RateTheRef

Quote from: bmb on Sat 22 Aug 2020 20:27

Cheryl Foster is a fantastic referee. Have watched her a few times & she has been consistently excellent. Really happy for her.

After the Super Cup last August, do we think we will see any female officials refereeing UEFA men's football on a regular basis any time soon or will they concentrate on the women's club matches?

I don't think that we will see female officials very soon refereeing men's matches on a regular basis. The Frappart phenomenon was a first attempt and worked but I don't think that UEFA will take such a risk considering the fact that there aren't many women refereeing on the top of their league.

Quote from: Readingfan on Sat 22 Aug 2020 22:26

Quote from: bmb on Sat 22 Aug 2020 20:27

Cheryl Foster is a fantastic referee. Have watched her a few times & she has been consistently excellent. Really happy for her.

After the Super Cup last August, do we think we will see any female officials refereeing UEFA men's football on a regular basis any time soon or will they concentrate on the women's club matches?

I don't think that we will see female officials very soon refereeing men's matches on a regular basis. The Frappart phenomenon was a first attempt and worked but I don't think that UEFA will take such a risk considering the fact that there aren't many women refereeing on the top of their league.

Country FAs largely at fault there. Lots of excellent women referees fully capable of refereeing in the top flight in their domestic leagues on merit alone but Country FA's seem reluctant to promote them. I acknowledge that there are also many who are not good enough to referee in their domestic top flights but those who are should be given the chance and not in a token PC way, judge them on their merit and not their sex.

Quote from: bmb on Sun 23 Aug 2020 15:00

Quote from: edy on Sun 23 Aug 2020 07:26

Quote from: Readingfan on Sat 22 Aug 2020 22:26

Quote from: bmb on Sat 22 Aug 2020 20:27

Cheryl Foster is a fantastic referee. Have watched her a few times & she has been consistently excellent. Really happy for her.

After the Super Cup last August, do we think we will see any female officials refereeing UEFA men's football on a regular basis any time soon or will they concentrate on the women's club matches?

I don't think that we will see female officials very soon refereeing men's matches on a regular basis. The Frappart phenomenon was a first attempt and worked but I don't think that UEFA will take such a risk considering the fact that there aren't many women refereeing on the top of their league.

Country FAs largely at fault there. Lots of excellent women referees fully capable of refereeing in the top flight in their domestic leagues on merit alone but Country FA's seem reluctant to promote them. I acknowledge that there are also many who are not good enough to referee in their domestic top flights but those who are should be given the chance and not in a token PC way, judge them on their merit and not their sex.

Do you find that now a lot of female officials go down the lining route? There are some excellent role models for them in this country, eg Sian Massey-Ellis and Helen Edwards. They'd have to look abroad for female referees who were doing middles at a high level.

I don't know enough of the ins and outs really. Certainly appears to be that way in England with our top female role models. It does make you wonder if that is a personal choice thing or done knowing that the only chance they have to advance is as an AR. If the latter then that's shameful in this day and age.  There must be several female officials in the women's leagues, why do none seem to branch out into the men's leagues? There only seems to be 3/4 leagues Europe wide if not world wide that have given their top women the chance at the men's top flight. I know there is a huge gulf between mens and womens football though so maybe watching them on women's games gives a somewhat inflated impression of their talent but I personally find it hard to accept that any female who is good enough to referee a women's world cup match, champions league/Europa league final, at the women's euros etc isn't good enough to referee in a men's domestic league.

I know in Hungary it is a lack of opportunity, our 3 FIFA female referees mainly just referee in the women's NBI, Katalin Kulscár gets some NBII games in the men's league and some latter mid round Magyar Kupa games, as did Eszter Urbán before she disappeared for 75 weeks. She made a return last season as an AAR in the NBI for 1 game but has disappeared again. I suspect given the time she was out she had maybe been on maternity leave - she was missing for 3 weeks longer than the statutory maternity leave of 72 weeks. I have no idea of whether that is the reason or not but going on the length of time it makes sense. Katalin certainly has the talent to referee in the NBI on merit alone but is never given the chance to. The only time you see her in the NBI is as AAR2. I feel disappointed every single week when I don't see her name on the NBI appointments!

Is not Rebecca Welch a 'mens 2A'? I am sure i have seen her name on National League games

Rebecca seems to do an awful lot of games in the WSL, which probably explains why he rarely gets National League appointments.

National List of referees has been posted for this season - https://www.efl.com/clubs-and-competitions/match-officials/national-list-of-referees/

Confirms Bobby Madley is back.

Not sure of any retirements apart from those already known about?

The assistants from last season that are no longer listed:

BENTON, David
CROPP, Barry
DUDLEY, Ian
DUNCAN, Mark
FOLEY, Matt
GARRATT, Andrew
GRIFFITHS, Mark
HOBDAY, Paul
KENDALL, Richard
MACKEY, Oliver
MATTHEWS, Adam
MCDONOUGH, Michael
PASHLEY, Alix
PLOWRIGHT, David
SMITH, Michael
STREET, Duncan

The assistants from last season that are no longer listed:

BENTON, David
CROPP, Barry
DUDLEY, Ian
DUNCAN, Mark
FOLEY, Matt
GARRATT, Andrew
GRIFFITHS, Mark
HOBDAY, Paul
KENDALL, Richard
MACKEY, Oliver
MATTHEWS, Adam
MCDONOUGH, Michael
PASHLEY, Alix
PLOWRIGHT, David
SMITH, Michael
TAYLOR, Craig

Thank you for saving me a job! One or two of those (eg Messrs Benton, Cropp, Dudley, Garratt, Hobday & McDonough) had been around for quite a while so are probably retirements (Andy Garratt certainly is).

Oliver Mackey has been promoted to 2B so comes off the line.