Supply League Referee Development Form

Name of Referee: A.N.Other
Match: Blue United vs Red City
Competition: West Cheshire Div One Date 01/01/01

Assessors must complete as advised in the “Assessor Guide”.

1. Application of Law:

You applied the laws throughout to a reasonable standard. The difference between Penal and Technical offences were recognized with offenders and incidents being dealt with as quickly as was possible. You showed man management skills by speaking to offenders while allowing play to continue or giving verbal admonishments when play had stopped. You used the new respect incentive well, with you including the captains in getting your point across. You did have to caution two players, the first in the 80th minute the A8, for a challenge on an opponent, regardless what some people may have thought, that it merited a sending off, I thought you judged the challenge very well, with it being a hard challenge but a caution was the correct decision. The second caution was a caution just waiting too happen, with you having to speak with the H7 on two previous occasions when in the 80th minute he again showed dissent to your decision making you quite correctly cautioned him.

2. Positioning, Fitness & Work rate:
Your positioning during open play was good with you attempting to get into side on views of the play, with the ball between you and your assistant. I was very pleased to watch your positioning at corner kicks with you always moving around the vicinity of the area watching for any pulls or pushes which are happening at these situations.
Could I make you aware of a habit that you seem too have, this being turning your back to the ball and going to your next start position, after it has gone out for a goal kick. As on one occasion you did this and turned to face play only for you to have found that a quick kick had been taken and play was under way. Could I suggest that in these incidents that you sprint for say six yards then turn around and continue to move backwards into your position watching the ball.
Your fitness was very good throughout the game.

3. Alertness & Awareness,
Including management of stoppages:
Your positioning helped you with being alert to any incidents that were taking place. You controlled all stoppages during play well, with you allowing any injured players plenty of time to recover before allowing the trainer onto the field.

4. Communication:
You communicated well to the players, explaining your decisions too them, which I believe goes a long way with them. You used both captains well to get your point over to the players, which again I thought was appreciated by both sides.
Your whistle tone was clear and varied according to the severity of the situation. Your hand signals were correct and clear for people too see.

5. Teamwork:
This was a good all round team performance, by you and your assistants. With you allowing them to make decisions in their quarter that they had seen. It was pleasing to hear you thank them for any decisions that they had given.

6. Advantage:
You tried to keep the game flowing as much as you could, but because of the standard of play shown by both sides it was hard for these advantages to come too anything. You brought play back if no advantage had accrued. Could I suggest that when you are playing the advantage clause that you carry on moving when signaling it, as there were occasions when you stopped and play had continued away from you. Your arm and vocal signals were very clear and left know one in any doubt what your intentions were.
.
7. Match Control:
This must have been an awful game to referee as both sides couldn’t string two passes together, which made it hard for you to judge where the ball was going to be played. Credit must go to you for keeping your concentration and working on your game throughout. You controlled it very well with you using good man management skills to get your point across. You also used the respect program well during the game which was pleasing too see. Well done on a good performance and good luck for the rest of the season.

Section	Strengths	Section	Development areas
1	Application of the laws	2	Turning your back to the ball
4	Communication
7	Control

		1 to 5	Weighting	Sub total
1	Application of Law	4	x 5	20
2	Positioning + work rate	3	x 2	6
3	Alertness, awareness	4	x 2	8
4	Communication	4	x 2	7
5	Teamwork	3.5	x 2	7
6	Advantage	3.5	x 2	7
7	Match control	4	x 5	20
(Round half marks up to the nearest whole mark)

75


Name of Assessor: I Sawyer

Signed:__________________________

Enhanced Promotion - Is it for you?

The London Enhanced Promotion Scheme is now coming to the end of its third year in operation and, over those three years, only a small percentage of applicants have managed by the end of September to meet the crucial requirements of (a) refereeing at least twenty matches and (b) submitting at least ten assessment applications.
 
