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When Saturday Comes? Are you refereeing or in the terraces

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The Referee Store
Back to action for me this weekend. Middle tomorrow and on the line on Sunday.
 
Middle tomorrow on a nice grass field... but the home team has lost 8 in a row - I had them a few weeks ago an they were abject... fingers crossed they make a game of it. Home for the second half with the Kloppmeisters!
 
Tough cup game today.

5 yellows, 1 red. Lots of demands from the team down to 10 for a red for the home team. Bit of a rude return to football for me. But, as much as the protests went on, it was red every day of the week. Studs up, straight into the guy's shin and ankle. Amazingly, one of their defenders tried to argue that a normal trip was as dangerous as that challenge... :wall:

Anyway, I was happy to get that decision right. Room for improvement though, must be more consistent with other minor challenges. Onward and upward and so on. :D
 
First game back.
Sunday Senior CC winners (last 5 years) won 6 - 0, one yellow, one pen
No dramas. Struggle to focus for full 90. Often get one or two incidents where i've no idea what happened. KMIs ok however. I think i may be too vocal at times. That's the player in me
 
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FA Youth cup game for me tomorrow night. I'm appointed as AR1, there's an AR2 appointed, but no ref currently.....I've sent an email to the competition organiser, but I'm going to turn up with my whistle ready just in case!
 
GraemeS said:
FA Youth cup game for me tomorrow night. I'm appointed as AR1, there's an AR2 appointed, but no ref currently.....I've sent an email to the competition organiser, but I'm going to turn up with my whistle ready just in case!
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Presume that's a county appointment & the referee FA appointed.

Happens all the time in Middx. Often for Womens National League (Formerly PL) games, referee isn't appointed until 48 hrs before the match.

Anyone had similar experience?
 
PinnerPaul said:
Presume that's a county appointment & the referee FA appointed.

Happens all the time in Middx. Often for Womens National League (Formerly PL) games, referee isn't appointed until 48 hrs before the match.

Anyone had similar experience?
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On a similar note, in the last round of FA Cup appointments, so many of the County appointed assistants dropped out, that on a fair few matches the L4s who were due to be in the middle were switched to AR with their place taken by available L3s ....
 
Russell Jones said:
On a similar note, in the last round of FA Cup appointments, so many of the County appointed assistants dropped out, that on a fair few matches the L4s who were due to be in the middle were switched to AR with their place taken by available L3s ....
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Having done an FA appointment the weekend just gone, I'm not surprised. Out of my house for 7 1/2 hours, came home with £20 in my pocket. I'm not in it for the money, but that did feel like they were pushing it!
 
GraemeS said:
Having done an FA appointment the weekend just gone, I'm not surprised. Out of my house for 7 1/2 hours, came home with £20 in my pocket. I'm not in it for the money, but that did feel like they were pushing it!
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It's a prestige appointment. If you do a county cup final in cheshire, you get paid no fee. Therefore on that basis £20 plus travel expenses to referee, in what is probably the most prestige domestic cup competition in the world seems fair to me.
 
JamesL said:
It's a prestige appointment. If you do a county cup final in cheshire, you get paid no fee. Therefore on that basis £20 plus travel expenses to referee, in what is probably the most prestige domestic cup competition in the world seems fair to me.
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A competition final I understand and am totally on board with as they're very rare events. This was my first FA appointment (an early Vase round), at a level that I hope will become more regular as my career goes on. The competition rules mandate that we are there 90 minutes before kick off - meaning that if you ignore travel completely, that's £20 for 3 1/4 hours.

All I'm saying is that if that became my bread-and-butter rather than a rare opportunity to work at a higher level, I'd see why getting £35 for 3 hours out of the house doing a local league match might start to appeal more than £20 for more than double that time commitment. I was surprised to find out the fee was so low - wheras I wasn't at all surprised when I read that people are turning that down!
 
GraemeS said:
A competition final I understand and am totally on board with as they're very rare events. This was my first FA appointment (an early Vase round), at a level that I hope will become more regular as my career goes on. The competition rules mandate that we are there 90 minutes before kick off - meaning that if you ignore travel completely, that's £20 for 3 1/4 hours.

