Referee shortage

[Dave James]

Email sent on behalf of the The Whirlwind Sports Trelawny League by Luke Wilkes

Dave James,

Good morning, 

Unfortunately it is looking like the referee shortage has not yet abated for September and all dates for league fixtures we will need YOUR HELP! 

1. To be able to get more games covered we need teams to have some flexibility over kick off times to be able to cover as many games as possible. Staggering kick offs of 12/12:30 and 3:00 would be much appreciated where possible, with you working with other local clubs. 

2. Please encourage positive behaviour towards YOUR referees. Already this season we have had reports of negative experiences from referees and this will eventually lead to less referees and more games in which you will need to use an unqualified referee. 

Apologies for having to send this out. Please note that Junior Cup games probably can't be changed due to the possible need for ET and Penalties. 

If you can change kick off times after liaising with opponents and other local clubs please let me know asap. We will set a deadline of 9pm this evening which then allows us to appoint referees for 4/9, 11/9 and 18/9. 

Kind Regards 

Luke and Charlie

[Sijames]

What about playing the odd sunday game if both teams (and officials agree)? 

[Dave James]

With the amount of Sunday League , vets , women’s and youth football already taking place refs are again in short supply .

I have no problem with Sunday matches if all are in agreement but it’s not so simple as you think 🤔 

[Dave James]

Hi all,

We have just appointed the Junior Cup and as it stands there are 0 referees left to do games on that date.

That means in Trelawny League all games will be *No referee Available* and in Duchy any games added will not have a referee.

Not a great situation currently!

Kind Regards

Luke Wilkes

[Sijames]

Should of listened to the clubs many a year Ago and stopped accepting nee clubs / teams entering the leagues, made the amount of leagues smaller which would of not put this strain on a small amount of officials.

[skinner]

46 minutes ago, Sijames said:

Should of listened to the clubs many a year Ago and stopped accepting nee clubs / teams entering the leagues, made the amount of leagues smaller which would of not put this strain on a small amount of officials.

I agree

[S Abbo]

Can you have an official from the club ref ? Like a few years ago?

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

1 minute ago, Keith B said:

Yes I think so. Some folk will always shout bias, but I think most club officials did a good and honest job.

You generally find a club official goes out of their way to be fair by favouring the away club, hell of a thing to do.

Same with club lino's,  they can get terrible abuse from the know all's watching.

[Dave Bartlam]

1 hour ago, TheolderIgetthebetterIwas said:

You generally find a club official goes out of their way to be fair by favouring the away club, hell of a thing to do.

Same with club lino's,  they can get terrible abuse from the know all's watching.

I remember playing for Titans a few seasons ago... Had to ref a game... Yellow carded one of my own players, he asked me not to send it in... I'm obligated to send it in... I sent it in... He transferred to Illogan the very next day 😳

It's not always an easy task (reffing your own side) but you do tend to favour the opposing team as you don't want to be blamed for being biased 

[peggy78]

2 hours ago, Sijames said:

Should of listened to the clubs many a year Ago and stopped accepting nee clubs / teams entering the leagues, made the amount of leagues smaller which would of not put this strain on a small amount of officials.

The AGM is where the clubs vote. It is up to them to accept or not, so its not the Leagues listening to the clubs, but actually the Leagues following out the Clubs wishes. 

2 hours ago, S Abbo said:

Can you have an official from the club ref ? Like a few years ago?

"The clubs SHALL agree upon a referee". This is an FA ruling meaning that the 2 sides must agree on a referee for the match. They don't have to be a qualified official but anyone who assumes the role of a referee gains full powers of the match official for that day

 

[Dave Bartlam]

7 minutes ago, peggy78 said:

The AGM is where the clubs vote. It is up to them to accept or not, so its not the Leagues listening to the clubs, but actually the Leagues following out the Clubs wishes. 

"The clubs SHALL agree upon a referee". This is an FA ruling meaning that the 2 sides must agree on a referee for the match

Without looking, I don't think that ruling (teamsheets) could be changed at the AGM. I'm pretty sure that like the one about the referee, it's mandatory.

[peggy78]

1 minute ago, Dave Bartlam said:

Without looking, I don't think that ruling (teamsheets) could be changed at the AGM. I'm pretty sure that like the one about the referee, it's mandatory.

