I have found this site extra helpful in seeing the approaches to refereeing made by many peers in the game, especially from different countries. It also strikes me that it would be interesting to compare in greater detail the whole life style set up (admin, day to day, cost) of referees from various areas.
To kick off (!) I am from Perth Western Australia. The State has a population of about 2.7 million and an area the size of Western Europe! 2.0m of these live in Perth. Football here is a growing, but still minor sport: Perth has two Aussie rules teams which each get around 38 - 40,000 for home games. Our single fully pro Association Football (soccer as Aussies call it) team, Perth Glory, get around 9,000 per game.
ORGANISATION
Football Federation of Australia (FFA) are the overall ruling body and run the A-League. Football West run everything at state level. We have as semi pro, a national Premier League and below that State Leagues 1 and 2 (with promotion between them all). As for as Sunday (amateur) soccer goes, we have a large number of Amateur, Metropolitan and Masters (over 35) Leagues all with 6 - 10 divisions. There is also a vast number of Junior leagues. Almost all of this is Perth or environs based.
ADMINISTRATION
Perth has about 500 - 600 referees. Here in Australia we have only 4 grades of referee. Passing the course you became level 4, with a further course (and LOTG and video test) to reach 3. Levels 2 and 1 involve further courses and fitness testing.
I am a level 3 referee and generally work at adult Metropolitan league level (I prefer to ref Ladies games, much less hassle). All games are allocated from FootballWest, who do an excellent job in organising fixtures. Our amateur season runs from April to September (unlike A-League which is October to April).
We have monthly coaching sessions to discuss Laws and their applications (voluntary) usually attended by 50 -100 referees, These are usually great fun and very informative and stops you feeling you are out there on your own.
MATCHES
I usually get allocated by email, two Sunday games each week. lists of unallocated games are sent out each Friday and extra games can be applied for, all by email. I never need to correspond with clubs, this is all dealt with by FW. At each game, match sheets are collected by me from both teams with full list of players, shirt numbers and reg numbers. If I caution or send off, I merely note the player's number. After the game I send the sheets, with all goals, goal times and misconduct times to FW. If I red card anyone, then I also send in a full report (we just note Y 1-7 or R 1-7 we don't use further codes I read about on site here). FW are very good at dealing with misconduct with fines and suspensions. Facilities can be pretty basic, for many games it is simpler to change at side of pitch than seek out a changing room (particularly as I deal with Ladies games, I can hardly ask to share facilities)
We play full LOTG, except that most leagues below Amateur use interchange subs (five subs, no limit on changes). At my level we use CAR, though NARs are provided for later cup rounds.
COST
We pay $235 (146.57 GB pounds) each season to register for adult games (less for just juniors, more if you do NPL or State leagues).
Kit is paid for by each ref, Shirt $40 (25 gbp) shorts $30 (25 gbp) socks $10 (6 gbp). We have four colours of shirt (red/blue/yellow/black) so to fully kit out costs about $200 (125 gbp). Refs also need buy cards, whistle and AR flags.
For games we get paid at my level BEFORE the match. Men's games get $84 (52 gbp) and Ladies $74 (46 gbp). Pay is of course higher for State leagues (NPL $185, State $125) and lower for Juniors (17/18s - $66 down to 12s - $30)
I would be very interested on hearing comments from any of you in UK (or elsewhere) on the differences in how football is arranged there for referees. Apologies for long post.
To kick off (!) I am from Perth Western Australia. The State has a population of about 2.7 million and an area the size of Western Europe! 2.0m of these live in Perth. Football here is a growing, but still minor sport: Perth has two Aussie rules teams which each get around 38 - 40,000 for home games. Our single fully pro Association Football (soccer as Aussies call it) team, Perth Glory, get around 9,000 per game.
ORGANISATION
Football Federation of Australia (FFA) are the overall ruling body and run the A-League. Football West run everything at state level. We have as semi pro, a national Premier League and below that State Leagues 1 and 2 (with promotion between them all). As for as Sunday (amateur) soccer goes, we have a large number of Amateur, Metropolitan and Masters (over 35) Leagues all with 6 - 10 divisions. There is also a vast number of Junior leagues. Almost all of this is Perth or environs based.
ADMINISTRATION
Perth has about 500 - 600 referees. Here in Australia we have only 4 grades of referee. Passing the course you became level 4, with a further course (and LOTG and video test) to reach 3. Levels 2 and 1 involve further courses and fitness testing.
I am a level 3 referee and generally work at adult Metropolitan league level (I prefer to ref Ladies games, much less hassle). All games are allocated from FootballWest, who do an excellent job in organising fixtures. Our amateur season runs from April to September (unlike A-League which is October to April).
We have monthly coaching sessions to discuss Laws and their applications (voluntary) usually attended by 50 -100 referees, These are usually great fun and very informative and stops you feeling you are out there on your own.
MATCHES
I usually get allocated by email, two Sunday games each week. lists of unallocated games are sent out each Friday and extra games can be applied for, all by email. I never need to correspond with clubs, this is all dealt with by FW. At each game, match sheets are collected by me from both teams with full list of players, shirt numbers and reg numbers. If I caution or send off, I merely note the player's number. After the game I send the sheets, with all goals, goal times and misconduct times to FW. If I red card anyone, then I also send in a full report (we just note Y 1-7 or R 1-7 we don't use further codes I read about on site here). FW are very good at dealing with misconduct with fines and suspensions. Facilities can be pretty basic, for many games it is simpler to change at side of pitch than seek out a changing room (particularly as I deal with Ladies games, I can hardly ask to share facilities)
We play full LOTG, except that most leagues below Amateur use interchange subs (five subs, no limit on changes). At my level we use CAR, though NARs are provided for later cup rounds.
COST
We pay $235 (146.57 GB pounds) each season to register for adult games (less for just juniors, more if you do NPL or State leagues).
Kit is paid for by each ref, Shirt $40 (25 gbp) shorts $30 (25 gbp) socks $10 (6 gbp). We have four colours of shirt (red/blue/yellow/black) so to fully kit out costs about $200 (125 gbp). Refs also need buy cards, whistle and AR flags.
For games we get paid at my level BEFORE the match. Men's games get $84 (52 gbp) and Ladies $74 (46 gbp). Pay is of course higher for State leagues (NPL $185, State $125) and lower for Juniors (17/18s - $66 down to 12s - $30)
I would be very interested on hearing comments from any of you in UK (or elsewhere) on the differences in how football is arranged there for referees. Apologies for long post.
