hearing from your league(s)
- Thread starter Kent Ref
- Start date
Russell Jones
RefChat Addict
There is no standard. Every league is run by different people with differing priorities and time on their hands.
And also remember that almost all grass roots leagues are run by volunteers who also have full time jobs. I'm involved with a league and I would love to spend more time on it than I do, and will once I retire from work, but until then any time I can offer is better than nothing.
How often do you send out updates to your refs?
Define "updates". Do you mean appointments or do you mean paragraphs about what's going on in the league? If the former will probably be multiple times a week, if the latter then almost never.
Not appointments - what's going on in the league?
Updates about what? If something needs to go out it will go out, but most referees would say they don't want to be told stuff for the sake of being told.
Appointments go put automatically through Full Time.
Justylove
RefChat Addict
Contrib league has a round up of key news and action via website and regular Twitter updates.
Supply League has a weekly newsletter and a well run Twitter feed with fixtures, scores, scorers and tables.
Step 7 league is a bit more hit and miss but gets good coverage from the various local press (especially the Portsmouth based sides)
My local league has a Facebook group where scores and scorers are provided weekly, and a decent community when teams are looking for friendly matches or matching players to teams when they are looking.
Supply League has a weekly newsletter and a well run Twitter feed with fixtures, scores, scorers and tables.
Step 7 league is a bit more hit and miss but gets good coverage from the various local press (especially the Portsmouth based sides)
My local league has a Facebook group where scores and scorers are provided weekly, and a decent community when teams are looking for friendly matches or matching players to teams when they are looking.
Yeah, then almost never is definitely the answer. Most leagues will have a twitter feed, website, facebook etc - that's where to go if you want general league news. If you do want it emailed to you, you might find there's a newsletter you can sign up to, but no guarantee. You definitely won't get that kind of stuff emailed to you regularly just because you're a referee.
An additional email to referees is only generally sent out because something that's supposed to happen isn't. One league emailed to tell their referees not to claim the maximum mileage regardless of how far they travel, another uses an incredibly complicated system for closed dates and so therefore will regularly send an email round to complain about referees not using it properly.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
Refs should be claiming double mileage for the trouble they go through,let alone the shortage of refs. I find that incredible.
The league in question pays a fee + 35p/mile mileage up to a maximum of £15 of mileage. I'll always advocate for that base fee to be increased, so I agree with you in that sense.
But mileage is mileage - claiming you've driven more than 42 miles when they've been given a local game is just straightforward dishonesty and it doesn't exactly reinforce the idea that referees should be neutral and fair. And it's also additionally frustrating to other referees (such as me this last weekend) who have had to drive more than the 42 miles for a game and yet are still only able to claim the same as someone who's popped round the corner for a match and then lied about that journey.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
I didnt infer from your post that people were 'lying' about their mileage as that is a different kettle of fish altogether.
My understanding from the email is that people were regularly just claiming £41 (ie £26 fee plus the maximum £15 mileage) regardless of where they had travelled to - by implication, telling the managers they had travelled at least 42 miles when they hadn't necessarily.
SpecsSaver66
Active Member
I'd have thought this was easy to disprove as I thought an address needed to be provided at registration?
Yeah, but this is Sunday league grassroots football. Even in my previous county where it was generally flat fees (ie no mileage) I was often asked "how much ref?" when it came to time for payment, so I doubt there's much chance of them doing the work to calculate mileage. A lot of managers probably don't know that they can look up my address in the handbook (fortunately!) and they probably don't know that mileage is 35p a mile and capped at £15.
So they ask for a number, pay it in cash from their wallet/a tupperware box in the kit bag/by wandering round their players demanding "subs" and then promptly forget about it. At least I assume that's the case for the majority of the time - someone somewhere must have done their due diligence and complained for that email to be sent out, but I absolutely expect that to be the exception rather than the rule!
Anyone being dishonest with clubs over mileage needs to give their head a wobble.
Back in the day, remember getting sent a letter from a league secretary asking about the mileage I’d charged a club, cos I’d caught the bus (£4 or so) instead of driving (as I couldn’t at the time*). You’d have thought I’d have taken a piss in the chairman’s shoes and sent six of them off or something.
*hadn’t passed my test, not banned
Back in the day, remember getting sent a letter from a league secretary asking about the mileage I’d charged a club, cos I’d caught the bus (£4 or so) instead of driving (as I couldn’t at the time*). You’d have thought I’d have taken a piss in the chairman’s shoes and sent six of them off or something.
*hadn’t passed my test, not banned
Local to me, referee's addresses used to be on the list issued to teams every season (but discontinued now). I remember turning up at a ground and the club secretary had my fee ready worked out to the exact penny. He'd obviously checked my address and accurately calculated the mileage I was entitled to in addition to the regular match fee.
Absolutely, it's just asking for trouble.