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Junior/Youth Finding Games (SFA)

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Degnann said:
They don’t help. Was told that day 1 of training. Up to us to find leagues and games
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Are you Glasgow or Renfrewshire association? Get in touch with the person who organises Club Academy games, they usually will know of other game, non academy games that need covered. Get yourself to fitness training when it’s on, great opportunity to meet other refs and who might be able to help you get games/pass on your details to others.
 
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Scotty Ref said:
Are you Glasgow or Renfrewshire association? Get in touch with the person who organises Club Academy games, they usually will know of other game, non academy games that need covered. Get yourself to fitness training when it’s on, great opportunity to meet other refs and who might be able to help you get games/pass on your details to others.
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Glasgow mate. I used to go to the weekly training before lockdown. Can’t now as it’s restricted numbers. Done 2 games today however!
 
Richard smith said:
That shouldn't be the case, your association should be there assisting you in your quest to find games and leagues you can officiate in
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This was the case when I did my course too. 50 of us did the exam (almost exclusively made up of DoE award students). When I contacted the RDO 2 weeks after doing the course to see why I hadn't been assigned any games I was told to find my own. It was clear that they'd prioritised the younger refs. I was fine with that but what annoyed me was that they didn't tell me.

I sourced my own games in the next County and transferred over as soon as I'd passed.

By the end of that season I was getting weekly emails from the ref secretary of the league who had been assigned the new referees to see if I was available. Almost all of them had given up refereeing once the DoE award was complete
 
Ben448844 said:
This was the case when I did my course too. 50 of us did the exam (almost exclusively made up of DoE award students). When I contacted the RDO 2 weeks after doing the course to see why I hadn't been assigned any games I was told to find my own. It was clear that they'd prioritised the younger refs. I was fine with that but what annoyed me was that they didn't tell me.
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My own experience (in North East Scotland) is that referee associations rarely, if ever, allocate referees to fixtures. It is up to referees to contact officials of whatever local leagues they want to officiate in. The referee association should have all the contacts and be able to help along the way.
 
Ben448844 said:
This was the case when I did my course too. 50 of us did the exam (almost exclusively made up of DoE award students). When I contacted the RDO 2 weeks after doing the course to see why I hadn't been assigned any games I was told to find my own. It was clear that they'd prioritised the younger refs. I was fine with that but what annoyed me was that they didn't tell me.

I sourced my own games in the next County and transferred over as soon as I'd passed.

By the end of that season I was getting weekly emails from the ref secretary of the league who had been assigned the new referees to see if I was available. Almost all of them had given up refereeing once the DoE award was complete
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Yeah, "find your own" is definitely less connected that I would expect. I was at least given a list of leagues and which ones generally accepted referees at which level - it was then up to me to decide which were geographically convenient and then apply directly.

I will agree however that I wouldn't expect much help with friendlies at grassroots level. Having been refereeing in Essex for 5 years, I now tend to just get a series of texts and whatsapp messages from teams who I've got on well with previously asking me for matches. But the first season I was in the area, I picked up 1 pre-season match by asking the Sunday league refsec, and that was about it.
 
GraemeS said:
Yeah, "find your own" is definitely less connected that I would expect. I was at least given a list of leagues and which ones generally accepted referees at which level - it was then up to me to decide which were geographically convenient and then apply directly.

I will agree however that I wouldn't expect much help with friendlies at grassroots level. Having been refereeing in Essex for 5 years, I now tend to just get a series of texts and whatsapp messages from teams who I've got on well with previously asking me for matches. But the first season I was in the area, I picked up 1 pre-season match by asking the Sunday league refsec, and that was about it.
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Oh yeah I was given a list of leagues but that was it. I have applied for 2 leagues already but thats about it. The two games I had yesterday came from knowing the coaches so hopefully that carries on
 
Wow. Go Find your own games. Crying our for refs and that's how some are treated. Truly unbelievable. I've been blessed to be in 2 counties now who do care about their referees, or so appear to.
When I first started, I was introduced to a junior league, and then I was later contacted by a local Sunday league. When I went for promotion I was introduced to supply league for lines, which then turned into Saturday middles too in the reserve and lower divs. and at that point I stopped junior football.
My current county made a point of not furloughing our RDO as a commitment to the referee workforce and he continued running workshops and sessions over the lock down period which was a blessing to keep in touch in that way.

Go find your own... Unbelievable Jeff.
 
JamesL said:
Wow. Go Find your own games. Crying our for refs and that's how some are treated. Truly unbelievable. I've been blessed to be in 2 counties now who do care about their referees, or so appear to.
When I first started, I was introduced to a junior league, and then I was later contacted by a local Sunday league. When I went for promotion I was introduced to supply league for lines, which then turned into Saturday middles too in the reserve and lower divs. and at that point I stopped junior football.
My current county made a point of not furloughing our RDO as a commitment to the referee workforce and he continued running workshops and sessions over the lock down period which was a blessing to keep in touch in that way.

Go find your own... Unbelievable Jeff.
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thats the SFA for you. Don't think there's a great deal of care for referees under Cat 3 here. Obviously I'm only speaking from seeing things like training days etc.
 
JamesL said:
Wow. Go Find your own games. Crying our for refs and that's how some are treated. Truly unbelievable. I've been blessed to be in 2 counties now who do care about their referees, or so appear to.
When I first started, I was introduced to a junior league, and then I was later contacted by a local Sunday league. When I went for promotion I was introduced to supply league for lines, which then turned into Saturday middles too in the reserve and lower divs. and at that point I stopped junior football.
My current county made a point of not furloughing our RDO as a commitment to the referee workforce and he continued running workshops and sessions over the lock down period which was a blessing to keep in touch in that way.

Go find your own... Unbelievable Jeff.
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In fairness to the County i qualified in there were 50 referees on the course and not enough qualifying games for everybody. My gripe was that this wasn't communicated to me so I had no idea that I wasn't getting games (despite being told that they'd help find us matches) until i asked.

The ballance of being non age discriminate, yet allowing the younger refs to flourish is a difficult one no doubt in all aspects of refereeing, whether that be qualifying games or appointing fixtures to promotion candidates etc. Older refs like me understand whats going on and why, we just like decisions to be communicated to us so we can do something about it ourselves.
 
Ben448844 said:
In fairness to the County i qualified in there were 50 referees on the course and not enough qualifying games for everybody. My gripe was that this wasn't communicated to me so I had no idea that I wasn't getting games (despite being told that they'd help find us matches) until i asked.

The ballance of being non age discriminate, yet allowing the younger refs to flourish is a difficult one no doubt in all aspects of refereeing, whether that be qualifying games or appointing fixtures to promotion candidates etc. Older refs like me understand whats going on and why, we just like decisions to be communicated to us so we can do something about it ourselves.
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Doesn't take a lot to introduce new refs to various leagues. League secs are notoriously short and surely would benefit from a list of newly trained referees, especially those that are old enough to referee open age. This can easily done by obtaining your consent to sharing your info.
You pay good money for the course and referee development is not just about supporting a young referee to the top but supporting all referees to reach the level they deserve.
Yes young refs probably need a bit more support, naturally, no life skills/experience etc. But can't be that hard to find or help referees find games.
As I said, I was lucky, I didn't have to lifts finger, well I did actually, to reply to the emails I got, Its disappointing that your experience was not as smooth as mine.
 
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