Yes and Thank you ). Be approachable and let them know before the game how you will run it so there will be no "surprises"
Also don't agree with letting them know before the game how you will run it. Referee the game in which you always do. I see no benefit of boring players/management etc... before the game with some spiel about how you're going to referee. If anything, you only set yourself up, for when you don't referee in your pre-stated way. E.g. "I don't allow swearing on my pitch" - a player then swears out of frustration to himself "Ref! You said you weren't going to allow swearing!" - says one player who now thinks he has the ability to referee the game for you, as he knows how you are going to referee it.
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As someone who does like to have a quick chat with players before the match, I'm baffled how people who don't do this seem to think that a long droning speech full of specifics is the only possible way to do it. It's perfectly possible to highlight certain things you want to keep an eye on and make your life easier for the upcoming match without digging yourself into holes.
 
About the only thing I still tell players before a game is to play to the whistle and If I'm talking to them, it's for a reason........
 
Agree that the less you say you're in a better position come something happening..
If you give them the Gettysburg address and dont follow it up then Good luck with your match control!!!
 
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There isn't really much to say to the players before the game. Be polite, make conversation, be pro, and DO THE JOB on the pitch. That's what they expect, and from that the club marks will come.
 
UKColt said:
The Gettysburg Address was only 272 words and lasted just two minutes. ;)
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My point exactly! What was yours exactly? :)

Had i said Kurt Vonnegut's 'Welcome to the Monkey House' that would have been 99,560
 
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Just a point on Club Marks from a League Registration Secretary's point of view...

Every month I send a list of the club marks to the Referee Development Officer. He then looks at them; He is mainly interested in the Premier Division (Top division of five) marks, these have to be highlighted in red. Anything below Premier standard, although they are looked at, the main ones are the top games that you officiate on.

I can assure you that your club marks will not have too much of an affect on the games in which you are assigned to; For example, of the County Cup appointments here in Cornwall, only 2 of the top five referees (by mark) got a County final. The rest were the more experienced referees and academy referees. Even one of the lowest marked referees in the county got a league cup semi-final line.

Please don't get hung up on club marks! Only worry about them if your are consistently getting marked below 60 by each team that you officiate.
 
"You don't want to listen to me, I don't want to bore you. That's it from me, head or tails skipper?"

The grand total of my "spiel" before a game to the captains!

Oh, and anyone that thinks the pre & post game stuff isn't important for club marks is so drastically wrong.

At L4 and up, majority of the time, the person that emails you confirmation, meets & greets you, shows you to your dressing room and clears your dressing room at the end (and is in the boardroom), is the person marking you. Give them a bad impression, low mark. Good impression, high mark! Often, these people don't even get the chance to watch the game because of all the stuff they do on a gameday!
 
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