That was the other thread 😂

 

[Sijames]

Why when they is far from a full ‘senior’ league fixture list this week are there not any midweek games in the Trelawny leagues? Given the lack of officials on Saturdays surly it isn’t hard to think outside the box a little and have some (even 1!!) fixtures during the week to ease the burden? Nights are still light enough for 6:15ko to get games in, and would avoid teams having to miss out.

[FootballChat]

12 minutes ago, Sijames said:

Why when they is far from a full ‘senior’ league fixture list this week are there not any midweek games in the Trelawny leagues? Given the lack of officials on Saturdays surly it isn’t hard to think outside the box a little and have some (even 1!!) fixtures during the week to ease the burden? Nights are still light enough for 6:15ko to get games in, and would avoid teams having to miss out.

6.15pm kick off means teams and officials needing to be at the ground for 5.30pm latest really to have a full & proper warm up.

How many players, managers and officials work until 5.30pm across the county and would need 30-45mins to travel to the match? Even if you kept the fixtures local you'd still have a number of players/referees that commute to work and would need a decent amount of time to get there.

[Martin Eddy]

But it is happening in St. Pirans League at St. Day tonight and Redruth United tomorrow 

[baldy]

Left St Day at 20:03, fairly dark and still 7+ minutes to play. Score then 3-0. Not too practical when sunset is 19:51, especially if cloudy.

[Steve Carpenter]

On 04/09/2021 at 07:30, Sijames said:

Should of listened to the clubs many a year Ago and stopped accepting nee clubs / teams entering the leagues, made the amount of leagues smaller which would of not put this strain on a small amount of officials.

Lets not forget that despite the new/reformed teams that have been elected in by the clubs the League is way down on the peak membership of @97 teams in 12-13.  Without those that joined the League for this season the numbers would have been in the low 40's.  After the leagues formation the number of clubs/teams declined continually until 17-18 and then stabilized @67.  The re-org in 19-20 saw the league lose 14 teams and when you take that into account numbers have been stable since.  The biggest factor is that over the last 10 seasons the number of referee's has declined faster than the number of clubs/teams.

[Richard Chown]

12 minutes ago, Steve Carpenter said:

 The biggest factor is that over the last 10 seasons the number of referee's has declined faster than the number of clubs/teams.

Prob the most worrying comment I've seen on the forum

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

1 hour ago, Richard Chown said:

Prob the most worrying comment I've seen on the forum

And applies to all sports, interest in local football,  rugby and cricket has been waning for years.

Other things to do these days, things we never had and its unstoppable. 

It will plateau out but it will go a bit lower yet I'm afraid! 

[Dave Bartlam]

It's not just here in Cornwall...

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this open letter. I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update and make all of our stakeholders aware of the current challenges we face on the refereeing side of the game. 

In what has been a really difficult and challenging 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been working hard throughout this period to engage, support and offer our volunteer workforce as much support as we possibly can, which has included online training and development, guest speakers, training modules, mental health and wellbeing support and regular contact to ensure our referees feel supported and valued. 

Also, during this period we set up our inaugural ‘Match Official Consultation Group’ in order to ensure that we better engage and listen to the needs of our referee workforce and look to implement any key changes to offer improved support and development. Listening to our volunteer workforce is something that I am very passionate about and I’ll ensure we do this at regular intervals during the season.    

As the vast majority of our leagues commence their respective seasons this coming weekend, it is sad to hear of the shortage of referees completing their registration for 2021/22 or making themselves available to leagues and clubs. This is not only a problem that we are experiencing here at North Riding County FA – it appears to be a problem nationally. 

In order to be fully transparent, as of today (9 September), our re-registration sign up is around 69% of last season’s registrations. We are working extremely hard to try and increase and welcome back the 31% that have not completed the process so far, and we hope that many will over the coming weeks. In the past month, we have also trained around 60 new referees and we are currently supporting them through mentor support and ongoing training, to ensure they make the transition into grassroots football. 

Clearly, there is a number of reasons for the shortage, and the Covid-19 pandemic has played a significant part in perhaps a number not completing their re-registration due to losing some interest or other key reasons. 

I do, however, feel that I need to raise the following points and ask for the support of our ‘grassroots family’ to ensure that we all play our part in ensuring we can recruit and retain enough referees to support the grassroots game.  

