Norfolk County FA
Referees’ Bulletin October 2016
WELCOME
Hello and welcome to the October edition of the
Norfolk County FA Referees’ Bulletin.
REFEREE LEVELS
Following consultation with County FAs, we are
delighted to confirm that the National FA Referees’
Committee has decided not to proceed with the
proposal to amalgamate Levels 7 to 5 which was
included in the new Refereeing Strategy. However,
for Season 2017/18 The FA will proceed with the
change of name for Levels 8, 9 and 10 which will
become:
· Level Y - Youth Referee (formerly Level 8)
· Level T – Trainee Referee (formerly Level 9)
· Level D – Referee Developer (formerly Level 10)
THE TROUBLE WITH CLUB ASSISTANTS…
Now there’s a topic that could fill this whole
Bulletin! However, the reason for bringing up this
thorny subject is to provide some advice about Club
Assistants asking you as the Referee, to report
matters relating to discipline.
Some of the more helpful Club Assistants (and
possibly some of the less helpful) may advise you
that one player has done something to another and
requires a caution or even should be sent off. So
should you act upon it? Our advice is: Unless you
have witnessed the event, you should not take
action. However, if there is compelling evidence to
suggest that the advice is correct, i.e. one player has
a blooded nose and there was only one opponent in
the vicinity who has blood on his knuckles, the
advice would be to complete the send off but report
that you had assistance.
The harder cases occur when words are reported to
you rather than actions. In these cases unless you
have actually heard the words, don’t take action.
You’ll need to explain this to your reporting Club
Assistant and you may have a quiet word in the
suspects’ ear to the effect that you haven’t heard
anything, but you’ll be listening out from now on!
NORFOLK FA MOBILE APP
Hopefully you will be aware that we have developed
a new Mobile App for the 2016/17 season. Could I
please ask that those of you that own a smart phone
download the Norfolk FA App, thus ensuring that if
you are out and about at games, you will have all the
key information, including rules, contacts etc. to
hand, meaning you will no longer have to worry
about running back to your car to check your County
Handbook! You can download the app by searching
‘Norfolk FA’ in your device’s App/Play store. As you
download the App, it will ask if you would like push
notifications, please choose the ‘allow’ option.
Once downloaded, any feedback or observations you
may have would be most welcome.
NATIONAL FA SURVEY
Please could I ask you to find 10 minutes to
complete the latest National FA survey, which runs
until Friday 28th October.
The FA are keen for people to have their say, so your
co-operation in completing the survey would be very
much appreciated. The survey can be accessed
HERE. As always, your co-operation is appreciated.
TEAM SHEETS
Had a few queries with regard to team sheets just
lately, so just to clarify…
All Adult Leagues in Norfolk require teams to present
the Referee with a copy of their team sheet 15
minutes prior to kick off. The only exception to this is
the Norwich & District Sunday League.
Failure to provide you with a team sheet within the
time period should be reported to the League
concerned.
REFEREES’ SHOP
Please use our kit
partners,
4sportsgroup,
who have created a ‘Referees’ Shop’ for the
exclusive use of registered Norfolk officials.
All the latest Nike kit and accessories are available
and the clothing comes finished with a heat-applied
embroidered Norfolk County Referee crest. All items
are offered at favourable prices and a further 10%
discount is available by entering the code “RESPECT”
at the checkout.
Click on the 4sportsgroup logo above to access the
Referees’ shop.
CLOSED DATES & APPOINTMENTS
Please submit your closed dates for November ASAP.
Also would Level 4s please remember to send Daryl
a screenshot of your MOAS calendar each month to
enable him to keep track of your availability.
All correspondence should be sent to:
[email protected]
See Daryl’s notes below in ‘Cover Stories’ for further
appointments information…
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Norfolk County FA
Referees’ Bulletin October 2016
REFEREE FITNESS TRAINING
We will again be running specialist Referee fitness
training sessions on Thursday evenings initially
through to 8th December at Easton & Otley College,
Easton, NORWICH, NR9 5DX. (Satnav: Use Dunham
Road, NR9 5GA).
