The Ref Stop

Game confirmed but turn up and you’re not on it

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TheFoodieReferee

TheFoodieReferee

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Level 5 Referee
Hey,
So I had a cup game today on the line, on Monday received email from the home club confirming that I was on it along with a further email from the referee on Tuesday.
Skip to today, rock up to the ground only to find out that I’m no longer on it despite having a circa 30 odd mile drive round trip. I wasn’t advised that I was no longer on it and basically the league secretary just brushed it off and went sorry.
Now obviously I’m out of pocket from travelling and turning down other games. Where do I stand on this one?
 
The Ref Stop
Assuming they didn't contact you I would expect that, as a minimum, the league should pay your out of pocket expenses. There's also an argument to say you get half match fee.

Have they not explained why you were replaced and not told?
 
RustyRef said:
Assuming they didn't contact you I would expect that, as a minimum, the league should pay your out of pocket expenses. There's also an argument to say you get half match fee.

Have they not explained why you were replaced and not told?
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Yep, nobody contacted me to advise that I wasn’t on it anymore. To be fair, I was more irritated that I’d turned down 2 other games for it as well.

When I spoke to the secretary on the phone whilst at the ground, he just basically said that they’d changed the officials around as it was a rollover from last week due to being postponed and wanted to keep the sands refs that were allocated this week. Pretty daft after it’s all been confirmed by club and the initial ref.
 
I would email the fixtures sec and explain that since you were removed from the match without having been informed that you would like the league to pay your travel expenses and 50% of the match fee (which is what you get if you turn up and it's called off).

If the answer is no I would find another league. If you happen to be in London or nearby I can give you three adult leagues who would welcome you with open arms.
 
Trip said:
I would email the fixtures sec and explain that since you were removed from the match without having been informed that you would like the league to pay your travel expenses and 50% of the match fee (which is what you get if you turn up and it's called off).

If the answer is no I would find another league. If you happen to be in London or nearby I can give you three adult leagues who would welcome you with open arms.
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Hi mate!
Cheers for the response, I've just decided to go through my RDO at my CFA and get him to sort it. Just so annoying that I had turned down 2 games in the middle to do this one as it was allocated earlier.

With regards to the offer of the leagues, thank you so much but, unfortunately I'm up in the North East so bit of a long way to go!😂
 
ARF said:
If a league I refereed on did this to me, I would be expecting them to pay me the full match fee and my travelling expenses. Anything less than that, I would never officiate on that league again.
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Hi mate, had an email ping up from the league early hours of this morning, no word of an apology, however, they have offered full match fee plus expenses.
Have to say, impressed with the speed that my RDO got it sorted and rectified given it was a weekend!
 
ross7perry said:
Hi mate, had an email ping up from the league early hours of this morning, no word of an apology, however, they have offered full match fee plus expenses.
Have to say, impressed with the speed that my RDO got it sorted and rectified given it was a weekend!
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I'm glad you got paid for your time. If I can offer some advice... make sure your admin with that league is absolutely on point for the rest of the season. In other words, don't give them a reason not to use you. It may seem petty, but some Appointment Secretaries probably would have preferred you to speak directly to them rather than involve an outside body. It's human nature that they will not be happy at being pinged like this, particularly by the County FA.

Also, you were amazed that your RDO got things sorted so quickly at the weekend, well I surmise your Appointments Secretary may also have a job, a home and a family to look after. Maybe rather than going from indignant to incandescent in a few hours, maybe allow the league the opportunity to sort things out before heading to the County FA.
 
Brian Hamilton said:
I'm glad you got paid for your time. If I can offer some advice... make sure your admin with that league is absolutely on point for the rest of the season. In other words, don't give them a reason not to use you. It may seem petty, but some Appointment Secretaries probably would have preferred you to speak directly to them rather than involve an outside body. It's human nature that they will not be happy at being pinged like this, particularly by the County FA.

