RateTheRef

VAR was brought in to solve the absolute howler decisions.  It does that job well.  As you would hope / expect, there’s relatively few such objectively bad decisions.  Therefore the majority of VAR interventions / non interventions (and certainly the majority of media/fan “noise”) focus on subjective referee decisions that could legitimately be called either way. In that context, it’s not so much was the decision right or wrong but whether it was optimal or sub optimal.

We frequently see sub optimal decisions get “confirmed” by VAR because they are not objectively wrong and we don’t wish for frequent screen visits and re-refereeing.  For me, this is an inherent, fatal flaw in the system that makes the overdue and welcome increase in media transparency doomed to failure.  Until or unless we completely change the narrative away from right / wrong and towards greater understanding that in many cases ‘both’ decisions can be acceptable, we will always be pushing water uphill.

The Robertson decision is a great example of this.  IMO, the level of outrage would have been equally high if the on field decision had been goal and / or if VAR had intervened to reverse any on field decision.

Just a general question on the topic of time wasting while it’s been mentioned on here.

Who is the most responsible for the number of added on minutes at the end of the half? Is it the on field referee - in terms of being timekeeper for the match - or does the 4O just tally up the minutes themselves? Cause I’d really like to know.

Typically, AR2 will feed in to the 4th official the exact times of all stoppages that are mandatory to include (subs, assessed injuries, red cards, penalties and goals (30 seconds deducted as ‘standard’)).  4th will inform referee of the total time on the match record card and agree what is going up on the board.  There remains flexibility for the referee to increase the additional time for other, non mandatory delays but this rarely happens. 

Net net, there should be a highly specific and accurate amount of time for the majority of typical delays … but if teams are good / clever with their gamesmanship then they might still benefit from this

And - wherever you draw that line - a toe-nail is one-day going to emerge across it and cause a goal to be scrubbed off.

The line can be 1mm or 1 metre wide - but it is still a line with a binary outcome:  Either offside or not offside.

Unless you want to go down the "Umpire's call" road ??

I would heartily love us to go down the 'Umpire's Call' route and back the judgement of our highly experienced and skilled on field ARs unless there is quick and obvious video evidence that a glaring mistake has been made

List of mid season promotions to Panel Select AR (National League / PL2).  Congrats to all concerned

Liam Beames (Glos)
Alan Berrow (Glos)
Alex Bradley (Sussex)
Ashley Clarke (Birmingham)
Jack Clench (Glos)
Tom Cooke (Northants)
Andrew Ellis (Birmingham)
Martyn Fryer (Notts)
Lee Hartley (Lincs)
Tom Holden (Dorset)
Russell Jones (Herts)
Zac Kennard-Kettle (Northumberland)
Peter Lowe (Hants)
Harry Warner (Staffs)
Daniel Woolley (Lincs)

This isn’t the Referee’s problem any more than it would be for a parks Referee when a Sunday League team fields a ringer or a suspended player. The teams submit team sheets and it’s not up to the officials to confirm eligibility to play in the game.

Though, presumably, in the case of the Argentine players, if one of the referees decided that their safety was in question because of the players on the team sheet, then they would be within their rights not to officiate the game?

At Level 2B, the referee fee is £75, the Assistant fee £45.  Expenses are 35p per mile

At Level 2A, the referee fee is £120, AR is £60 and 4th Official is £40.  Again, plus 35p per mile

When you consider that the officials are normally out of their houses for approximately 7 hours for one of these games, it's not a level to make you rich!

And yet they can't find three female officials for most of the top English women's matches.

Whilst I don't disagree with the overall sentiment, worth pointing out that in this weekend's WSL matches, all six games were refereed by female officials and in the case of the two most high profile matches, all four officials were female.

I've been fortunate enough to have assisted two of these officials in WSL matches earlier this season and they both acquitted themselves admirably.

Times are changing ... unfortunately slower than would be ideal, despite the extra support now on offer to promising female officials (in my county, two of our three nominations this year for FA Core were female)

edited to fix the quote thingamajigga, bmb.

Reading the above discussion has got me wondering whether there is (or should be) a similar structure in place at National List Level, to that lower down the pyramid ... specifically, from personal experience, at Level 3.

At this Level, if any official has not featured in the Top 40% of the bandings for three consecutive seasons, then they are in the frame for demotion.  This ensures that that those 'scraping by' each year, without showing any indication of the talent to progress upwards, will not be allowed to 'clog up' the system.

It's harsh, but IMO fair