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PinnerPaul

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Another question related to 'my' team - sorry!

An Australian on his 2nd season in the Championship is refereeing Millwall v QPR tomorrow. Apparently when he came over last season he was given a League 2, League 1 and Champs middle as his first 3 games.

How does EFL/PGMOL decide on the appropriate level of relatively high profile referees such as this?

Thanks
 
The Referee Store
Not sure on how it’s done although I’m assuming it’s Jared Gillet who’s brilliant! Have you watched the micd up referee performance on YouTube? Obviously has a lot of respect from the players and we will hopefully see him in the premier league eventually
 
Jared Gillet was put straight onto SG2, but sensibly they gave him a couple of lower league games to get him used to English football.

When a referee moves from overseas their level at home is assessed against where this compares with the English game. Jared was and still is (I think) a FIFA referee operating on the A-League so he was always going to come straight into the senior game. In the past few years I'm aware of FIFA female referees coming from overseas who were put at level 5 but then immediately given observations to see if they could start at level 4. I'm not sure there is a hard and fast rule and rather they are all assessed individually.
 
A follow-up question would be, what is the promotion/relegation process from SG2/SG1 referees? Is there a set process (something similar to leagues where 2 least performing drop and two best performing move up)?
 
A similar situation happened with Iranian Ali Faghani, who has moved to Australia and was immediately put on the Hyundai A-League referee staff. Pretty easy call for the A-League to put a referee of Faghani's quality on its staff right away. It isn't every day a World Cup referee moves to your country.

In Gillet's case, putting him on the SG2 list seemed to be the right call. Had he moved to the US, there's little doubt he would have immediately been put on MLS matches since the A-League and MLS are on a somewhat similar tier (MLS may be a little better, but the gap probably isn't that great). But for an Australian referee to move to England, going right to the Premier League would be a big jump. Plus, Gillet is in England because of his post-doctoral work first and foremost (I believe he focuses on something related to cerebral palsy or a similar type of neurological disorder, so he's definitely not a dumb jock). His research work may make scheduling a bit trickier.

We may see Gillet work a Premier League match or two later this year, but if it happens it probably will be a match between two mid-table teams with no European or relegation implications.
 
One thing not mentioned here is that Gillett was easily the best referee in Australia, peaked early, stayed on top but nowhere to go from there in Australia. Looking at his Wiki page, he refereed the A-League grand final (biggest game in Australia) 5 times in 9 seasons. First one being in his second season. Is he ready for premier league centre? Many people including me think so. That's why I asked about the process.
 
RefIADad said:
We may see Gillet work a Premier League match or two later this year, but if it happens it probably will be a match between two mid-table teams with no European or relegation implications.
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He’s VAR Friday night for Leeds v West Ham United, something he’s already done on at least one other occasion this season.
 
Yampy said:
He’s VAR Friday night for Leeds v West Ham United, something he’s already done on at least one other occasion this season.
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Sorry, I should have been more clear and said I expect Gillet to work a Premier League center this season. He's worked a lot of VAR assignments and some fourth official assignments the last two seasons.

To be clear, I absolutely think Gillet could handle a Premier League match in the middle. I'd certainly trust him more than at least two of the SG1 referees (who I won't name here, but if you start making guesses you'll probably get the two I'm thinking of pretty quickly) currently working matches.
 
I was more trying to strengthen your claim than anything else by showing that he’s already in that group. The teams have been/will be Leeds, West Ham, Arsenal and Crystal Palace, the very definition of mid table mediocrity in 2020.
 
RustyRef said:
Jared Gillet was put straight onto SG2, but sensibly they gave him a couple of lower league games to get him used to English football.

When a referee moves from overseas their level at home is assessed against where this compares with the English game. Jared was and still is (I think) a FIFA referee operating on the A-League so he was always going to come straight into the senior game. In the past few years I'm aware of FIFA female referees coming from overseas who were put at level 5 but then immediately given observations to see if they could start at level 4. I'm not sure there is a hard and fast rule and rather they are all assessed individually.
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Thanks RR & others for the further information - I'll let you know how I think he performed! :p ;)
 
one said:
A follow-up question would be, what is the promotion/relegation process from SG2/SG1 referees? Is there a set process (something similar to leagues where 2 least performing drop and two best performing move up)?
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That is where there is a problem. Because referees at SG1 and SG2 are employees it seems that it is very difficult to demote officials due to employment law. I think the last two referees to be demoted from SG1 were Steve Tanner in 2009 and Keith Stroud in 2010.

Whereas at levels below that there are automatic demotion (they call it retention) criteria and obviously no employment laws to save your bacon.
 
From the little I've seen of Gillet, I think English football would have been much better off if they had immediately put him into the PL. I've got a friend who goes to Colchester matches and when they had Gillet once ( I think for their FA cup game against Spurs?), I was told that he was worlds ahead of their usual league 2 referees.
 
Here's my next question related to Gillet. If he is promoted to SG1, must he then become a full-time referee and give up his post-doctoral work? It seems to me that his current full-time job is something that he cares about and would want to continue. If it is related to neurological study like I think it is, then that would certainly be meaningful and important work. Would he be able to continue that and still officiate? I would think he would have enough flexibility in his work where he could be able to structure what he's doing or have some location flexibility. It's not like he's working a job where he would always have to be at one desk 9-5 every weekday.
 
I believe several select group referees have continued with work in the past - Howard Webb did for a while - whether that's still possible now I don't know.

Lost my internet last night at half time, so only seen the first half of his game at the moment, but the general reaction from QPR fans to Gillet was positive.

3 yellow cards, all for QPR players and no big moans means he had a very good game I think.

Very 'quiet' style from the 45' I've seen so far and although clearly this is not enough to judge, to me it seemed to let a little more go than the 'average' Championship referee.
 
RefIADad said:
Here's my next question related to Gillet. If he is promoted to SG1, must he then become a full-time referee and give up his post-doctoral work? It seems to me that his current full-time job is something that he cares about and would want to continue. If it is related to neurological study like I think it is, then that would certainly be meaningful and important work. Would he be able to continue that and still officiate? I would think he would have enough flexibility in his work where he could be able to structure what he's doing or have some location flexibility. It's not like he's working a job where he would always have to be at one desk 9-5 every weekday.
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I think they can still carry on as long as they can combine it with committing to mandatory training sessions, seminars, and basically everything an SG1 has to do. Remember as well that technically SG2 referees are also now full time.

Jon Moss runs a record shop, seem to remember that Clattenburg and Rob Styles ran their own businesses, sure there will have been other cases as well.
 
RustyRef said:
I think they can still carry on as long as they can combine it with committing to mandatory training sessions, seminars, and basically everything an SG1 has to do. Remember as well that technically SG2 referees are also now full time.

Jon Moss runs a record shop, seem to remember that Clattenburg and Rob Styles ran their own businesses, sure there will have been other cases as well.
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Roger East runs a Sawmill with his brother I believe
 
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