The Ref Stop

Direct promotion route for A/R’s

L

L9212

New Member
I know this has been mentioned a couple of times before but thought I’d bring it up anyway.

Howcome in the system there isn’t a direct promotion route for people who only want to A/R?

I’ve been refereeing for around 2 years now and I’m not too bad, but don’t enjoy it as much as the line. There’s plenty of level 7’s in the system who are great A/R’s but can’t go higher than supply lines simply because they don’t want/can’t go down the promotion route for middles, for whatever reason.

I’ve been running the line for 2 years or so and never got a mark below 75 yet, just seems a shame really.
 
The Ref Stop
There is, but only once you get to L3. I personally this should be brought down to L4, and once you get to that level you can choose to just assist or just referee. The 4-3 promotion is notoriously one of the hardest to get as realistically you need to finish in the top 5% of all level 4s country wide, and this means that there are some excellent assistants suck at L4 because their refereeing is nowhere near good enough to get to L3..
 
Because if you become a top-level AR then you still have to referee matches which are lower level.
 
RyantheRef said:
Because if you become a top-level AR then you still have to referee matches which are lower level.
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Not any more you don't, at least not in England. Once you've had three years at L3 you have to choose refereeing or lining, you can't do both. A specialist assistant could or course choose to referee a Sunday League game to keep active in the middle, but certainly doesn't need to.
 
RustyRef said:
Not any more you don't, at least not in England. Once you've had three years at L3 you have to choose refereeing or lining, you can't do both. A specialist assistant could or course choose to referee a Sunday League game to keep active in the middle, but certainly doesn't need to.
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A number of specialist ARs are asked to referee matches at a lower level. It really isn't until you hit the upper echelons of the football league that you stop being asked to referee
 
RyantheRef said:
A number of specialist ARs are asked to referee matches at a lower level. It really isn't until you hit the upper echelons of the football league that you stop being asked to referee
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Are you sure that is still the case? It used to be that they had to referee 10 games a year to keep their level, but that stopped with the specialist assistants introduction.
 
A level 7 standard referee having to come on when a level 2b goes down injured? Wouldn’t work.
Think they’ve got it about right at the moment , although maybe offer the option of going specialist line after one season at l3 (especially if promoted on the line).
 
RustyRef said:
Are you sure that is still the case? It used to be that they had to referee 10 games a year to keep their level, but that stopped with the specialist assistants introduction.
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No, I'm not sure and I don't know think it is mandated; but I believe that they often do.
 
RyantheRef said:
A number of specialist ARs are asked to referee matches at a lower level. It really isn't until you hit the upper echelons of the football league that you stop being asked to referee
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Once you join the specialist AR route at L3, there is no requirement to referee any matches. In fact, you are not on the referee list any more for L3, so you would fill in at L4 if any matches available - more likely you would be doing grass roots football. But the specialist AR tend to be a "up or out" system - if you don't keep getting promoted you are gone back to L5.
 
lincs22 said:
Once you join the specialist AR route at L3, there is no requirement to referee any matches. In fact, you are not on the referee list any more for L3, so you would fill in at L4 if any matches available - more likely you would be doing grass roots football. But the specialist AR tend to be a "up or out" system - if you don't keep getting promoted you are gone back to L5.
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I was told that if you decide to "swap" from ARing you return to 1 level down from when you specialised. E.g. level 3 when specialised you would got vack to L4. Or if you were lucky enough to get to 2b before spcialisation then back to l3.

If you were to specialise as an AR would you not get any county cup fixtures as a referee?
 
JamesL said:
If you were to specialise as an AR would you not get any county cup fixtures as a referee?
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In Birmingham the county appointments officer asked the county referees committee if he could use specialist assistants to referee in the Birmingham Senior Cup. That was mainly due to a shortage of active L3+ referees in the county.
 