Also, you were amazed that your RDO got things sorted so quickly at the weekend, well I surmise your Appointments Secretary may also have a job, a home and a family to look after. Maybe rather than going from indignant to incandescent in a few hours, maybe allow the league the opportunity to sort things out before heading to the County FA.
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That's a good point, I would never recommend bringing the CFA in until you have hit a complete brick wall with the league. People often forget that those running leagues are unpaid volunteers trying to juggle a lot of things.
 
Absolutely you should have been paid full fee etc. i think it’s disgusting clubs/leagues think they can cancel even the day before and not pay. They all know there’s a massive shortage of refs, we’ve probably all turned down other games during the week and then get a message Friday to say game cancelled.
 
Therealcjhill said:
Absolutely you should have been paid full fee etc. i think it’s disgusting clubs/leagues think they can cancel even the day before and not pay. They all know there’s a massive shortage of refs, we’ve probably all turned down other games during the week and then get a message Friday to say game cancelled.
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It isn't that straight forward, remember that the people doing the appointing are volunteers, often doing alongside full time jobs. Mistakes will happen, that's just human error.

I've done it myself, I appointed a referee to a game on Full Time and the email went out to him and the clubs. Someone or something then removed that appointment, I assumed I had just missed it off and therefore appointed someone else, with another email now going out to the clubs and replacement referee. The home club had already confirmed with the original referee, and just assumed he had become unavailable so they confirmed with the replacement without standing down the original referee. As a consequence both referees turned up, I got a phone call and told one of them to go home and that he would be paid. I contacted the league treasurer straight away and asked her to immediately send the stood down referee a full match fee.
 
RustyRef said:
It isn't that straight forward, remember that the people doing the appointing are volunteers, often doing alongside full time jobs. Mistakes will happen, that's just human error.

I've done it myself, I appointed a referee to a game on Full Time and the email went out to him and the clubs. Someone or something then removed that appointment, I assumed I had just missed it off and therefore appointed someone else, with another email now going out to the clubs and replacement referee. The home club had already confirmed with the original referee, and just assumed he had become unavailable so they confirmed with the replacement without standing down the original referee. As a consequence both referees turned up, I got a phone call and told one of them to go home and that he would be paid. I contacted the league treasurer straight away and asked her to immediately send the stood down referee a full match fee.
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Oh yes I get that. I’ve no Problem with mistakes and totally get that we are all sort of volunteers but still think you should be paid if you’ve turned other games down. I really meant when you get the call and they tell you that a team can’t field enough players etc.. we should be paid.
 
I am one of these league volunteers that also has a fulltime job. I would be mortified if I got a phone call from a spare referee that I'd replaced without telling him, I would have apologised profusely and made sure he was paid.

This secretary was contacted by the referee and apparently did not apologise or offer any solution. While I would personally have emailed the league first before going to the county the fact that he is an unpaid volunteer is not an excuse to be a dick. I have no problem with him having made the error, I do think failing to apologise when called by the referee who's afternoon you've just wasted is absolutely not on.

If I were Ross I'd find another league.
 
Trip said:
I am one of these league volunteers that also has a fulltime job. I would be mortified if I got a phone call from a spare referee that I'd replaced without telling him, I would have apologised profusely and made sure he was paid.

This secretary was contacted by the referee and apparently did not apologise or offer any solution. While I would personally have emailed the league first before going to the county the fact that he is an unpaid volunteer is not an excuse to be a dick. I have no problem with him having made the error, I do think failing to apologise when called by the referee who's afternoon you've just wasted is absolutely not on.

If I were Ross I'd find another league.
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His post says he contacted the League Secretary not the Appointments Secretary. Most league secretaries I've known are former referees (only ones with sufficient organisational skills, authority and patience to manage league meetings usually).

Also just because an apology is not offered in the first instance does not make someone a dick.

Finding another league over a single appointment error? Definite resilience deficit there.
 
ARF said:
If a league I refereed on did this to me, I would be expecting them to pay me the full match fee and my travelling expenses. Anything less than that, I would never officiate on that league again.
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Absolutely. You (not you specifically-just using that in general terms) fulfilled your end of the agreement. You showed up after multiple confirmations. You deserve everything you would receive had you worked the match.

This is on the competition authority. They screwed up, and paying full fee and travel is a good incentive to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
 
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