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Public School Reffing

Scottybee

Member
Level 7 Referee
I’ve just registered with a local to me very posh UK Public school who have been asking for referees for their inter school U12/18s teams.

Has anyone here been involved in these type of games? I’m curious if there are any expected Differences in behaviour from players or what is expected from referees In games within this type of setting. Any shared experiences would be useful.

thanks
 
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I’ve just registered with a local to me very posh UK Public school who have been asking for referees for their inter school U12/18s teams.

Has anyone here been involved in these type of games? I’m curious if there are any expected Differences in behaviour from players or what is expected from referees In games within this type of setting. Any shared experiences would be useful.

thanks
CFA's often appoint for these, rather than the school finding referees.
From my experiences at Eton (as a referee, not a pupil!) be ready to be called "Sir" by players, don't be surprised if there are Protection Officers on the sideline (some politicians' offspring have armed officers to protect them), and probably afternoon tea after the game instead of a burger and beer.
Playing wise, same as any other game.
Enjoy!
 
I referee regularly at my local very well known public school.

Pitches are superb and maintained by a full time ground staff. I do the 16 - 18 year olds mainly.

This particular school has lots of sides - 1st team (17/18 year olds) gets a decent number of spectators, other matches (especially midweek) hardly anyone. The Saturday matches (as part of a day involving many teams and different sports) has an ambulance and doctor in attendance, all matches have a dedicated first aider in attendance.

Paid before the match, behaviour by everyone is usually excellent, its still football, so there is obviously the odd disagreement but never, to date, ever got further than that.

Match length tends to be a bit shorter for some reason, the 18s only play a maximum of 40' e/way and friendlies are sometimes only 35'.

All in all an excellent experience but the games are very unlikely to give you the chance to manage difficult games or players - up to you if that's a good or bad thing, depending where you are in your refereeing 'career' I guess?

Appointed by the school btw, I started by sending an email to the school and that's grown to a pool of 3 or 4 of us working their regularly.
 
CFA's often appoint for these, rather than the school finding referees.
From my experiences at Eton (as a referee, not a pupil!) be ready to be called "Sir" by players, don't be surprised if there are Protection Officers on the sideline (some politicians' offspring have armed officers to protect them), and probably afternoon tea after the game instead of a burger and beer.
Playing wise, same as any other game.
Enjoy!
Ohhhh - never seen a protection officer - unless disguised as a tree or some such! :p
 
Sorry if off topic but reading the protection bit reminds me of many visits to her majesty's detention facilities

Funny enough, home games only. Escorted to a changing room with guard outside, Escorted to pitch.

away team same, bussed in, flanked by guards.

on the pitch, not as scary as it sounds, the prison teams considered it a treat to play and knew any sign of trouble and they were banned.

amazingly, in years to come, i befriended someone who, unbeknown to me ( and all but family) had spent time in one of the facilities and yes, time wise, i must have reffed him.
 
I’ve just registered with a local to me very posh UK Public school who have been asking for referees for their inter school U12/18s teams.

Has anyone here been involved in these type of games? I’m curious if there are any expected Differences in behaviour from players or what is expected from referees In games within this type of setting. Any shared experiences would be useful.

thanks
I’ve done my own school games which helps towards my GCSE’s- most other schools call us posh, we’re not a private school. Just a state school in a nice area. Usually the teams are very well behaved and there is some disagreements but never too much. Overall it’s good to get one of these games- especially if you have had a bad game and are looking for a nice way back!
 
Thanks for the insights. Although I believe the school itself make the appointments for the games, this has come about after my CFA sent out a request on behalf of the school who are looking to build a small pool of refs.

I don’t know if any of these games would be officially sanctioned/affiliated to a CFA and so how discipline/sanctions are recorded or not.

playing on good pitches at nice facility’s and being called sir certainly sounds appealing as I have plenty of the exact opposite at my local grass roots youth games 😀
 
Thanks for the insights. Although I believe the school itself make the appointments for the games, this has come about after my CFA sent out a request on behalf of the school who are looking to build a small pool of refs.

I don’t know if any of these games would be officially sanctioned/affiliated to a CFA and so how discipline/sanctions are recorded or not.

playing on good pitches at nice facility’s and being called sir certainly sounds appealing as I have plenty of the exact opposite at my local grass roots youth games 😀
I was told by the Head of PE at my school that only bookings and red cards for the national league/ cup go in. Anything in local leagues/ cups I don’t need to send in. Only national.
 
That is worth checking, to ensure you are doing the job correctly.
I agree. Would I just do the normal procedure? I was given a excel document to fill it out on and it already has a template so I just fill in the gaps with names and send it off. I might just email someone from my CFA to double check?
 
I agree. Would I just do the normal procedure? I was given a excel document to fill it out on and it already has a template so I just fill in the gaps with names and send it off. I might just email someone from my CFA to double check?
Would be best to talk to your local County School’s FA as the CFA may have 0 clue, for example here Kent School’s FA misconduct is sent directly in via email, rather than whole-game.
 
I've done a few public school games. Did one a few years back where the away team player slides in and recklessly fouls the home team skipper.
I blow the whistle and get the player over and he says "I'm terribly sorry sir, that was a really badly timed tackle" followed by "thank you, sir" when I cautioned him.

At the end of the game, he comes over to shake my hand and apologises to me saying "I'm so sorry I put you in the position where you had to book me sir, thank you very much for today" before wandering off.

Still makes me laugh to this day.
 
I've done a few public school games. Did one a few years back where the away team player slides in and recklessly fouls the home team skipper.
I blow the whistle and get the player over and he says "I'm terribly sorry sir, that was a really badly timed tackle" followed by "thank you, sir" when I cautioned him.

At the end of the game, he comes over to shake my hand and apologises to me saying "I'm so sorry I put you in the position where you had to book me sir, thank you very much for today" before wandering off.

Still makes me laugh to this day.
That's on a par with my colleague's tale of receiving 3 hand written apology letters from 3 passing boys who had very mildly queried a throw in decision in a game he was referee on the previous week.
 
Attended, and later referee'd, at Winchester College. On either side, just felt like a standard U16 game.
 
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