RateTheRef

On the point about our FIFA quota of referees now being full and given the ages of the current panel there is unlikely to be a vacancy for a number of years so blocking younger prospects like Robert Jones and others. I wanted to ask is there any contractual reason why once nominated the FA can’t change the nominations each year even if no one choses to resign or retire? Rather like a player being given a trial at international level, what would be wrong with giving a referee say 4-5 years to move from starting category 2 to category 1 at the UEFa level, and if they don’t make that jump, give a chance to another candidate?

The FA can nominate whoever they like. If they decided they wanted to replace all 10 on the list they could, assuming they had enough eligible candidates to replace them. Any new ones would start in group 2. Any removed ones could be renominated at a later date but would lose any progress they had made and would start in group 2.  It would never happen because it would be completely insane but that is an option open to them. If one in group 2 is simply not progressing then yes they can nominate someone different in October to replace them from the following January. Hungary did that with Andó-Szabó a few years ago and replaced him with Berke. Last good decision they made FIFA list wise! They’ve not pushed for him to be promoted despite several excellent performances and they continue to block the progress of our 4 decent young prospects by not removing the 2 who shouldn’t be on the list but that’s a whole different argument!!