Tournament fees - youth

[Deleted member 3014]

Wrong.

He came on here moaning that he wasn’t paid enough or what he felt was enough for doing a tournament.

1. You shouldn’t be refereeing any game for the money. If you are, do everyone a favour and either get motivated to do it for the right reasons or stick your kit on EBay

2. No one is forced to do tournaments....don’t like the fee, don’t do it. Simples.

He asked what is a fair rate for a days refereeing.

He didn’t say he was forced or that he only ref’s for the money, it was just a constructive question regarding his experience.

Delusional padfoot your eyes see words that your mind wants them to see.

 

[xPositor]

I organise the refs for my club's junior's tournament. For me, its about making sure the referees enjoy themselves as much as the players do. We pay the same rate as most tournaments in the area, but referees get free food and drink all day (whereas I've done tournaments in the past where you were allowed one burger, and a bottle of water - everything else you had to pay for). I typically arrange three referees to cover two pitches, and leave them to run them - the faster they turn games around the earlier they'll be off at the end of the day. Age of referees is across the spectrum, and I normally get a lot back year after year. It's the main fund raising event of the year, but you've got to enjoy yourself at the end of the day.

 

[Deleted member 3014]

I organise the refs for my club's junior's tournament. For me, its about making sure the referees enjoy themselves as much as the players do. We pay the same rate as most tournaments in the area, but referees get free food and drink all day (whereas I've done tournaments in the past where you were allowed one burger, and a bottle of water - everything else you had to pay for). I typically arrange three referees to cover two pitches, and leave them to run them - the faster they turn games around the earlier they'll be off at the end of the day. Age of referees is across the spectrum, and I normally get a lot back year after year. It's the main fund raising event of the year, but you've got to enjoy yourself at the end of the day.

Did you say free burgers
I like the sound of your tournaments.

 

[Kent Ref]

Wrong.

He came on here moaning that he wasn’t paid enough or what he felt was enough for doing a tournament.

1. You shouldn’t be refereeing any game for the money. If you are, do everyone a favour and either get motivated to do it for the right reasons or stick your kit on EBay

2. No one is forced to do tournaments....don’t like the fee, don’t do it. Simples.

It appears from some of the replies the fee offered was well below the norm.

I am of the opinion that refs deserve a fair rate for a day's reffing. I find your position a bit odd.

 

[Kent Ref]

I organise the refs for my club's junior's tournament. For me, its about making sure the referees enjoy themselves as much as the players do. We pay the same rate as most tournaments in the area, but referees get free food and drink all day (whereas I've done tournaments in the past where you were allowed one burger, and a bottle of water - everything else you had to pay for). I typically arrange three referees to cover two pitches, and leave them to run them - the faster they turn games around the earlier they'll be off at the end of the day. Age of referees is across the spectrum, and I normally get a lot back year after year. It's the main fund raising event of the year, but you've got to enjoy yourself at the end of the day.

Thanks for your reply.

How do you decide what fee to pay the refs? What do you pay for the average tournament?

 

[Mintyref]

Wrong.

He came on here moaning that he wasn’t paid enough or what he felt was enough for doing a tournament.

1. You shouldn’t be refereeing any game for the money. If you are, do everyone a favour and either get motivated to do it for the right reasons or stick your kit on EBay

2. No one is forced to do tournaments....don’t like the fee, don’t do it. Simples.

Not often I disagree @Padfoot but whether you do it for the love of the game or a bit of beer money or as a professional, we all deserve an appropriate fee. Its not so long back that match fees in the East Riding were fixed at £20 per game, less than the minimum wage....not good enough.

 

[Kent Ref]

As with any service, it's worth what people are willing to pay and be paid. In this case there were 14-18 (if you count the no shows) that were willing to officiate for that fee.
If none of those refs agreed to it they would have been forced to increase their fees or cancel the event.
No one will ever go oh we made x amount of money so shall we give more to the refs if the expectation was always that they would ref for the fee.
Similarly, if the fee had been £100 and you felt you only did £80 worth of reffing, you wouldnt have given 20 back to the organiser would you?

To turn that on it head - If you reffed a lot more than you were expected (as i did) would you expect more money? I think i would.

 

[Padfoot]

It appears from some of the replies the fee offered was well below the norm.

I am of the opinion that refs deserve a fair rate for a day's reffing. I find your position a bit odd.

Why? I haven’t offered an opinion on whether the fee was reasonable or not.

All I’ve said is that money shouldn’t be your reason for refereeing and that if you didn’t like the fee offered you didn’t have to do the tournament.

Why did you do the tournament if you weren’t happy with the fee?

 

[JamesL]

To turn that on it head - If you reffed a lot more than you were expected (as i did) would you expect more money? I think i would.

Many factors to consider.
Ultimately, I think that if I had offered my services for a day and it turned out to be a little more then I would probably chalk it up as an experience and not help out next year. Or maybe I'd be more quizzacle as to what the expectation was before accepting again or other tournament days in the future.
Not sure as I would ask for more money, even if I felt it was worth more.

 

[Kent Ref]

Unfortunately i was told there would be X amount of referees and that was a lie. It was rather hot and ended up using my own cash to buy drinks. Another expense after drinking the two bottles i brought with me.

I was also not aware how popular the event was and this is a factor i would use in working out what is reasonable for a fee.

When i use to organise referees for tournaments this would be a factor in deciding the right amount.

It's about being fair to the referees. Out of interest are you a referee who would ref for free?

 

[Kent Ref]

Many factors to consider.
Ultimately, I think that if I had offered my services for a day and it turned out to be a little more then I would probably chalk it up as an experience and not help out next year. Or maybe I'd be more quizzacle as to what the expectation was before accepting again or other tournament days in the future.
Not sure as I would ask for more money, even if I felt it was worth more.

