Listeners to BBC Radio Berkshire may have heard Reading FC Captain, Graeme Murty, say a few weeks ago on his Monday morning spot, that he was interested in taking the referees course. Too good an opportunity to miss I thought and wrote to him the same day, inviting him on behalf of the Reading Referees Training Team, to join our next new course.
I say new course because this season the FA introduced a significantly re-vamped basic referees training course. It’s not been universally welcomed and I know some referees’ instructors in other towns have resigned rather than take on the extra work. We have always run an extensive course in Reading so it has not caused us too much difficulty.
Altogether, the course consists of ten evening sessions of about two and three-quarter hours each. These include the mandatory Child Protection course and the examination evening. Ours are all held on a Monday evening in the Study Centre at the Madejski Stadium and candidates also have to attend two outdoor practical sessions which are held on Sunday mornings. One is to learn about positioning and movement and also how to use a whistle to the best effect and to run the line efficiently. The other morning session is actually refereeing and running the line for part of a local league (or cup) game whilst having a ‘shadow referee’ alongside. This has been part of the course in Reading for over twenty five years but even now, unlikely to be found elsewhere.
The examination has also been changed. Previously it was a written and oral examination with an examiner asking questions one-to-one. The new examination is still in two parts but both are multiple-choice and the whole thing is on video (DVD). The first part is on the laws and the second part consists of actual incidents on which the candidate has to make a decision, foul, caution, sending-off, offside or not.
Passing the examination does not mean the candidate then becomes a qualified referee as it did in the past. This is the most radical part of the new course and one which we welcome and have advocated something similar for years. Each candidate now has to referee at least six eleven-a-side games, two of which will be watched by a mentor. Knowledge of the laws is not enough to be a referee, actually controlling a game and making decisions is an entirely different experience. This is followed by a further training evening, which is a feed back session.
Until now every candidate has been a trainee referee (level 9) and it is not until they have completed all this that they become a qualified referee. Level 8 if under sixteen or level 7 if over.
One of the intentions of this revamp is to cut out all those people who only want to learn the laws of the game but not actually referee. Whether it will actually lead as suggested to the recruitment of more referees has yet to be seen. All of this of course costs money. The course fee is £30, which is refundable after completing the six games. Registration fee to the FA is £15, the Child Protection course fee is £20, and the Criminal Bureau check which all referees have to undertake is £12. A total of £77, which reduces to £47 with the refund. There are some reductions for the under 16s.
I haven’t heard from Graeme Murty since I wrote to him detailing all this but that is not to say he has backed out. As I explained to him, we are no longer able to recruit locally; everything has to go through the County FA, which in our case is Berks & Bucks FA. If you would like to become a referee you can find details on www.berks-bucksfa.com and go to refereeing/training or telephone 01367 242099.
Dick Sawdon Smith
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© R Sawdon Smith 2008