Half on track, half off, sorry am not 100% on EPL etc but in Scotland, SPL, we have a 4th who is a top ranked ref. If AR goes down, this ref is on. It means that in say, televised Celtic Rangers we could lose specialist AR after five mins, and on comes 4th, who will be a FIFA badged ref, who will not have done a line for, easy 5, possibly 10, and even 15 years

I know you cant cover every senario.

My suggestion was cat 1 refs run 2 lines per season. at lower league, just to keep their hand in


As ever though, we wait till it happens then wonder why we never saw it coming
 
EPL (certainly the big matches) now have a 4th official who's qualified to step into the middle, and a reserve ÁR who mostly does nothing. Not sure what the protocols are regarding who takes over as 4th if the original 4th ends up in the middle.
 
I know EPL 4th is a ref of similar status to the match referee but yes if numbers allow, having a reserve AR in the stand is a good thing
 
Ciley Myrus said:
I know EPL 4th is a ref of similar status to the match referee but yes if numbers allow, having a reserve AR in the stand is a good thing
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But then you just have 10 ARs sitting on their ass instead of working a game in the Championship or League 1. That seems to be a bigger impact than having a backup AR ready for the 1 time every 5 years (or more) that an AR can't continue.
 
lincs22 said:
Once you join the specialist AR route at L3, there is no requirement to referee any matches. In fact, you are not on the referee list any more for L3, so you would fill in at L4 if any matches available - more likely you would be doing grass roots football. But the specialist AR tend to be a "up or out" system - if you don't keep getting promoted you are gone back to L5.
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Yes, that's what I meant. You would likely be asked by your local association to referee lower level matches (like grassroots) while your bread and butter would be as Assistant Referee at the L3 and climbing level.
 
Just to clarify. AR route starts from L3. After 3 season you have a choice: referee or assistant referee
As a L3 you will be assisting on National North/South
1 promotion will enable you to assist on National Prem
Another one will put you in Football League
When L3 or proffessional assistant is getting demoted/stepping down, they are reclasified as L4 not L5
Difference is with L2A. If facing demotion then reclasified as L3 as far as I am aware

I believe future plans are to start pro AR from L4 but I have got mixed feelings about it. It should be optional rather than mandatory as many of new L4 are extremly young and might not know exactly what they want especially when not officiating in National League when you can see degree of proffessionalism
 
TheKidMaN said:
Just to clarify. AR route starts from L3. After 3 season you have a choice: referee or assistant referee
As a L3 you will be assisting on National North/South
1 promotion will enable you to assist on National Prem
Another one will put you in Football League
When L3 or proffessional assistant is getting demoted/stepping down, they are reclasified as L4 not L5
Difference is with L2A. If facing demotion then reclasified as L3 as far as I am aware

I believe future plans are to start pro AR from L4 but I have got mixed feelings about it. It should be optional rather than mandatory as many of new L4 are extremly young and might not know exactly what they want especially when not officiating in National League when you can see degree of proffessionalism
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If you were to drop off of the Assistant route after giving up main refereeing, you would drop back to Level 4 not Level 3.

Pro AR has already been started in the north of the country. I believe seven Level 4 referees are currently officiating on the Conference North, plenty of requirements to be met though and not just a simple choice thing.

I know as a young Level 4 I’m not sure I would want to make any choices in the near future. Would be ideal situation if they were to go back to how it used to be!
 
Dhoby said:
If you were to drop off of the Assistant route after giving up main refereeing, you would drop back to Level 4 not Level 3.

Pro AR has already been started in the north of the country. I believe seven Level 4 referees are currently officiating on the Conference North, plenty of requirements to be met though and not just a simple choice thing.

I know as a young Level 4 I’m not sure I would want to make any choices in the near future. Would be ideal situation if they were to go back to how it used to be!
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I believe it is that you go back to 1 level before you specialised. So if you were a 3 you go back to 4. But say you were a 2b before specialising to go back to reffing you would demote to level 3 in stead.
 
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