I will definitely be looking for an agreement on some things before i accept next time.

 

[Deleted member 3014]

Unfortunately i was told there would be X amount of referees and that was a lie. It was rather hot and ended up using my own cash to buy drinks. Another expense after drinking the two bottles i brought with me.

I was also not aware how popular the event was and this is a factor i would use in working out what is reasonable for a fee.

When i use to organise referees for tournaments this would be a factor in deciding the right amount.

It's about being fair to the referees. Out of interest are you a referee who would ref for free?

I’m with u Kent, I woudnt be to happy myself with the way it all went down, not because I’m greedy not because money is the only factor i consider (I’d ref all day for nothing if it was for a worthy cause) it just seems the refs weren’t exactly looked after.

But hey live and learn, live and learn.
Next time do a bit more homework on it.

 

[JamesL]

Unfortunately i was told there would be X amount of referees and that was a lie. It was rather hot and ended up using my own cash to buy drinks. Another expense after drinking the two bottles i brought with me.

I was also not aware how popular the event was and this is a factor i would use in working out what is reasonable for a fee.

When i use to organise referees for tournaments this would be a factor in deciding the right amount.

It's about being fair to the referees. Out of interest are you a referee who would ref for free?

Round our way thats not a choice sometimes..if you are appointed to a county final / district final it is no fee. There is a memento given at the end but no cash fee. So in answer to your question, yes I reffed for nothing just 2 weeks ago.

I am not saying the fee was acceptable/nor am I saying it is below/above the norm nor if it isn fair or not. What i am saying is that you knew that was the fee before taking the appointment.

have you spoken to the organiser and explained you did more than you were expecting and given them an opportunity to put it right, in your view?

I think my over riding point, apart from above is that theres little that can be done now other than chalk it up to experience and avoid it like the plague next year and get fellow refs to do the same if you feel strongly about it, particularly if you feel there was an element of dishonesty.

 

[Sheffields Finest]

I did a charity game a few months ago, turned into a 4-5 hour p1ss up and free food.... I was happy to donate my fee and a further £20 in the collection box for the local Stroke Unit, I may not be financially challenged but I understand that refs don’t need abusing too financially with long days for meager reward. We’ve all got a charitable side but organizers shouldn’t abuse the fact.

 

[Kent Ref]

Round our way thats not a choice sometimes..if you are appointed to a county final / district final it is no fee. There is a memento given at the end but no cash fee. So in answer to your question, yes I reffed for nothing just 2 weeks ago.

I am not saying the fee was acceptable/nor am I saying it is below/above the norm nor if it isn fair or not. What i am saying is that you knew that was the fee before taking the appointment.

have you spoken to the organiser and explained you did more than you were expecting and given them an opportunity to put it right, in your view?

I think my over riding point, apart from above is that theres little that can be done now other than chalk it up to experience and avoid it like the plague next year and get fellow refs to do the same if you feel strongly about it, particularly if you feel there was an element of dishonesty.

On the day i spoke to the organiser and said the lack of refs was disappointing. When i asked who "no showed" he offered no names. Pure deception.

Regardless of what happened i am interested to know what other refs think they are worth an hour at a tournament. So far nobody has put a price on it. I reckon £7.50 a hour is a good minimum.

 

[Deleted member 3014]

I’d just forget about it tbh, to many factors to consider if your trying to put a figure on it or work out what your worth p/h.

In all honesty until your there on the day your not gonna know what you’ve let yourself in for, just expect the unexpected & be half happy with the fee arranged before hand.

Did you not consider pulling a hamstring at any point on the day

I know I know I’m a bad man..

 

[Padfoot]

Unfortunately i was told there would be X amount of referees and that was a lie. It was rather hot and ended up using my own cash to buy drinks. Another expense after drinking the two bottles i brought with me.

I was also not aware how popular the event was and this is a factor i would use in working out what is reasonable for a fee.

When i use to organise referees for tournaments this would be a factor in deciding the right amount.

It's about being fair to the referees. Out of interest are you a referee who would ref for free?

Yep...have done on many occasions....charity matches, cup finals...etc etc...

Never been about the money for me. Worst possible reason anyone could pick up a whistle.

 

[Kent Ref]

When i said referee for free i was not referring to cup finals and charity games. I've done those and still do those.

My question is would you ref a saturday / sunday league game for free?

For the first ten years i think i would have done but as the behaviour as declined my desire to ref for free declined too.

 

[Sheffields Finest]

I still get asked for lots of games especially Charity games and even tournaments, it was hard to say no for all my referee career as I got longer in the tooth my level dropped to one per season. Not saying I’ll never do another but it would have to be something very special and something to which I had an affinity to...

My sons a Ref now so I pass them his name!

 

[GraemeS]

Yep...have done on many occasions....charity matches, cup finals...etc etc...

Never been about the money for me. Worst possible reason anyone could pick up a whistle.

So for a good cause and for the honour of being chosen. So not just for the hell of it then? There are hundreds of reasons a ref might pick up the whistle in the first place - as long as they do a good job once they're qualified, I couldn't care less what the reasons are.

I did an all day tournament back in my first run for £30 and a bottle of lucozade. For the effort and the aggro involved, it definitely didn't feel worth it. I regularly get paid a match fee of £35 nowadays, so yeah, it would probably take somewhere in the ballpark of £75 to get me to do a full day's reffing in place of one of my two weekly rest days at this point. If that means there aren't tournaments nearby that want me, then I guess I've got a quiet summer ahead.