I feel everybody within the game needs to consider the way in which they treat referees. Some of the reported conduct and behaviour that I and my colleagues hear about and have to deal with on a weekly basis is totally unacceptable and quite simply does not help to recruit and retain referees. Whilst the conduct and behaviour is not the sole reason for the shortage, it is a fundamental reason, and everybody within the game must consider and change their behaviour towards referees or the shortage will only increase. 

I fully understand how passionate a game of football is for everybody involved (players, coaches, parents and family members) and our referees understand this too and work very hard to ensure you all have a positive experience on a weekend. 

Our referees make honest decisions, yes they will make mistakes, just like our players and coaches will do – this is football, and at times, a decision or two will go against your team, and not be ideal or what you expect – we all understand this, and trust me; nobody is more disappointed at making a mistake than a referee! 

I am asking you all to reflect upon how you perhaps engage with our referees and any comments you may make during or after the game, and just think that the referee in your game this weekend or next has given up his / her time to try and allow you and your son / daughter’s team to enjoy a game of football to the best of their ability. They are not perfect and won’t get every decision correct, nor please both teams every time. This is not possible, but they will work hard and they have no interest in who wins the game. 

Also, if you see other people being abusive to the referee at your game, either on the pitch or on the sidelines, we encourage you to challenge this behaviour in an appropriate manner, to make others reconsider their actions.   

I and members of my volunteer Referee Development Team have to deal with some of the unacceptable experiences that our referees endure. At times we are dealing with young people who could be your son or daughter, or a more experienced person who could be a father or wife of somebody who is verbally abused because they simply make an honest decision that you perhaps don’t agree with. 

Over the coming months, it is likely that a number of our local games will not have a referee appointed and teams will need to agree to officiate the game themselves. I appreciate that this is not ideal, and we are working tirelessly to address this matter and hopefully the situation will improve. If you are lucky to have a referee, please treat them with respect, and perhaps engage with some positive comments and remember they are doing their best and will not be perfect. 

In order to be fully transparent, I would like to confirm that referees are also held to account over their conduct when it comes to the way in which they speak with stakeholders, and this is not a ‘closed shop’. We do fully investigate referees that are reported for any such alleged incidents, albeit this is very rare. Referees who make a ‘footballing’ decision and perhaps get it wrong is just part and parcel of the game, unless it is contrary to Law.  

We have a significant number of young referees who are under the age of 18, and these referees should be clearly identified by the wearing of their U18 YELLOW REFEREE ARMBAND.   

It is totally inappropriate for anybody to engage or offer any abusive comments to a minor. As a County FA we have zero tolerance approach to this, and should a participant be found guilty this will be reported to the FA’s Safeguarding Department, as well as be dealt with by our disciplinary department. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any misconduct towards any of our referees and ask that all stakeholders support our referees should they see any behaviour of this sort. 

I would also like to thank the majority of our clubs who fully support our referees and for their ongoing commitment. Whilst I have documented the above, it is only fair to say and document that we have thousands of games taking place each month with a real positive experience, and lots of positive feedback by both referee and clubs, and this is something that we look forward to this coming season. 

Finally, I would like to say a massive ‘thanks’ to all of our referees who have signed up for 2021-22 and who go out there each week, in at times what can be really challenging circumstances, and do their best to ensure thousands of games of football take place each month in a safe environment. It is fully appreciated by us all here at North Riding County FA. We are working hard to ensure you all feel valued and can go out and referee fully prepared. Whilst we don’t always get it right, we will continue to work hard to support each and every one of you and make improvements to refereeing as best we can. 

Best wishes to everybody for the 2021-22 season!

Ross Joyce

Referee Development Manager  

North Riding County FA

[Roche Raider]

This sadly will only get worse. We have a vile and toxic culture which sees reprehensible behaviour tolerated & accepted. Even in some of the St Pirans movie clips, it's obvious that the abuse towards the ref is either etched out or swept under the carpet.

The fact of the matter is, we have this vulgar approach which is often confused for being 'competitive' It stems from the top down. I've seen benches from teams such as Bodmin, Callington, St Blazey all engage in truly disgusting behaviour towards people who get a mere measly £30+ to officiate . Not that money should have any say in how someone is treated. Money can't heal when someone wants to physically maim you purely because you gave a throw in the opposite way.

There's an abhorrent culture within this game that usually comes from the top officials within these clubs. Once management & clubs do it, players .subs & supporters too.

