The Ref Stop

Not allowed to referee on 2 consecutive days.

The Ref Stop
Sounds like nonsense to me......I used to do an open ages on Saturday afternoon after anything from 8 to 12k training run in the morning. Sundays were usually two matches back to back on adjacent pitches or very close grounds. These were youth but normally older groups, U/18 or U/16.
Not very often any problems except at the start of the season or on hard ground.
 
one said:
I do have a bit of an issue with buying the argument of 'beeing fit enough' to do multiple games in one day. The way I see it if you have something left in the tank after doing the first game, you haven't run hard enough or haven't put the Sprint for the long balls etc etc. If you give your first game 100%, all you got, then surely your second game won't be 100 %.

Don't compare your fitness to others who are less fit than you, compare it to those who are more fit, or even to yourself when you only do one game.

If you are doing it for coverage, then that's a different matter. So long as you RA, teams, clubs and the competition organisers are happy with it then I'm am fine with it.
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I disagree with your point that "if you have something left in the tank then you haven't run hard enough". Most footballers play both Saturday and Sunday. I did it for 15 years without a drop off as did all my team mates. Two reffing matches in one day is simply not a huge physical effort for people who are very fit. My twin brother is also a ref, last year he did a dusk till dawn run (50km over night) without a minutes training. He is one of the most naturally fit people you could wish to meet (hate him for it!). He could do 3 games on a Saturday and the same again on a Sunday and not suffer real physical fatigue because he is fit enough. Equally, some people struggle to do one match, its completely down to individual fitness. I'll go for a run with the dog after two games because that's what I do in the evenings and the fact that I've done 2 games that day doesn't stop me doing that. I've many weaknesses as a referee but as for fitness I've got it covered and if was stopped from doing extra games because of fears over my physical capability from someone who doesn't know a thing about me id consider a hobby which doesn't penalise me for reasons which don't apply to myself.

As for duty of care. Refereeing for a person with a high fitness level is not physically difficult. It's more akin to a warm up for those that are long distance runners for example. In no way do such people need others to reduce their number of matches as a 'duty of care'. Thats way beyond the jurisdiction of the local FA. Nobody should judge my physical capability other than myself apart from if I ever reached a level where a fitness test was required (which I wont)
 
And bear in mind the fitness proves nothing other than, you can pass a fitness test!!
its next to no indication of your actual fitness, merely a tick box exercise to placate the powers
 
Mintyref said:
Sounds like nonsense to me......I used to do an open ages on Saturday afternoon after anything from 8 to 12k training run in the morning. Sundays were usually two matches back to back on adjacent pitches or very close grounds. These were youth but normally older groups, U/18 or U/16.
Not very often any problems except at the start of the season or on hard ground.
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8-12km ????? Surely the battery is flat after a couple of miles @Mintyref
 
Sounds a bit stupid to me, but your body needs time to rest, and it can be argued that doing more than one game in a weekend overloads you.

I won't do 2 games on the same day, I've done it once as an appointed referee, and I gave 100% in the first game and was well off the pace in the second, not too bad in in the first half, but bay about 70 minutes in I was knackered both physically and mentally so now the only time I will do two matches in a day is if my wife's team doesn't get a league appointed ref and they ask me to step in.

How are you assigned to matches in France? I get assigned to games by the various leagues that I register with, so if I've made myself available then I get a game, there is no way they would know whether I was refereeing more than one game a weekend unless I told them, or they checked the appointments for all the leagues.

However, if you are assigned by your county FA or equivalent could it be that they've had a number of referees cry off their second game after getting injured in their first? I can imagine it is quite frustrating as a referee secretary to get an email/phone call on Saturday night/Sunday morning from a referee saying they can't do your league cup semi-final because they pulled a muscle on a U12s league match the day before.
 
All appointments are by (equivalent of) county.
It is nothing to do with cry-offs, it has been imposed by the FFF (national) medical commission.
 
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