Grassroots is dying

[Hilly1618]

We're in danger of getting distracted from the wider subject of the thread, but their net profit was £49.7m, though factoring in movements and actuarial losses, their final profit figure after tax was £44.8m (all info from Companies House).

Whether they've got lots of money or not, it seems clear to me that they can comfortably afford to invest more across the country on discipline resource.

Let’s not forget the reserves that each county FA are sitting on, but the most important thing is that we (as referees) ensure that we report everything , to ignore is to be part of the problem.

 

[RustyRef]

Which ultimately is a sad indictment of the FA, who are absolutely loaded. There’s no reason the CFA’s should be under-resourced, though I accept that they are and it’s not necessarily their fault.

They are a not for profit organisation, so by definition cannot be loaded. Everything is reinvested into the game. Yes they have assets, the big one obviously being Wembley Stadium, and they keep free cash as a surplus but so does every business. Had they not had a surplus when Covid came along they would probably have gone under.

 

[RustyRef]

You're totally right. Sad but accurate.

I've been reffing over 30 years and there has been 3 major factors which have led to this.

1. The total decline in society and values. This is replicated on the FOP. The total feeling of nobody can be told they are wrong and the similar attitude of players / parents.

2. The role and attitude of county FAs and the total de-powerment of local leagues to run their own league's disicpline. League's use to have the power to remove teams / players but that's now long gone. CFA's are now more reliant on clubs than they used to be so often appease them with "letters of warning" etc as opposed to real sanctions.

3. When i first started reffing we were treated as "nearly untouchable" by the CFA's, even when we were wrong. This was not right. Look at it like a clock at 9 o'clock. This started to change (rightly) but instead of stopping at 12 o'clock the CFAs moved to 3 o'clock.

Now the players are innocent until proven guilty at commissions. Referees accused of poor conduct are guilty until proven innocent. This has happened twice to me but luckily i had a barrister representing me and i was proved to be totally innocent of anything at all (accused of making a racist irish noise was one - really! Took 3 months to sort out ).

We've gone too far and it aint ever going to improve. Local football is diseased beyond saving. As far as the FA is concerened anything below the conference league is irrelevant - unless they can tick some boxes.

A poor state of affairs and rotten.

Agree with point 1 and to a lesser extent point 3, but point 2 isn't right. CFAs have dealt with discipline for as long as I can remember, but leagues can still remove clubs that have been found guilty of multiple acts of misconduct.

 

[Basil88]

How about no referees and all calls are managed by who shouts the most. Instead of a referee you have an observer that records incidents and scores.

 

[Kes]

How about no referees and all calls are managed by who shouts the most. Instead of a referee you have an observer that records incidents and scores.

That could work you know. Save me getting cold/wet and sweaty. Just stay at home and open my fridge every Saturday!

You fire that one up to IFAB and I'll back you up.

 

[Blackfinger]

How about no referees and all calls are managed by who shouts the most. Instead of a referee you have an observer that records incidents and scores.

I like this but you'd have arguments over who's shout was louder then.