13.(A) Registered Referees and Assistant Referees for all matches shall be appointed in a manner approved by the Management Committee and by the sanctioning Association(s). Referees & Assistant Referees must have attained the age of 14 (or 16 if they haven't completed the full FA course and just attended the Midlincs recognised course) before officiating at matches in the competition.
(B) In the event of the non-appearance of the appointed referee the appointed senior assistant referee shall take charge and a substitute assistant referee appointed by the competing teams. In cases where there are no officially appointed assistant referees, or where the competition has been unable to appoint a referee, the home club is to supply a league-recognised person to officiate or offer to use the opponents league recognised official if present. A team manager is not eligible to referee his own team matches. Clubs failing to supply a recognised person shall be fined £10. A Referee thus agreed upon shall, for that game, have the full powers, status and authority of a registered referee. The name of the official so designated is to be shown on the match result card or by online submission with the match statistics.
(C) The Management Committee may, if they consider it desirable appoint Assistant Referees, if available, to any match. Where assistant referees are not appointed each team shall provide a club assistant referee. Failure to do so will result in a fine of £10 being imposed on the defaulting club.
(D) The appointed referee or grounds man shall have power to decide as to the fitness of the ground in all matches and his/her decision shall be final.
(E) Match officials appointed under this rule shall be entitled to the following match fees:
Referee -
Youth Age Groups Under 11-14 £15.
Youth Age Groups Under 15 -16 £18.
Youth Age Group Under 17 £20
Registered Referees appointed by the Management Committee as Assistant Referees £9 subject to any limits laid down by the sanctioning Association(s). Match officials unable to attend designated matches are to contact the home team manager verbally direct to inform him/her of the situation.
The Home club shall pay the Officials their fees before the match.
(F) In the event of a match not being played because of circumstances over which the clubs have no control, the match official(s), if present, shall be entitled to half fee. Where a match is not played owing to one club being in default, that club shall be ordered to pay the officials, if they attend the ground, their full fee.
(G) A referee not keeping his engagement, and failing to give a satisfactory explanation as to his non-appearance, may have the fact reported to the County Association with which he is registered.
(H) Each club shall, in a manner prescribed from time to time by the Football association, award marks to the referee for each match. The name of the referee and the marks awarded shall be submitted to the competition on the prescribed form provided or by online submission with the match statistics. Clubs failing to comply with this rule shall be liable to be fined as per rule 11a. The competition shall keep a record of the markings and, on the form provided by the Football Association/County Association shall submit a summary by the prescribed date each season.
(I) Referees and Assistant Referees (Where Appointed) Shall wear black uniform.
Appendix H Guide to Marking Referees
The mark awarded by a club must be based on the referees overall performance. It is most important that the mark is awarded fairly and not based upon isolated or previous games. The referees performance should be determined by the table below which should act as a guide for the overall mark which should fall within the mark range for each standard of performance.
Mark Range Comment
91-100. The referee was extremely accurate in decision making and very successfully controlled the game using management and communication skills to create an environment of fair play, adding real value to the game.
81-90The referee was very accurate in decision making and successfully controlled the game using management and communication skills to create an environment of fair play.
71-80 The referee was accurate in decision making and controlled the game well, communicating with the players, making a positive contribution towards fair play.
61-70 The referee was reasonably accurate in decision making, controlled the game quite well and communicated with players, establishing a reasonable degree of fair play.
51-60 The referee had some shortcomings in the level of accuracy of decision making and control, with only limited success in communicating with the players resulting in variable fair play.
50 The referee had significant shortcomings in the level of accuracy of decision. and below making and control with poor communication with the players which resulted in low levels of fair play.
Notes
Using a scale of up to 100 allows greater flexibility for clubs to distinguish between different refereeing performances more accurately.
A mark within each mark range can be given to reflect the referees performance e.g. a mark of 79 indicates a somewhat better performance than a mark of 71.
mark between 71 and 80 represents the standard of refereeing expected.
When a mark of 50 or less is awarded, an explanation must be provided to the League or Competition by completing the appropriate box on the marking form. It must include comments which could help improve the referees future performances. Even where a referee has significant shortcomings there will have been some positive aspects which should be given credit; extremely low marks (below 20) should be very rare.
How to Decide on the Referees Mark
The following questions focus on the key areas of a referees performance. They are intended as an aide memoire are not necessarily comprehensive and need not be answered individually. It is, however, worth considering them before committing yourself to a mark for the referee.
CONTROL AND DECISION MAKING
How well did the referee control the game?
Were the players actions recognised correctly?
Were the Laws applied correctly?
Were all incidents dealt with efficiently/effectively?
Were all the appropriate sanctions applied correctly?
Was the referee always within reasonable distance of incidents?
Was the referee well positioned to make critical decisions, especially in and around the penalty area?
Did the referee understand the players positional intentions and keep out of the way accordingly?
Did the referee demonstrate alertness and concentration throughout the game?
Did the referee apply the use of the advantage to suit the mood and temperature of the game?
Was the referee aware of the players attitude to advantage?
Did the referee use the assistants effectively
Did the officials work as a team, and did the referee lead and manage them to the benefit of the game?
COMMUNICATION AND PLAYER MANAGEMENT
How well did the referee communicate with the players during the game?
Did the referees level of involvement/profile suit this particular game?
Did the referee understand the players problems on the day e.g. difficult ground/weather conditions
Did the referee respond to the changing pattern of play/mood of the players?
Did the referee demonstrate empathy for the game, allowing it to develop in accordance with the tempo of the game?
Was the referee pro-active in controlling the game?
Was the referees authority asserted firmly without being officious?
Was the referee confident and quick thinking?
Did the referee appear unflustered and unhurried when making critical decisions?
Did the referee permit undue questioning of decisions?
Did the referee deal effectively with players crowding around after decisions/incidents?
Was effective player management in evidence?
Was the referees body language confident and open at all times?
Did the pace of the game, the crowd or player pressure affect the referee negatively?
Final Thoughts
Always try to be objective when marking. You may not obtain the most objective view by marking the referee immediately after the game.
Judge the performance over the whole game Dont be too influenced by one particular incident.
Don't mark the referee down unfairly because your team was unlucky and lost the game or some disciplinary action was taken against your players.
REFEREE MARKING