This is open to all Norfolk FA registered Referees and
the outdoor training session will be led by a Referee
Tutor or Senior Referee.
The evenings will be set up as follows:
7:00pm to 8:00pm:
Outdoor training (on grass)
8:00pm to 8:15pm:
Shower & Change
8:15pm to 8:45pm:
Dinner (healthy options of
course!) Not 27th Oct
8:45pm to 9:45pm:
Scheduled workshop event*
*Workshop events will be advertised in the Bulletin
each month and to the relevant Groups concerned,
for example: Level 4s; Norfolk FA Core Members; YRG
Members; Promotion Candidates; etc.
The cost remains at £2.50 for training and a further
£2.50 for food. Please don’t eat before you train,
stay for the prepared meal as we have a minimum
charge and order set for the kitchen and dining room
facility.
No need to confirm your attendance, just meet in
the changing rooms at 6.45pm. I look forward to
seeing you!
as it seems to go from one excellent week of
availability to one not so good. I am starting to get a
better understanding of why that is and what is
needed to plug shortfalls as they appear. What can
be done about that is another thing but it would be
nice to think that one day soon we might actually
have competition for appointments and a ‘Premier
League’ size squad to choose from.
What I have really enjoyed this month is meeting
more of you for the first time. Myself and Egidijus
Amsiejus were warmly welcomed as guests of the
Fakenham RA and certainly benefitted from the
invitation, thank you again gentlemen. I have also
experienced Mr Robinson’s Easton College Thursday
night training sessions for the first time including a
mock 2600m fitness test. It has been a while since I
have run continuously for 12 minutes and it wasn’t a
lot of fun I have to say but it did give me an insight
as to the level of fitness that is needed to be a top
draw official.
Obviously that test is part of a promotion criteria
and another plus so far is that circumstances appear
to be offering greater opportunity for those
promotion seekers amongst you especially those
attempting to go from Level 5-4. Those referees
certainly seem to be ceasing the moment and
stepping up to the plate. Well done everybody it is
nice to have confidence when appointing you.
Closed date capture is in a much better place and
meaning I am getting more and more appointments
‘right first time’. This slowly but surely is buying me
more time to get fixtures out earlier and to review
league tables to ensure, as the season starts to take
shape, that the key matches are covered quickly and
appropriately. Again keep up the good work but I do
need one or two of you to confirm appointments
quicker.
It is so pleasing that more and more referees have
been making themselves available to me to appoint
for the first time including a significant number from
over the border in Suffolk. Every little helps for sure
and I know from the many emails I get from the Cubs
that they are always very keen for a referees to be
appointed. So whether it be Terry Chase rushing
from work to cover Southrepps Res, Matt Newman
making a long Sunday morning drive from Kings Lynn
to referee at Easton College or new to Norfolk
Joseph Skeet taking four games at the weekend you
really do make a difference to Norfolk football and
your services are appreciated.
Daryl Godbold
Referee Appointments Officer
THE NEW CORE SYSTEM
To feed into the new National Referee CORE system,
we have developed our own Norfolk FA CORE. We
have selected a group of 20 young Referees who will
be coached at Academy games with the aim of
introducing the over 16s into Adult football towards
the end of this season.
Ultimately, the aim is that individuals from this
group will be elevated into the National CORE
structure as they develop their Refereeing careers.
David Robinson
Referee Development Officer
‘COVER STORIES’: A regular feature in the Bulletin
Goodbye summer 2016, it has been a pleasure.
September has been another glorious month of
warm weather which as a Referee Appointments
Officer is very good news as planned football
fixtures, in the main, have been taking place. No
doubt those of you that have been dealing with
injuries will be breathing sighs of relief as the turf
softens.
My coverage stats are a mixed bag; Sundays have
been pleasing but Saturday PM football challenging
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