The Ref Stop

Mid season change to L5-4 promotion criteria

deusex

deusex

RefChat Addict
Just received an email stating that I now need TEN lines as opposed to the FIVE that was stated when I parted with £50 to go for promotion in February.
This complicates things considerably for me, my Saturday league does not use ARs
Changing the criteria 5 months into the season is taking the proverbial a bit.
 
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The Ref Stop
Totally agree that changing conditions once folk have signed up is out of order.

That said, given the amount of lining that L4s inevitably end up doing, seems a sensible change (just badly timed)

Could you speak to your County FA and ask them to prioritise you for AR appointment in the County Cups?
 
Mewcenary said:
10 middles or 10 lines?
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I believe he means 10 lines and we had this discussion a few days (weeks?) ago with another form user. When you get L4 you will be expected to do probably twice as many lines as middles, therefore there is an expectation of increased commitment before you get to that level.
 
Has there been any change to stop referees, who are going 5-4, being assessed without having neutral assistants?
 
bester said:
Has there been any change to stop referees, who are going 5-4, being assessed without having neutral assistants?
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It is extremely rare for any L5 to referee WITH assistants in my County. There just aren't enough officials to put assistants out and the standard of assistants who would be available wouldn't do the referee being assessed any favours (they might even end up with old men like me on their line ;) )
 
The only time we have AR's in my county is in August, Bank holidays and may be towards the end of the season when all of the junior leagues (L7 referee's)

I've been fortunate enough with being given 2 county prem games and having AR's on both games in August, whislt going for my L5 this season!!
 
PinnerPaul said:
Out of interest does anyone know why the promotion season start/end isn't the same as the worldwide football season?
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I'll take a stab. English Football administrators are incompetent and need the additional time to get everything in order.
 
PinnerPaul said:
Out of interest does anyone know why the promotion season start/end isn't the same as the worldwide football season?
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I'm pretty sure it's so a referee has to commit to 2 seasons to get promoted and can't just quit after one in theory. But I'm not 100% sure.
 
PinnerPaul said:
But that could apply to 1st July - 30th June season could it not?
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It could, but I think the idea is that you wouldn't be able to fit in all of the criteria between the start of the season in August and February which is the end of the promotion season. Whereas if you did it July to June, you would be able to fit the games in, in one season quite easily. I don't really know the ins and outs, it was something that was mentioned to me in passing at an RA meeting but I think the main reason is a commitment thing.
 
As Bester has said, my understanding is that it is designed in the way it is, so that all of the promotion seminars can take place before the pre-season begins and then the newly promoted officials (at the higher end of the spectrum) manage to get a few matches worth of experience under their belt before the start of the new season.

Going back to the point about the seminar's, the Football League and Premier League seminars (PGMOL) can then distribute kit and run fitness tests for those who have been newly promoted without interfering with the start of the season. In general it gives more preparation time for those who have just been promoted. To be entirely honest, I would much prefer it this way, than the promotion season end in July, not find out until August who has been promoted and then have to inform my leagues whether I have been promoted as the registration forms would have already been sent in.

The same above applies for Supply Leagues. Having level 5's register to their normal leagues, then to find out in August that they have been promoted, then fitting a fitness test in whilst pulling out of the other leagues they have signed up to, would not be practical.
 
I believe the 1 March-28 February marking year is a bit of a legacy from the times when everything was done on paper and marks/ merit lists collated manually before being put before a committee for a decision. Hence the decisions were often announced towards the end of the season even though the marking year had in fact finished a few months previous.

The marking year is beginning to change across various levels. National list officials have been on a playing season marking year (August - May) for a number of seasons as have the levels 2A & 2B. It would not surprise me if this slowly trickles down to Level 3 and 4 in the not too distant future. Below that is anyone's guess as its impact would be across all the County FAs rather than at levels administered by the FA nationally.
 
There is no such thing as a semi professional Sunday league. Even if some do have better quality top divisions than some supply leagues!
 
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