I know Rusty. My point was that the letter explicitly states that it's only CFA sanctioned competitions that will be affected by this change, and therefore I take it that for any competitions sanctioned by The FA it would be any colour you like as long as it's black!
Coloured Kits
- Thread starter Darius
- Start date
As I slowly retire one of last bastions of old school men in grey suits stupidity is removed... thanks for FA...
No, that isn't right. Leagues affiliated directly to the FA outrank those affiliated to CFAs, so the policy of the FA will apply. Which is that coloured kits can be worn.
Let me give an example. On a Middlesex County League game there is a fair chance that all three officials are MCFA referees, although not guaranteed. So if MCFA have decided on yellow as an alternate colour all three officials know what they need to do. Whereas on a Spartan South Midlands game, and let's assume I'm in the middle, one Saturday I might have someone from Middlesex (yellow) on one line and Essex (purple) on the other, whereas my county may have said green. The following Saturday I may work with assistants from Berks and Bucks and Herts, so they may have totally different policies.
The FA's policy of a CFA being able to nominate a single colour other than black has naively assumed that teams of three on leagues are all affiliated to the same county. That clearly isn't the case, and I can also think of lots of examples of where it isn't even when the competition is affiliated to a CFA rather than the FA.
I don't have a problem with referees wearing coloured shirts, but I do think a team of three should always have the same colour. The way I would have done this change is still prohibited teams from wearing black, but allowed referees to wear any colour they like as long as they also have a black kit. That way referees who want to wear what they want can, but when they work in a team there is a solution.
P.S. I do get the cost argument, and that it isn't much in terms of match fees to buy kits. The problem I have is there is almost a monopoly, or a duopoly, on referee shirts in England, and you are looking at the best part of £50 for a badged shirt. I do understand that referees can use eBay and other cheaper sources, but that brings about its own problems. For example a yellow Adidas shirt looks nothing like a yellow Nike one, and that comes back to credibility when in a team of three.
i totally agree people in refereeing for money are people refereeing doesnt need
The FA regulation is that referees wear black, except that the PL, FL, Panel and Contrib leagues may be exempt, if they provide shirts,shorts and socks to their match officials free of charge. The proposed wording changes in that letter still say that.
The only difference that letter says is being made is that CFAs can allow match officials to wear non-black shirts in CFA-sanctioned competitions. For any FA-sanctioned competition, the officials will have to wear black, unless it's one of the exempt competitions where they are provided with coloured shirts for free.
This comment's come up a few times in this thread and I'm very surprised actually. Are you suggesting that you'd happily referee every week for no match fee? Or perhaps for travel expenses only? As much as I do enjoy refereeing and appreciate the exercise, I don't think I would...
zarathustra
RefChat Addict
Local games yes, i think i would referee for free or expences only.
But, with the possibility of needing coloured shirts, i have all the kit i need so i dont need money to equip or replace kit for a while.
If i were starting out i could not justify the cost of the course and getting kitted out without knowing i would be able to recoup the cost.
This season I have 2 occasions where being in black has been an isssue. In one of the leagues I ref ina team plays in dark blue. They ahve been going 20 odd years. At U15s the home team complained they could not tell me apart from the dark blues.Now these 2 teams have played each other since U10s so I think the issue is now that all the players and the refs are all roughly the same height. What is the solution? I didnt have a spare top( i have now invested in one) so I had to wear a bib. I could have told the home team to get on with it but surely this is part of game management. Second one came when I was on the line. It was a winter afternoon KO with the adult Dark blue team and I could not tell the ref from the players. Solution he put a bib on. Most of the time we will be in black most leagues and county FAs will keep black as the first option, but they have given themselves room to have some flexibility, to allow some common sense. We were only allowed to wear black and by the rules we had no wiggle room. Now we can use common sense to solve an irregular problem. Lets give the FA and leagues the benfit of the doubt before we are all complaining about having to buy new kits. Maybe at higher levels this will be an issue but at the bottom of grass roots I tink it is a sensible move.
In reply to Zarthrustra 1 coloured shirt is only £10 so making the start up costs £150. 6 junior middles 11 aside and you have paid for your course and a spare shirt. ( cambs FA provide the kit in the course fee). If you are a new builder you need your own safety equipment and tools you have to provide so what is the differnce?
In reply to Zarthrustra 1 coloured shirt is only £10 so making the start up costs £150. 6 junior middles 11 aside and you have paid for your course and a spare shirt. ( cambs FA provide the kit in the course fee). If you are a new builder you need your own safety equipment and tools you have to provide so what is the differnce?
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richard ramjane
RefChat Addict
i think his inference there @GraemeS is that there are refs out there that do a half arsed job and couldnt care less
Charlie Jones
Work Until You Don't Have To Introduce Yourself
@martin avis ... you wore a bib?! Pfffft .... no chance!
ii
i didnt say that but i hate referees who are obsessed with money. i have done testimonial matches charity games, and school games, where i wouldnt dream of even asking for a fee
Referee for no fee? Yes, I probably would.
in Scotland we wear coloured shirts, can get the shirts from sfa or buy online and get badge embroidered on (cheaper by £10). i have in my bag 4 of the 2014 adidas kit an 3 of the 2016 kit. works out around 35 a shirt so 1 game covers buying a shirt, i buy shirts once every 2 years usually so overall isn't that expensive if you do 2 games a weekend
Apologies - although I did choose your post to quote, it was more because I'd noticed a general trend of people suggesting the money should be irrelevant, wheras I really don't think it is.
Refereeing needs to encourage people to take it up and stick with it - if the next superstar ref only stated doing it for some extra pocket money when he was 16 and then went on to fall in love with it later, I'm absolutely fine with that. And that's not going to happen if we keep hiking up the cost to get involved in the first place.
Charlie Jones
Work Until You Don't Have To Introduce Yourself
If they don't want top pay the costs for extra shirts then they can stay at Sunday league level and wear their black kit .. no problem?
and to be fair - the leagues that will start requiring coloured shirts also have referees that want to go further in the career - so its a win double.
Why? Surely they can do as good a job as the rest of us......you only have to look at those at the top of the tree?
Padfoot
The Persecuted One
I'm hoping your cheek was bulging when you typed that comment?
Bullcrap! Everyone has ends to meet, if thats their choice then who's to say they are bad referees!
Charlie Jones
Work Until You Don't Have To Introduce Yourself
Lets put it this way ... I wouldn't exactly be 'inclined' to referee if it was FOC!
Mooseybaby
Retired big bad baldy in all black!
I ref'd my son's teams for 5 years and never once asked to be paid. At u13s his manager insisted on paying me and to be honest I felt a tad embarrassed to accept it.