Referee Shortage

[Alex_the_ref]

Is it just me or does there seem to be a big shortage in referees this year. It has never been great numbers wise but this year there seem to be loads of uncovered matches and the season has only just started! I'm down in the south east so catchment area is fairly sizey. What is everyone else finding?

I have been going about 10 years and what with work, social commitments I do less than I used to.. but I wonder where everyone has gone!

 

[es1]

yep, definitely a shortage. all leagues up here (saturday, supply, sunday's and midweek floodlits) asking for refs on a regular basis and at short notice.

 

[WalterPinkman]

100%. The two weekend leagues I am on are constantly seeing if anyone is available. What do you reckon is the reason for the decline?

 

[Tino Best]

every weekend I get lots of texts emails and phone calls. Already had one text and one call for this weekend and I am doing 3 middles and one line, although one middle is U14s.

 

[Viking]

In WFA, 80 refs not renewed for 19-20. 20% due to abuse. No details of other reasons. Some appear to be juniors who do the course, get qualified, ref several games but then exams/uni/work takes over and they're lost. Others leave because of no one to turn to. The FA has now promoted a mentor scheme so hopefully many refs will be able to talk through their games with an understanding voice. Refs courses are full of juniors and when an adult only one was put on, no one registered.

 

[lincs22]

In York, we are struggling badly for referees.

One of the issue is that ex players are not taking up refereeing as they did in the past. They are becoming qualified coaches for their children's team, whereas they were becoming referees. The FA have pushed for more qualified coaches and are winning that battle.

A lot of new referees are younger. They do matches in minor football and are still.playing U16 /U19 football on Sunday afternoon. These kids qualify and do a few.matches. They go to Univ and don't continue to referee so are lost. The FA are spending efforts pushing these young lads though the system but they don't stay in for more that a few seasons.

The FA need to push for more ex players to start to referee the grassroots football.

 

[RobOda]

I fielded four calls for matches this coming week that I've had to turn down as I'm booked elsewhere.

I just saw on Twitter, in North Wales apparently one of the Cyrmu Alliance's Development League matches has been called off as not enough referees to do the fixture.

Mind you, last season there were only 1,100 registered referees in Wales. I don't know if the numbers are going up or down this season, but when they're available it should be super accurate though as Wales has adopted the COMET system.

The FA are spending efforts pushing these young lads though the system but they don't stay in for more that a few seasons.

I wish they'd spend on me. I do wonder if the FA's miss out on dedicated older referees sometimes, though to be fair, nearly all the older referees I know of are content to stay where they're at etc.

 

[spuddy1878]

Same here in Liverpool.

Do you think the shortage along with the sin bib laws are actually helping us refs ?

First week of the season we had ten games on the field that i referee on and six of them had to be done by a coach.

Teams have realised that there is a shortage and i believe (might be a coincidence) that behaviour, backchat and overall dissent has already improved.