 

[Pitty]

The Referee shortage is not just down to abuse but a general wider issue of people no longer wanting to give up their valuable time so that others can do want they want to do with minimal appreciation received in return. The friendly, approachable good natured clubs, teams and individual players out there far outweigh the odd village idiot that abuse referees however Football is not just about playing, clubs need volunteers to run things and they are also in short supply and these priceless individuals are getting less and less as well. Their is a general apathy across grassroots football and sadly their is no golden solution.

Reduction in needless over the top abuse of referees would help but their is a far deeper problem with people reluctant to give up their time or appreciate the people that do that needs a generational shift in the current attitude and clubs holding their members to account for stepping over the line before things will improve 

[Dave Bartlam]

1 hour ago, Pitty said:

The Referee shortage is not just down to abuse but a general wider issue of people no longer wanting to give up their valuable time so that others can do want they want to do with minimal appreciation received in return. The friendly, approachable good natured clubs, teams and individual players out there far outweigh the odd village idiot that abuse referees however Football is not just about playing, clubs need volunteers to run things and they are also in short supply and these priceless individuals are getting less and less as well. Their is a general apathy across grassroots football and sadly their is no golden solution.

Reduction in needless over the top abuse of referees would help but their is a far deeper problem with people reluctant to give up their time or appreciate the people that do that needs a generational shift in the current attitude and clubs holding their members to account for stepping over the line before things will improve 

Nail....head... Smashhhhh

[GSM_UTD]

Cant the leagues that have Lino's appointed be asked to supply their own club linesman? Then you can filter down to the lower leagues and address the shortfall. Just one idea, a sensible one that would keep games being played by both senior and junior clubs.

[Roche Raider]

On 10/09/2021 at 20:26, Pitty said:

The Referee shortage is not just down to abuse but a general wider issue of people no longer wanting to give up their valuable time so that others can do want they want to do with minimal appreciation received in return. The friendly, approachable good natured clubs, teams and individual players out there far outweigh the odd village idiot that abuse referees however Football is not just about playing, clubs need volunteers to run things and they are also in short supply and these priceless individuals are getting less and less as well. Their is a general apathy across grassroots football and sadly their is no golden solution.

Reduction in needless over the top abuse of referees would help but their is a far deeper problem with people reluctant to give up their time or appreciate the people that do that needs a generational shift in the current attitude and clubs holding their members to account for stepping over the line before things will improve 

It may not be the definitive factor, but it's a huge catalyst. To have 22 reprobates screaming at you; is a huge toll on mental health & wellbeing and all for what; a corner that didn't go your way or a yellow card because you couldn't button it?

The fact of the matter is that far too many of the divs that play on a Saturday pump themselves up as if they were stepping into a cage fight, by 2:30 on a Saturday they're ready for blood; seriously? Is it that tribal that Mullion can't go to Wendron without wanting to cave in the skull of their opposite number? Do me a favour. 

Not many gentlemen left in the sport.

[Ian Pethick]

On 08/09/2021 at 11:51, TheolderIgetthebetterIwas said:

And applies to all sports, interest in local football,  rugby and cricket has been waning for years.

Other things to do these days, things we never had and its unstoppable. 

It will plateau out but it will go a bit lower yet I'm afraid! 

Their might be qualified referees among the legions of second home owners and "new life in the country" types  that are now invading parts of Cornwall. Highly unlikely, but you never know... 

[TheolderIgetthebetterIwas]

24 minutes ago, Way Of The Park said:

Their might be qualified referees among the legions of second home owners and "new life in the country" types  that are now invading parts of Cornwall. Highly unlikely, but you never know... 

They would have to be down here in the winter, and they ain't! 

A lovely little harbour side village across the water from me is now a ghost town for 9 months of the year.

[Roche Raider]

They're down here to retire; not to engage with thugs and hooligans!

[FootballChat]

On 12/09/2021 at 15:30, GSM_UTD said:

Cant the leagues that have Lino's appointed be asked to supply their own club linesman? Then you can filter down to the lower leagues and address the shortfall. Just one idea, a sensible one that would keep games being played by both senior and junior clubs.

Unfortunately, this isn’t feasible.

Phil Hiscox of the SWPL explains why on the latest Cornish Soccer podcast.

 

Effectively, the referees at SWPL and above level MUST officiate in a minimum of 10 marking games per season to retain their respective referee levels. A marking game MUST have neutral assistants.

 

FA directive on that front that is unlikely to change anytime soon.