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Coloured Kits

Really?
So "we" are all better off now that Mark Clattenburg has taken his money grubbing ways to Saudi?
Amazing

I referee and am paid a notional amount for my labour. It covers my costs for training, buying/replacing equipment, travel, memberships and registrations. It also puts a bit of money in my pocket for the time spent refereeing. (Sometimes I'm told even that might be too much!)

Refereeing is a skill and not everybody has the temperament to do it. So exactly how will the game benefit by getting rid of all the referees who expect to be paid for their time on a Saturday or Sunday?

Speaking to a number of Leagues and CFA officials there is an ongoing national shortage of referees. It gets discussed a lot in committee. There is a big churn with young referees leaving the game when they go away to college plus older referees retiring and there is not a huge reservoir of people wanting to give refereeing a go. For those who do take the plunge they have to pay maybe £200 to get themselves set-up before they even know if they will enjoy being in the centre, making mistakes in front of an audience and often being treated with the utmost disrespect.

The Banbury Lord Jersey (Saturday League) used to struggle with referees. They increased the match fee by £10 and now all their top league matches are covered.
LOTG aside the typical job of the referee is to ensure 22 men play nice so they all can go to work on Monday morning without a broken leg. On many games I struggle to get 2 Club Assistants to help me with ball in/out of play leave alone offside. Many players don't know the LOTG, so how is that going to work when cards need to be issued by a Club Referee during "difficult" matches?

Real world problems are not solved by utopian solutions. It is utterly irrelevant whether a Referee is running around in the January rain to escape his wife and kids or for £25 cash. Football needs more FA qualified referees to raise the quantity and quality of refereeing.
More referees and better referees might possibly lead to increased participation in football at all levels. What is clear is that fewer referees would contribute to a decline. So how would that be a good thing?

We live in a democracy and everybody can voice an opinion. I just disagree with this one.

Rant over...
i hope you feel better after that
 
The Referee Store
If money is your motivation for refereeing.......pack it in now. Do us all a favour.

There are many reasons people take up the whistle.......money should not be the main motivating factor.
Utter rubbish. If a referee is otherwise committed, professional and good at his job, why on earth does it matter if the money is important to him or merely incidental? I wouldn't referee regularly for free because I need my costs covered, but that doesn't stop me wanting to do the best job I can every time I turn up.
 
Utter rubbish. If a referee is otherwise committed, professional and good at his job, why on earth does it matter if the money is important to him or merely incidental? I wouldn't referee regularly for free because I need my costs covered, but that doesn't stop me wanting to do the best job I can every time I turn up.

Read it again....and this time try understanding the words used.
 
I never reffed for money, saying that I wouldn't do it for nothing (except 1-2 charity games a season). I've seen young refs going from game to game on a weekend just accumulating money. No idea if they had any ability but they were truly available!!! Thats their choice, I never needed the money or had the time or inclination to do more than 1-2 games a weekend at very best. I can see though that some would use it as a decent stocking filler in free time..
 
Read it again....and this time try understanding the words used.
No need to be patronising, I read it.

I have no problem if the reason a referee first picks up the whistle is money. If he's finding it tough and thinking of quitting, I have no problem if money is what gets him through. And if a referee thinks his best chance of achieving a £65k+ salary (http://www.totalsportek.com/money/english-premier-league-referee-salaries/)) is through becoming a select group referee, I have no problem with that as a motivation either.

None of the above has anything to do with how good a referee that person is, or how seriously they take it. That's what matters.
 
No need to be patronising, I read it.

I have no problem if the reason a referee first picks up the whistle is money. If he's finding it tough and thinking of quitting, I have no problem if money is what gets him through. And if a referee thinks his best chance of achieving a £65k+ salary (http://www.totalsportek.com/money/english-premier-league-referee-salaries/)) is through becoming a select group referee, I have no problem with that as a motivation either.

None of the above has anything to do with how good a referee that person is, or how seriously they take it. That's what matters.