I would be failing in my duty of assisting referees to obtain promotion if I did not bring this to the attention of 2007/08 promotion candidates who are considering electing to join the Enhanced Scheme rather than the “Normal” Scheme, the requirements of which are contained in paragraphs 1.8 and 3.2 of the Promotion Scheme Rules, as printed on pages 197 and 198 the LFA Handbook & Directory for 2006/07.
A glance at a 2007 calendar shows that there are nine weekends (including Easter) between the start of the Promotion Year on 1st March and the end of April, together with a further five weekends in September. Some leagues and competitions might continue into early May (although others could close before
the end of April) but most local leagues will not start the new playing season until the third weekend of September. It therefore does not take a mathematical genius to work out that, if you only referee on one day per week, you will not manage 20 matches from March to September. Even if you officiate on one of the summer leagues, it will still be touch and go to reach this figure and that is assuming that the weather does not interfere. It therefore takes a considerable commitment to refereeing to achieve 20 matches as a referee between the start of the Promotion Year (1st March) and the last weekend of September.

I would urge all promotion candidates for 2007/08 to consider the foregoing before applying for the Enhanced Promotion Scheme as I do not want again to have the unhappy task of writing to a number of referees in October to tell them that they have not met the basic requirements and that they have therefore missed out on their chance of promotion.

The FA’s five-yearly registration programme for assessors has been scrapped and replaced by an annual re-registration programme. Prior to each season, workshops are arranged for assessors so that up-to-date information is provided about their roles and so that skills can be developed.
 
The front page of this newsletter mentioned the introduction for assessors of a
marking scheme out of 100 rather than out of 10. The report that the referee will receive has been re-titled and re-designed. It is now called a “Referee Assessment and Development Form”: the new name highlights a subtle change of emphasis in the role of the assessor, who in future will be tasked not merely with commenting on what s/he has observed but also with identifying strengths which should be built upon and with suggesting ways of developing in areas where there is still room for improvement. The sections of the new form are headed:-

• Application of Law;
• Positioning, Fitness & Work Rate;
• Alertness & Awareness;
• Communication;
• Teamwork;
• Advantage;
•  Match Control.

Assessors have been trained to give a mark in each section of the form. A
different weighting is then given to the mark in each section which results in a
mark out of 100 being reached. Further information as to how this works in
practice will be given in the next edition of “Capital Referee”.
 
The candidate will still not see the marks awarded but will be provided with an aide memoire commenting briefly on the three greatest strengths and on up to three areas in which development work should be focused.  Interestingly, the first section of the old form (“Appearance”) is not reproduced anywhere in the new form. This emphasises the change of approach being required from the assessor. Previously, s/he just stated on every occasion what had been observed, e.g. “You looked very smart”. In future, appearance will only be mentioned if it is relevant. If someone has a brilliant, perfect game but looks a bit sloppily dressed, the appearance could well be completely irrelevant. If, on the other hand, the players had no respect from the outset for a scruffy looking official, the “Match Control” section might include a comment along the lines of “You should consider whether you might have encountered fewer challenges to your authority at the start of the game by creating an excellent first impression, entering the field of play in a confident manner dressed neatly and tidily in clean kit”.
 
For the benefit of assessors, the FA has described the skills which should be demonstrated by referees at each of Levels 7, 6 and 5. There has been a move to “competency based assessments”. More details of these will be given in future editions of this newsletter but this time round the guidance given under the “Teamwork” section can be used to illustrate the approach.
 
A Level 7 referee is able to:-

• make effective use of club assistants as per competition rules;
• encourage the provision of assistants;
• provide instructions to obtain support to aid match control, giving adequate pre-match instructions to club assistants;
• generally acknowledge signals from club assistants; and
• be seen to communicate, respecting their support, achieving some communication.

 
A Level 6 referee is able to:-

• do all of the above; and
• acknowledge and overrule as appropriate.

A Level 5 referee is able to:-

• do all of the above;
• show satisfactory support for neutral assistant referees (where appointed) or club assistants;
• provide encouragement actively to gain support;
• demonstrate some team leadership skills;
• promote communication through eye contact; and
• provide “unseen advice” on marginal decisions.

Early experience of the new procedures suggests that promotion candidates will find the feedback more helpful and that there will be greater consistency between assessors. This is very encouraging for all concerned.