All I'm saying is that if that became my bread-and-butter rather than a rare opportunity to work at a higher level, I'd see why getting £35 for 3 hours out of the house doing a local league match might start to appeal more than £20 for more than double that time commitment. I was surprised to find out the fee was so low - wheras I wasn't at all surprised when I read that people are turning that down!
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Even as a level 4 these appointments are far apart so it's likely a 1 off. And as a ref the fee is higher still albeit not that much iirc.

All I am saying is that for many referees an appointment of this calibre, with an opportunity at reffing a standard way above what they normally do and the chance to say at the first round proper, I reffed that team in x round is worth way more thsn the fee imo.

As a level 7-5 I was never lucky enough to receiev such an appointment. I would have ripped my appointment officers arm off so to read that referees are declining as they deem the fee paltry is very disappointing.

A side from that, any referee turning down an FA appointment to referee a normal league match is treading on very thin ice if they get caught out as an FA competition ranks very high in the top trumps game.
 
JamesL said:
Even as a level 4 these appointments are far apart so it's likely a 1 off. And as a ref the fee is higher still albeit not that much iirc.

All I am saying is that for many referees an appointment of this calibre, with an opportunity at reffing a standard way above what they normally do and the chance to say at the first round proper, I reffed that team in x round is worth way more thsn the fee imo.

As a level 7-5 I was never lucky enough to receiev such an appointment. I would have ripped my appointment officers arm off so to read that referees are declining as they deem the fee paltry is very disappointing.

A side from that, any referee turning down an FA appointment to referee a normal league match is treading on very thin ice if they get caught out as an FA competition ranks very high in the top trumps game.
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It is also a test for promotion candidates. If they get their level 4 they will be away from home for a long time for minimal money, so if they aren't willing to do it on the way to that level it sets alarm bells ringing. Don't know what it is now, but when I quit L3 a couple of years ago the fee for National League 4th official was £28.50, and that could easily be hours away from home.
 
RustyRef said:
It is also a test for promotion candidates. If they get their level 4 they will be away from home for a long time for minimal money, so if they aren't willing to do it on the way to that level it sets alarm bells ringing. Don't know what it is now, but when I quit L3 a couple of years ago the fee for National League 4th official was £28.50, and that could easily be hours away from home.
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£35 nw OR £55 if televised.
 
JamesL said:
£35 nw OR £55 if televised.
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Thanks, my email was supposed to say easily 8, 9 or even 10 hours away from home. Not a lot for £35, so I totally agree with testing promotion candidates out early. Realistically you won't get above minimum wage until you get to football league if you take travelling into account once you get to L4, so those in it for the money are better staying at levels 7-5 so they can get their £35 for turning up 5 minutes before kick off at the pitch 5 minutes from their house.
 
RustyRef said:
Thanks, my email was supposed to say easily 8, 9 or even 10 hours away from home. Not a lot for £35, so I totally agree with testing promotion candidates out early. Realistically you won't get above minimum wage until you get to football league if you take travelling into account once you get to L4, so those in it for the money are better staying at levels 7-5 so they can get their £35 for turning up 5 minutes before kick off at the pitch 5 minutes from their house.
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A little harsh, even at £35 you'll never get rich!
 
JamesL said:
Even as a level 4 these appointments are far apart so it's likely a 1 off. And as a ref the fee is higher still albeit not that much iirc.

All I am saying is that for many referees an appointment of this calibre, with an opportunity at reffing a standard way above what they normally do and the chance to say at the first round proper, I reffed that team in x round is worth way more thsn the fee imo.

As a level 7-5 I was never lucky enough to receiev such an appointment. I would have ripped my appointment officers arm off so to read that referees are declining as they deem the fee paltry is very disappointing.

A side from that, any referee turning down an FA appointment to referee a normal league match is treading on very thin ice if they get caught out as an FA competition ranks very high in the top trumps game.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm not throwing my toys out of the pram and I'm not going to turn down the next one that comes along. But I didn't look up the fees in advance and was surprised that - given it was a national, FA-run competition - the fees were so low.


If that match was by my front door and I left on the final whistle, I would have been paid around £7/hour. Given that they appointed me to a match an hours drive away, the referee understandably wanted to leave some "getting lost" time and we did the usual post-match debrief, shower and schmoozing in the bar, it worked out at less than £3/hour. I'm really quite surprised that the idea of that being a problem if it's a regular occurrence surprises you!
 
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