Until this year there was a real imbalance in refereeing levels in the North and South. L3s in the South would mainly referee steps 3 and 4, whereas in the North it was often step 5 or even 6. Same for L4s who were step 5 vs step 6 / 7. For L3s it is a national merit pool, so far from fair that referees were operating as many as three steps apart.
Also in the South, and London / home counties areas in particular, it is quite a transitionary situation. Referees move here when they are younger but then often move away when they get older and are looking to settle down with families. I can think of several former and current EFL referees that went through promotion down here but now live elsewhere.
I think I’m right in saying that areas like London do not have an actual supply league as such, which means London referees - who get the marks - are sparsely promoted on surrounding supply leagues.
This probably has a knock-on effect on the flow of referees progressing from Level 3 and beyond, in the case of London and areas without its own supply league.
Yes, although some cover London. You have Spartan South Midlands which is Herts & North, Essex Senior League which covers some East London clubs, Eastern Counties Regional League which again has East London teams, SCEFL in Kent and South East London, and Combined Counties in South West, West, North West and Surrey. And not uncommon for referees to be moved between those leagues.
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