The Referee's Association

Today I signed up for the first time for three years to my local referees association (RA).

I always used to try and attend RA meetings, but after a couple of years got disaffected by the attitude at meetings as well as the content.

The attitude was (or at least seemed to be) that if refereeing was not the centre of your life and you didn’t want to progress right to the top of the ladder then you weren’t worth spending time on, basically forgetting chaps like me who just want to be good local league refs.

The content was generally the same, and after a while meetings became very samey, and the point of them seemed minimal. I believe that originally these meetings were held weekly, and were attended by the large majority of local referees. Traditionally held on a Thursday night, these meetings were good for relationships to be forged, as well as ideal opportunities for the RAS of the local leagues to get referees for fixtures that had not been filled.

However, when I used to attend meetings the advent of mobile phones and the internet had basically forgone the need for this appointing and as said, the point of the meetings was unclear.

Ideally, the meetings should be good forums for discussion for everybody, no matter what your level, as well as a good place to get advice and some discount kit!

Another point that was unclear was what the subscription fee went to. £20.80 as it is this year seems an awful lot for membership of an association that appears to give you little back for this cash.

I eagerly anticipate the first meeting that I manage to attend.