If money is the only motivation for refereeing, the performance will suffer. Maybe not at first but it will eventually, because it will become literally just going through the motions to pick up your cash at the end.

If you cannot see how purely money motivated referees are a bad thing for the game, lacking passion, enjoyment, interest and all the other things that good referees bring to the table, then you are naive in the extreme.

I have seen enough people through the years in my professional life who are trapped in jobs they absolutely loath but won't leave because of the money. Their performance is sometimes shockingly poor because they have no interest in anything other than the paycheck, more often it is the bare minimum to avoid being sacked.
Is that what you want from colleagues? The bare minimum performance? Or do you want colleauges who are passionate, interested and enjoyment pulling on the black each weekend?
 
Or do you want colleauges who are passionate, interested and enjoyment pulling on the black each weekend?
I think we all want colleagues who are passionate about their refereeing. And no one wants ofiicials just going through the motions. I think the point at issue is whether sensible remuneration can actually make it easier for referees to first get / keep their motivation. I certainly don't referee for the money (and am delighted to be appointed to cup finals with little or no fee) but I very much enjoy all my spend on petrol for the car being covered by my hard earned cash! :)
 
If money is the only motivation for refereeing, the performance will suffer. Maybe not at first but it will eventually, because it will become literally just going through the motions to pick up your cash at the end.

If you cannot see how purely money motivated referees are a bad thing for the game, lacking passion, enjoyment, interest and all the other things that good referees bring to the table, then you are naive in the extreme.

I have seen enough people through the years in my professional life who are trapped in jobs they absolutely loath but won't leave because of the money. Their performance is sometimes shockingly poor because they have no interest in anything other than the paycheck, more often it is the bare minimum to avoid being sacked.
Is that what you want from colleagues? The bare minimum performance? Or do you want colleauges who are passionate, interested and enjoyment pulling on the black each weekend?
Those two things do not have to be related. If a referee is lazy, doesn't keep up with new law changes and doesn't perform well, of course I don't want him representing referees. But to suggest that this is the case for every referee who considers the money an important part of why they can justify taking the time out of their weekends to referee, or to dismiss the efforts of those who got into refereeing for the money and fell in love with it later is ridiculous.

If we want to attract as many new referees as possible (any one of who could turn out to be the next Clattenburg), we need to consider why people might be interested in getting into refereeing. And if money is a motivating factor in a referees decision to sign up for the course, the end result is more new referees. And if a referee is struggling to justify the time spent refereeing, adequate compensation can keep referees in the game who might otherwise be forced to leave and work instead. None of this seems like a bad thing to me.
 
Those two things do not have to be related. If a referee is lazy, doesn't keep up with new law changes and doesn't perform well, of course I don't want him representing referees. But to suggest that this is the case for every referee who considers the money an important part of why they can justify taking the time out of their weekends to referee, or to dismiss the efforts of those who got into refereeing for the money and fell in love with it later is ridiculous.

If we want to attract as many new referees as possible (any one of who could turn out to be the next Clattenburg), we need to consider why people might be interested in getting into refereeing. And if money is a motivating factor in a referees decision to sign up for the course, the end result is more new referees. And if a referee is struggling to justify the time spent refereeing, adequate compensation can keep referees in the game who might otherwise be forced to leave and work instead. None of this seems like a bad thing to me.

There is a difference in refereeing for the money, and seeing the money as an important part of being able to justify the expense in refereeing.

I didn't start refereeing for the money, and I'm lucky that 99% of my games are close enough that the cost in fuel is negligible.

i think what most people have a problem with is those who only referee because they get paid, and just go through the motions.

An example would be the 5-6 people on my referee course (all at the young end of the spectrum) who openly stated when asked that they only wanted to do it for the money.

Of course this isn't just contained to the younger referees, I've seen more mature referees with the same attitude, one actually bragged about the amount of money he makes every week from refereeing, and he was decidedly average in the middle.
 
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